Distraction

I've been sat in front of my computer all day trying to write my latest essay: 'Compare and contrast the represetation of courtship and marriage in Shakespeare's Henry V and Aphra Behn's The Rover.' It's doing my head in. I've done all the background reading and made all my notes/mind maps, and I have actually started to write the essay, but there's so much I want to include that I'm having to be very careful in how I put my ideas down, because I only have 1500 words to say it all in. It's ridiculous. I'm now a little over half way, with something like 820 words done, and I think I've managed to cram in most of what I want to say about Henry V, even if I've had to be quite economical. I'm leaving doing the bit about The Rover until tomorrow, and am now going to find some brain-numbing activity before I try to sleep.

During the course of trying to write my essay I have come across many a distraction, and I thought I'd share some of them with you, particularly as rather a lot of them are only a mouse click away from my essay, and therefore also from whatever you ought to be doing on your computer (other than reading my blog, of course ;oP ). So here are a few distractions for you:

• First off let me point you towards a site that I recently added to the list of 'Blogs I Read' on the left hand panel, but which you might have missed. La Tartine Gourmande is a foodies delight, and also has some rather wonderful photos on it. Take a peek, but eat before you go there or you'll end up being very hungry indeed.
• If you're feeling stressed out and you don't have any bubblewrap to hand then try this site. It's particularly good on 'manic mode', and more satisfying with the sound on than off. Very silly, but it passes away the time.
• If you want to test your lexical knowledge, and also want to do something useful (in this case donating rice to the UN World Food Program) then visit FreeRice. Be warned though, it's very addictive.
• Do you like cartoons? Take a look at Karrie Fransman's short comic strips. You'll probably have seen them if you read The Guardian, but they're fun.
• Once you've done your essay or written that document then how about putting it into Wordle. This nifty little gadget will make a pretty 'word cloud' with the words you've used in your piece, and then you can play with the colours, fonts, layouts etc. Good fun and gives a sense of satisfaction ... or maybe that's just me ;oP
• Maybe watching a slide show of some wonderful photographs is more your thing. If so, then you need go no further than The Royal Photographic Society's Northern Gallery. There's some stunning stuff there, but then you'd expect that from the RPS.
• For another game try Scrabulous. Due to some legal wrangling with the makers of Scrabble, Scrabulous has recently disappeared from FaceBook :o( but all is not lost (yet), because they have their own site where you can go play :o)

That's all the distraction I can give you for now, but feel free to let me know of others by leaving a message in the comments section.

Have fun!