Today is the first day of the new regime. I have celebrated this by using a picture of dawn from the free photo library. It was easier than getting up early to take a less impressive photo.
Smaller portions, more exercise and earlier rising are three key points in the new way of life and have just been forced to add another – no internet quizzes. I’ve spent the last 20 minutes pitting my wits against Merriam Webster vocabulary tests and once again, my wits have come second. I’m good for my age, according to the calculator, but rarely make it to the heights of the top ten. Part of the trouble is that my computer is a bit slow, which loses me points. Leaving that excuse aside, the main problem, of course, is that I get words wrong. It’s amazing how many words I’ve never heard of. This sounds like a continuation of yesterdays post, but it isn’t meant to. It’s a lot less surprising to find a new word than to find a new idiom.
I’ve also given up doomsurfing, which was one of M-W’s new words for today. I started it a few weeks ago and gave it up last week. This week I learned the new word for it.
There is a fine line between keeping informed and wallowing in bad news. I started spending too much time looking at news and statistics and this invariably affected my outlook. This may or may not be linked to the way I lapsed into becoming a TV fixated jellyfish, sitting staring at the screen most of the day. However, in the few days since I stopped looking at bad news, I have felt better.
Going back to the second paragraph, 20 minutes of internet quizzes is 20 minutes away from productive work. There is no point in replacing uselessly staring at a TV screen with uselessly staring at a computer screen.
I am now going to check up on the word “doom”. M-W covers it, telling us that it originally meant judgement, but it doesn’t talk about the church wall paintings. Like so many things, I’ve always meant to search some out, but never got round to it. I’m fascinated by them , and by all church wall paintings. In fact, by all wall paintings. I have, more than once, had tea in Newark by a wall that was still decorated with Elizabethan wall paintings (though I believe that tea room has now closed). I like the idea that something has survived for hundreds of years. This is particularly true of the church paintings as they were targeted for destruction during the Reformation. I find the whole story of the Reformation and the rediscovery of the paintings under coats of whitewash, to be fascinating.
Doom painting, from St Thomas’s Church, Salisbury
And for my Suffolk readers – the Doom from Wenhaston Church, which, as the link shows, has a very interesting story.
Newsletter- May 9, 2020
https://theliberacy.com/2020/05/09/newsletter-may-9-2020/
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I knew about Wenhaston’s doom (Wenhaston is quite near where I live) and it’s amazingly lucky survival. I also am very interested in wall paintings so posts from you on this subject would be fine with me!
I gave up watching/listening to news programmes a while ago as they made me depressed. I have a quick look at the headlines on-line in the morning and that’s it for the day.
Yes, I think the news is worse than the virus!
😀
Good change. Now I look at the news as I do ads…it’s always the same!
That is true, always the same and never good. 🙂
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My living room is in complete disarray because of decorating. But some uplifting programmes would no doubt do me good, so finding a way of setting up the TV and a chair for viewing would be a positive move!
I think it is very easy to get sucked in by negativity. Twitter has been my poison of choice, so I made a similar resolution to yourself.
Anyway, if you want any encouragement, please tell us more about church paintings. They are absolutely fascinating – and I hadn’t been aware of them before.
Yes, I must learn more about them too. I’ll see what I can do. 🙂
Great 😊
I spent time phoning friends and family, catching up with news from their corners of the world. It was a pleasant, mostly sunny day here. No TV here, but we do watch movies on DVD.
Sounds like a day well spent, particularly in the company of cats. Hope you are both staying well.
I find myself watching more telly than usual because of the rush of high quality arts and drama programmes they are putting on at the moment. I had to tear myself away from King Lear tonight to get the blog finished.
I didn’t even notice it was on. I did see an interesting programme about Norfolk a couple of nights ago. Better quality viewing is part of my new plan.
As an American, I am a huge fan of Merriam-Webster and use it all the time. As a word nerd, I find those vocabulary tests irresistible. Play on, Quercus!
🙂
No more doomsurfing – I like it, let’s start a campaign!
Yes, I think we’ll be doing the world a favour. 🙂
Most definitely! I’m tired of daily complaints and “poor f**king me” whiners. They just depress everyone else.
The ones that really get to me are the reporters, who are always so clever with hindsight. Bad news sells, but it doesn’t help.
Exactly. They are always looking for the next catastrophe or complaint.
Yes, it’s the modern way.
Surely you make life difficult using a US dictionary?
As long as you allow for the wilful destruction of orthodox orthography the words are interesting. 🙂