Loosing my ‘mind’!

Where do you keep your thoughts and notes?

I kept mind in a little notebook I got on sale for 50p. It was blue with a picture of a dandelion on the front and it was full of ideas, plans, lists and notes. And I left it on the train.

Realising I left it behind I ran back from the tube to the train, but it was too late. In that 10 minutes it was gone. That same day I broke my phone’s screen and I felt completely lost.

Actually my head was spinning from this and I stopped writing and blogging, I couldn’t think straight. I was very annoyed and angry.

So… Over a month later, how do I feel about this?

Well, it took me sometime to accept it was gone. I had some health problems this month too and refocused on seeing my friends and family. I feel like I am making less notes and paying more attention, I don’t trust my notebook as much. As I let go, I realise things are coming back to me, snippets of things I heard at talks I noted down, come to mind when the ideas are touched upon, but I also don’t miss many things, themselves. I think some things possibly weren’t important for me, but I worry there is stuff I have forgotten that I need to know!

My phone’s screen has finally been fixed, but the keys aren’t working properly, so I have to take it to the shop again. I really miss going on twitter on the go.

I don’t have a super-human memory, so I guess I need ideas of tools. Well a 50p notebook is easy to replace, but not the thoughts inside and I can back-up a phone, but buying a new one isn’t so practical for me right now… so what to do?

Learn new stuff in February.

This post is a little delayed due to a nice interlude of flu... but anyways if you want to learn stuff during the teeny tiny month of February then here's some ideas.

8 Feb 2011 19:00
Compassionate Campaigning
Freeskilling Claire Milne
Better Food Company, Sevier St FREE
This is a really interesting looking session looking at how to increase your power to create positive alternatives through compassionate and conscious campaigning.

10 Feb 2011 10:00-17:00
A World In Waiting
Colston Hall
FREE
I'm volunteering at this event and I have written about it on my blog. It's not strictly speaking a learning event so much as a discussion event, but I think it will be a great way of learning about how policies affect different peoples lives.
Call 0117 922 3686 to book a free ticket

10 Feb 2011 19-21:30
How People of Faith Help the World’s Poor
Dr Marcus Braybrooke, President of the World Congress of Faiths
Progressive Synagogue, 43-45 Bannerman Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 0RR

I hope to get to this talk as well (why is 10th Feb such a busy day?) This is a really interesting question to me, I wrote for the Climate Squad blog about how faith groups are working environmentally and I noticed differences in approach between faiths as well as faiths working together. I am interested to see how faith groups approaches differ in approaching poverty in all forms.

15 Feb 2011 19:00
Emotional Help for Activists using EFT
Freeskilling Karen Bell
Better Food Company, Sevier St FREE

This is a tutorial evening in learning the basics of Emotional Freedom Technique EFT. Interestingly Karen is giving particular advice on using it to deal with political activism issues.

17 Feb 2011, 18.00-19.30 
Professor Tariq Modood Still not easy being British: Multiculturalism today 
Bristol Festival of Ideas and University of Bristol FREE
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Last year I went to a seminar by Tariq Madood at Bristol University, where he and Jan Dobbernack were presenting a paper about multiculture and multiculturalism. The presentation was interesting, but it seemed to assume that most people were either strongly part of a cultural group and identified with it or strongly rejected it. I feel that most people are both. Identifying as part of their cultural group when they go to places of worship, celebrate festivals or hang out with family but people also have friends from many different groups as well as friends from their own group.

You choose friends because of shared interests and if you like them, not on their ethnicity. Of course if your interest is Islam or a ethnically-related dance form more friends may be from that same group because it is an interest found more within that culture. But I was not convinced that there is a massive opposition between these two types of people because I think most people are in the middle, neither only staying in their cultural group or strongly rejecting it. 

I am interested to hear more about his work and his understanding of Multiculturalism. I am also interested ideas around conversation being different from a dialogue with an aim. Some groups want each other to speak to each other with an aim of making decisions, rather than listening. Having attended events like Bristol Celebrates and being involved in couchsurfing.org where I see I type of Xenia guest-friendship interaction I can see great benefits to these interactions in valuing others humanity and extending hospitality to them, but I am not sure what role such academic research plays…

22 Feb 2011 19:00
Meditation for People with No Time to Meditate
FreeSkilling Lynne Knight
Better Food Company, Sevier St FREE

Lynne is going to be looking a mini-meditations which if you are really busy attending all the other events on this list might come in handy!

23 Feb 2011, 18.00-19.00
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Izzeldin Abuelaish – I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol £5.00 / £4.00

We often hear about the conflict in the Middle-East and how Palestinians and Israelis don’t talk to each other. Izzeldin Abuelaish works as a doctor serving both Palestinians and Israelis. In 2009 his three daughters were killed by Israeli shells and since then he has increased his calls for those in the region to start talking to each other. It is obvious that he is a very inspiring man and his story is worth hearing.

23 Feb 2011 18:45
Creativity in English:  Literature, linguistics and communication
Professor Ronald Carter
The Eighth Annual Fullbrook Lecture
Lecture Theatre H124, St Matthias campus UWE, Oldbury Court Road, Bristol. BS16 2JP
FREE

Creativity in language isn’t limited to creative writing or to one individuals creativity, Professor Ronald Carter finds creativity in spoken languages within groups and he will look at the implications of recognising this type of creativity in his field and related fields.
This lecture is FREE but it is necessary to register your attendance, please Register on-line

28 Feb 2011, 18.00-19.00
Tom Segev
Simon Wiesenthal
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
£5.00 / £4.00

Having learned quite a lot about the Holocaust recently I learned we can sometimes expect people to react in a certain way. Holocaust survivors are not a group of people with a single mindset anymore than any other group. Simon Wiesenthal was a survivor who fought for punishment and justice of Nazi criminals to an extreme that made him a hero to some and terrifying to others. Tom Segev who has written a biography about him will share more about his life.

28 Feb 2011, 19.30-21.00
Farewell to Public Welfare? II
Public Service in a Privatised World 
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
£5/£4
This will be useful if you need help to understand the affects privatising public services will have on how services work. Having attended the first Farewell to Public Welfare lecture entitled The Price of the Cuts I can warn you it will probably be quite depressing, but it is helpful to see the predictions in order to prepare for these changes. This series is selling out quickly so book a ticket asap if you want to go!

Monday 28 Feb 20:00
Science Fiction, or 2011 reality?
Science Cafe Julian Lea-Jones
Tobacco Factory
FREE

Is the future now? Well I’m all excited by the idea of invisibility cloaks, but not sure I understand all the rest!

Learn new stuff in Bristol - Jan 2011

There are lots of talks, lectures, seminars etc coming up in Bristol this January.
Some of these I am planning to go to others just look interesting to share… Will post February soon too!
14 January 2011, 19.30-20.30
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Lynn Zastoupil talks about Rammohun Roy – Rajah, reformer, MP?
£7.00 / £5.00
At Arnos Vale Cemetery Bristol
Rammohun Roy is actually buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery, he visited Britain in 1830s as the Indian Ambassador and got involved in British politics, even considering becoming an MP. I have seen more information about him around Bristol and he is featured on the Stapleton road train station mural, but I never learned much about him so I’m a looking forward to learning more.
18 January 2011, 18.00-19.10
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Evgeny Morozov: Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World
£7.20 / £5.60
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
I am looking forward to attending this. Whilst I haven’t read Evgeny Morozovs book, I did read an article by Bryan Appleyard in New Statestman. I know that whilst Wikipedia and Google offer knowledge for everyone, this only works if people care, solely providing information is obviously not that helpful, information can be censored and many people just don’t want to know. I also listened to a debate ‘Social Network or Sanction’ from Center for Strategic and International Studies on ItunesU. It covered how dissenting groups in countries which have sanctions placed on them, can become victims of these sanctions in their own internet use and how dictatorships and repressive regimes themselves are using the internet. It also looked at other pitfalls of internet use in the Human Rights field, but I was still amazed at the positive ways the internet is used in societies where there isn’t a free press. I recently attended NetRootsUk which looked at different ways of using the internet in activism and for charities and organisations etc. I don’t think we can discount the effect that the internet does have in engaging and empowering people. I hope that Morozovs can give a useful insight into where Internet activism is failing and a realistic understanding of the internet.
18 January 2011 19:00 – 21:00
Bristol Freeskilling
Joanna Webber: Ayurveda & the Doshas FREE
Better Food Company, Sevier Street, St Werburghs, Bristol, BS2 9QS
“Learn how the ancient science of Ayurveda looks at different mind and body types called Doshas - with tailored diet and lifestyle recommendations. Come and explore who you are! Please bring a pen or pencil.”
18 January 2011, 19.30-20.30
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Academics from the University of Bristol will also speak 18.15-19.15 on the latest research on farm animal welfare as part of this event.

Cover of Eating Animals

Jonathan Safran Foer: Eating Animals £5.00 / £4.00
Arnolfini, Bristol
I currently describe myself as a part-time carnivore, after giving up meat last Lent and now eating meat only occasionally. My main motivation was sustainability, although animal welfare, in the shape of free-range meat does come into it, but not in the sense of not eating animals at all. This talk and debate will explore the ethical issues around eating or not eating meat, both to animals, the environment and people working in or affected by the meat industry around the world. Of course if you are squeamish it might not be for you!
20 January 2011, 18.30 –19:30pm
Bristol Politics Society
Lembit Öpik Tickets on door £4 for members, £6 for non-members. First thirty tickets will be FREE.
Winston Theatre, Bristol University Student Union
I was actually pretty shocked and surprised when Lembit Öpik Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire since 1997 lost his seat in the 2010 General Election. He lost with good grace and I remember he was pretty feisty afterward to Jeremy Paxman who was asking some rather stupid and pointless questions, which is cool cos I’m not a massive fan of Paxman! He was on Have I Got News For You a few days after and his sense of humour certainly didn’t seem to be lost. He is one of those funny political oddities that’s for sure. Check this out if you want to hear more about what he is up to now.
Pre-Registration is necessary for capacity reasons: Please email speaker.series@bristolpoliticssociety.co.uk
20 January 2011 19:30
Bristol Univeristy Botantical Gardens
Contact Botanic Garden on +44 (0)117 - 331 4906 or botanic-gardens@bristol.ac.uk
Nick Wray: Botanical travels in Cuba £3 for non-members
Room B75, School of Biological Sciences, Woodland Road.
Cuba has 7,000 species of plants and is regarded as being the most important territory for biodiversity conservation in the West Indies. Nick Wray the curator of the Botanical gardens will be able tell you around some of them he saw in his travels in Cuba, in case you’re not heading their anytime soon!
22 January - 23 January 2011 (1½ days)
PSE 2011 and Bristol University
Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference - Measuring poverty: the state of the art (Various speakers) FREE
Merchant Venturers Building, Parkstreet, Bristol.
If you are interested in the methodology for measuring poverty this looks awesome. Leading researchers from around the world will explain the latest advances in poverty measurement methodology. E-mail townsend-memorial@bristol.ac.uk to book a ticket.
25 January 2011
Bristol Freeskilling
Rachel Miller: Burns Night Special FREE
Better Food Company, Sevier Street, St Werburghs, Bristol, BS2 9QS
A classic way to mark Burns Night is a Ceilidh dance. If you want to learn Ceilidh dancing skills or if you want to pass on your skills then this will be great way to do that!
31 January 2011, 18.00-19.00
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Nicholas Shaxson: Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World £5.00/ £4.00
Watershed Media Centre

At Greenbelt Festival this summer I went in the Christian Aid Tax maze. We had to choose whether we wanted to pay tax or not. I choose to pay tax and my friend choose not too. It showed us that those who paid tax all benefited from basic provision even though their spending money was reduced. Whereas those who didn’t pay tax had to spend on basic water, health, education etc and many couldn’t afford to cover all their basics. Recently tax avoidance has been in the news and people have been protesting in shops which keep assets abroad. But there is an argument that is is just part of business. Money is a commodity like any other and in a globalised world businesses can search for the best deal. Nicholas Shaxson is the author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World which explores the negative effects this has on society.
31 January 2011 16:00 – 17:30
Centre for East Asian Studies, Bristol University
3rd Annual Bristol Lecture in East Asian Studies
Aidan Foster Carter: North Korea: China's Coming Takeover FREE
Room 2D1, University of Bristol, Social Sciences Complex, Priory Road, Bristol
North Korea: China's Coming Takeover. What’s the future for North Korea and what role will China play in it? Contact Emma Holland on +44 (0)117 - 331 8007 or emma.holland@bristol.ac.uk to book a ticket.
31 January 2011, 19.30-21.00
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Farewell to Public Welfare? I The Price of Cuts £5.00 / £4.00
Watershed Media Centre, Bristol
This is the first in a series of talks called Farewell to Public Welfare. Whilst cuts will cut the economic deficit, I am worried about the social deficit that will be caused. A problem that could be much harder to deal with in the future. Those of us who miss out of education, jobs, training, and support for ourselves and others due to disability and ill-health may never be able to get that back. Ruining our chances now could leave us dependent on whatever the state or charities will give us for the rest of our lives. It may mean we need more support from other services as well and we will be unable to provide for our families and not be encouraged to contribute positively to society through volunteering, despite the ‘big society’ as these provisions are being cut too. Whilst we often focus on the costs for future generations in not making these cuts I am interested what the costs are in making these cuts. I am also interested whether Bristol Ideas Festival sees it as their responsibility to provide a chance for those affected to participate in these series of discussions.
lectures, talks, seminars, free talks, Bristol

Interdisciplinary Studies

One of the barriers I find when it comes to studying is that I am interested in a wide variety of disciplines. Here in England and Wales, formal education starts specialising quite early at 14 years old. Post-16 education allows people to specialise in different ways, e.g. 4 or 5 ‘Academic’ Subjects at AS level usually reduced to 3 subjects at A2 level. A variety of other qualifications allow you to specialise in a specific, usually practical field. Universities require students to apply for a specific course and unlike North American and Scottish Universities it is possible to go to University to study Mathematics and only take Mathematics classes. Some Universities may not even have options for students to take electives or to combine subjects, although this is changing. Formal learning tends to be put into boxes, where different subjects don’t interact.

This week I have attended two events at Bristol University both of which have demonstrated the way that things don’t fit into these neat boxes, whilst at first these two events may not seem particularly related, they both shed light on different ways of Interdisciplinary Studies and show the increasing importance and use of Interdisciplinary studies.

I attended a lecture from the Autumn Art Series ‘Indigo – from mummies to blue jeans’ by Dr. Jenny Balfour-Paul (16/11/10), due to my interest in Textiles. Her lecture on the dye Indigo was fascinating and moved far beyond solely the discipline of Art, unfortunately due to time constraints she was limited to summarising many different areas, many of which could have been lectures in their own right. It was clear listening to the lecture that the story of Indigo is a way to explore many different subjects and also afforded Dr. Jenny Balfour-Paul with many interesting travel experiences.

For example here are some different subjects explored through Indigo (other than Art).

Science: Unlike other colours only one natural source for the colour blue which is Indigo and that this can come from more than one plant, but once isolated it is the same substance and that the colour can’t be seen in the plant, it has to be soaked and mushed and mixed with oxygen. Once Indigo is extracted and made into block it has to be fermented again (until it becomes at Greeny-yellow liquid) to dye fabric and the fabric only becomes blue once exposed to Oxygen. Indigo is considered to be medicinal and is a preservative and it repels insects and animals as it is bitter. Use of natural dyes over synthetic dyes is better for the environment.

History: She showed us paintings of people wearing denim items in medieval times, and the paintings also used Indigo dye. Blue ‘Jeans’ throughout the ages. She mention Indigo slave plantations, with the potential that Blues music could have come from slaves working on Indigo Plantations in the West Indies. Blue beards in history would have been dyed with Indigo.

Anthropology: She spent time in different countries making ethnographic studies of the different way dyers in different countries use Indigo. She talked about the concept of the Indigo gods, which has been found in different countries as the indigo dye needs feeding with certain substances to work and it was often understood as feeding a god and that the dye is alive in some way.

Aesthetics [of Indigo]: In India and Arab countries they like their Indigo cloths to be shiny and bright (made by rubbing with a stone and painting more Indigo pigment on top) In Japanese and Western cultures prefer faded Indigos – e.g. faded denims. Creating designs is done with a resist, e.g. wax, stitch or paste.

At the end of the lecture Dr. Jenny Balfour-Paul told us about a project she is working on called the ‘Silk Road Connect’ which brings interdisciplinary learning into deprived middle-schools in the New York City Public School system. The project is run by Yo-Yo Ma and the website for this project explains how they are using the study of Indigo as part of their programme, “indigo presents endless possibilities for learning across various disciplines: hands-on dyeing of fabric, growing an indigo plant, examining the history of the indigo trade and its effect on many cultures, studying the dye’s unique chemical properties, and discovering the hidden story of our own ubiquitous blue jeans.” They aim to use indigo as a way to connect different disciplines across the arts and sciences and develop passion-driven learning.¹ This seems somewhat similar to the Unit Studies way of learning within home education and the integrated learning units in progressive education. I also believe it is the way that we naturally learn, following our interests. A simple example is my younger brother’s knowledge of countries and their cities developed from from his interest in football (soccer).

I also attended a discussion panel event to mark the launch of the Cabot Institute, entitled ‘How should we live with global environmental uncertainty?’ (15/11/10). I attended this not only of of general interest, but also to inform the reporting I am doing for Climate Squads COP16 reporters scheme.

The Cabot Institute has been specifically founded at Bristol University to bring together leading researchers across the multiple disciplines of science, engineering, social sciences and law to carry out research on different aspects of global and environmental change. The Panel at this event consisted of four men, Sir Crispin Tickell, Director of Policy Foresight Programme; the Hon Sir Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future; Brendon Gormley, Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee and Professor Ric Parker, Rolls-Royce Director of Research and Technology and things that were discussed included

• How do we affect behavioural change and is more technology needed?

• How to deal with Climate Change Denial.

• Whether we need a Global Environmental Leader and whether this person needs to be inside or outside of the current political system.

• The role of media in affecting, or not affecting change, with the majority of the audience and the panel believing the mainstream media to be unhelpful.

• The role the Internet can play in affecting change, Sir Jonathon Poritt referring to 38degrees website, and Sir Crispin Tickett saying that the Internet allowed charities to access people more directly instead of relying upon mainstream media appeals and also allowed some people to by-pass charities and have direct interaction.

• The lack of scientists currently in the UK government and what effect this has.

• How we can respond quicker to disasters and climate issues in the future, exploring responses in urban areas and technology to provide predictions of events

• Public policy, particular the current role of higher education as for economic growth, modern economics, particularly the concept of continual economic growth as detrimental to a sustainable future and making sure research from the Cabot Institute is presented to politicians in a way to positively affect policy.

  
  

As you can see the debate moved across many different subjects, as both the causes and way to tackle climate change reach across many different sectors of society. Panellist Bredan Gormley made the point that we live in a fragmented world and any future global environmental leader would need to be able to talk across different fields to unblock change. In his closing summary Ric Parker wished the Cabot Institute well and that with research students working across different fields [in a interdisciplinary manner] hoped it will help develop new minds for modern world.

Multidisciplinary studies seem to be part of the point of creating the Cabot Institute, in the pre-event press release Professor Nick Lieven, Dean of Engineering at Bristol University, said: "The University has a strong sense of research excellence across a wide range of individual disciplines. What really excites me about the institute is the way that these strengths are genuinely being brought together to tackle some of the most pressing global questions of our times." In the Cabot Institute information booklet there is information about the new multidisciplinary educational opportunities for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, including an open module on Sustainable Development, open to all undergraduate students, new academic courses and Doctoral Training Centres where students can pursue a flexible programme which combines research and teaching.

Bredan Gormley said in his closing summary that it is important to develop links with institutions outside of the Anglo-Saxon world, for example Haiti and Islamabad, and Rick Parker closing summary referred to the general public having problems getting their mind around risks such as Climate Change. Sir Jonathon Poritt referred to two current world leaders, The Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, who come from a more spiritual perspective which should not be ignored in looking for future environmental leaders. I wonder if the concept of a Inter/Multidisciplinary Institute expands beyond working between different departments and also into working with people outside, for example knowledge in this field could be useful for spiritual/religious leaders, those looking to build sustainable communities, politicians, journalists (and others in the media), artists and those volunteering or working in many different organisations and charities, in turn they could provide valuable insight from their perspectives. I hope they continue to provide public events such as this debate to allow a truly interdisciplinary debate between many different people and also the programme provided earlier in the day (which I think was for charities). As an Independent learner I also would like to see opportunities for people to access information from the Cabot Institute, perhaps using OpenCourseWare to disseminate materials, particularly to those in developing countries or offering the Sustainable Development module as an course for those outside the University.

I believe the Internet can help with truly interdisciplinary international discussions and debates. The use of the Internet (as a tool for affecting change) was referred to in the debate, with reference to a campaign website and donations to charities. The Blog for the Centre for Public Engagement (#Cabot) at Bristol university has provided a summary of the debate and an opportunity for comments and questions, the have also promoted use of a Twitter Hashtag #cabot to aid discussion. However I wonder what they will do with the material generated from this and from the debate.

As an Independent Learner I think interdisciplinary studying is the future of great thinking in the 21st century, allowing study to focus on a problem to be solved or an interest to be explored. It can help create future leaders who can work across disciplines, understand how different things interact and are able to talk across fields. It can bridge between the sciences and the arts and also between the practical, the theoretical and the academic allowing new ideas, solutions and creations to develop. Whilst original academic studies focused on the classics and theology and then broadened to include other subjects considered to be academic, other (particularly practical and technical) subjects were to be learned through other means, e.g. self-learning entrepreneurs, apprenticeships, technical colleges creating a divide between different groups of learners. However Universities are changing, courses addressing specific modern issues bridges the divides between ‘academic’ subjects and ‘practical’ e.g. media studies, climate studies. Within secondary schools or home-education studying across the curriculum can incentivise students to understand why they should learn certain things. Independent Learners, who are learning for all sorts of reasons, not to gain a specific qualification, are to some extent already practising Interdisciplinary studies. We can listen to lectures in different fields (e.g. recording on Itunes U), without being constrained to a specific syllabus or field, interact with others through the internet and access a wide variety of materials from OpenCourseWare.

Interdisciplinary studying allows us to think outside the box and explore new ideas!

What happened to me.

Sadly soon after my last post on here I became quite ill, partially I believe caused by the OU course I was studying. The cramming it in method of learning seem to cause me to get to the point where my brain was unable to work properly. I have spend 2 years recovering from this and I am sure I will post more about it as the time comes, but suffice to say I have really been basically unable to write for these last few years, which as you can imagine was pretty frustrating! However that doesn't mean I stopped learning, and I hope through these experiences I learned quite alot, for example for quite few months I was unable to use a computer or read etc. I have continued to take a few classes with a note-taker in the class and I hope the articles and opinions inside my head these last few years will come out, in whatever time it takes. Maybe even some of the drafts started before I became ill can be re-worked into something :-).

Anyways all that remains to be said on this matter at the moment is to thank the wonderful TheSickChick as it was her comments on TheCraftyPod (a craft podcast) about her own current inability to write that made me feel less alone, when no one has ever been able to give me a good explanation about what happened to me.

Learning about Buttermilk

I've never used buttermilk for baking before (it's not very common in the UK, although I believe it was in the past), but I found this great recipe for chocolate brownie cake for my brother's 15th birthday (pics here)- and it had buttermilk it (it also had sour cream, which is like buttermilk made from cream which I substituted with 3/4 buttermilk and 1/4 butter), previously I have just used milk with a little lemon juice left for 15 mins 'til it sours, but I thought that as it was such a crucial part of the cake. It's not too hard to find in where I live - I just picked some up in Tescos.

I had a little bit of buttermilk left over and when looking up what to do with it, I found out that modern 'buttermilk' is not really buttermilk at all (as in the slightly sour milk left over from churning butter), but it is a cultured product similar to yogurt. Even better was that you can 'make' your own buttermilk using a bit of bought buttermilk as a starter, I just put the leftover buttermilk in a container, topped it up with milk and left it in a cupboard for about 15 hours, until it thickened and smelled a bit like yogurt. Not sure why it doesn't go bad, like milk usually would being left on the side, but it didn't!

My buttermilk didn't come out as thick as the store-bought kind that I used as a starter, but that may be because they used something else to help thicken it, next time I'll add a little powdered milk, as I have read online that people use this to make homemade yogurt thicker. I am a bit confused tho' as PrayzGod says on her blog that homemade buttermilk generally comes out thicker than the stuff from the store, so I don't know where I went wrong! The white 'blobs' on the side of the container and left on the spoon are where the lactic acid in the milk has caused it to clabber, which is what makes it into buttermilk.

Of course once I'd made it I wanted to make something with it - I made some super yummy buttermilk oat scones and added dried cranberries and sultanas to the mixture - so yummy. I'd recommend making scones with buttermilk, it really does make them lighter.

Finding an essay planner / outlining / notecard program!

Having problems writing an essay (on moral panics + crime) for my Open University social science course, whilst I have written many essays before, tiny word limits and strict restrictions mean that I have to really pick and choose what to put in it. As I was (attempting) to write my plan I found myself drawing arrows all over the place and thought this would be easier if I wrote each idea of a piece of paper (or index card) and re-arranged until satisfied. Then I thought there must be some software for doing this without having to use lots of silly bits of paper.

I already use KeyNote to organise ideas and forum posts/e-mail correspondence that I may need to use again and I use mindjet mindmanager for notetaking and brainstorming, but neither of these do exactly what I want, although mindmanager is probably closest to what I want.

I tried TheLiteraryMachine, which I have tried for other writing tasks before, but it is still so ridiculously complicated - so that was a non-starter. I also found a couple of commercial software, but none of them seem to do what I want either;

• SuperNotecard looks a bit advanced and more geared towards fiction writers, although I may check out the trial.
• NoteWorthy Virtual Notecards looks interesting, but doesn't appear to have a way of eventually arranging your virtual 'cards' into an outline / essay plan.

I found a freeware program Text Block Writer, which looks interesting and will probably do the job, it will let me re-arrange my 'notecards' and will produce an outline that can be imported into word (yeay!); however it is a bit rough around the edges, it has an unusual layout and some bizarre quirks, such as columns for placing cards into and lots of different editing spaces. It also doesn't have a search or a way of grouping/linking cards (e.g. these card must always stay with this card or this card must always come after that card). There appears to be a new paid for version of this software called Text Block Author, but this appears to be basically the same, but it does have a search facility (which is a big plus!).
Text Block Writer is basically a digalisation of re-arranging notecards manually, obviously without any extra features this is still useful, after all for paper notecards you need;

• lots of space to rearrange the cards,
• have lots of crossing out when you want to reword a point
• land up losing a crucial card
• have to type it all out into your word processor when you're done.

Perhaps I am just being greedy, but it seems silly just to replicate notecards when computers can do so much more.

After some more searching I found out I was basically looking for something called an outliner (Wikipedia: outliner + why the outliner tool is the essential tool for everybody), of which keynote is one and mindmaps are similar to (and apparently evernote, another program I use (essentially as a never-ending notebook) also counts as an outliner). This yielded a whole lot more results that before, there seem to be a wide variety of outlining programs each with different feature-sets and many programs are customised for specific uses (e.g. programming, writing etc). Not sure if I will find one that does what I want, think I'll probably land up using text block writer for this assignment, what with it being due on Tuesday and all!