Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Saturday 5 December 2015

a week, the profound beauty of human kindness, the gatehouse literary forum, lac 50th on iguanalista, open data: the golden age of discovery


It has been, I should say, a shocking week.

Yet it has also been, as every week is, no matter how bad, a week of beauty. Of beautiful nature and the profound beauty of human kindness.

--

Meantime, here is a really interesting new site, which is edited by a graduate of the Oxford MSt in Creative Writing. It's called The Gatehouse Literary Forum Oxford. The About us section explains:

'The Gatehouse Literary Forum publishes works by guests of the Gatehouse drop-in centre in Oxford, England. These include personal essays, short stories and poems. Some pieces are partially inspired by writing prompts provided at the drop-in centre on Literacy Fridays. Others are developed by the guests in their own time.

'The purpose of this website is to provide a forum for expression and to highlight one critical point: no one can be defined solely by how they appear, how they speak, where they’re from, nor by their current living situation. We are all far more complex than any one statement could possibly convey.'

Also, some pieces I wrote on the Latin American Centre's 50th anniversary have just been published on América Latina Portal Europeo's Iguanalista blog: Oxford University Latin American Centre's 50th anniversary and Bodleian Latin American Centre Library 40th.

Yesterday, I attended the Research Data Management Delivery Group communications workshop - a great event. By the by, there's an excellent Oxford University podcast on Open Data: Open Data - the Golden Age of Discovery. Well worth checking out!
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