What’s sideways people? I decided I’d mix things up from just using ‘Sup’ all the time.
Today is the 15th April and I haven’t blogged in a very long time so apologies, in a sense, about that. I can imagine me not blogging isn’t necessarily a massive issue to you but nevertheless, I continue.
I am a big fan of projects that I set for myself and have about three going at this current moment in time so I thought I’d talk about them because you might have something similar going or might be able to help me with it or it might just explain why I’m doing something.
1) My Theatre Project
This is something that I have briefly talked about before but not in a lot of detail.
Those that follow my personal account on Twitter (@EllaZinc) may have noticed that I am tweeting a lot about access performances e.g. audio described, captioned and signed. This is for this project.
The reason behind this is that I am looking at the frequency at which shows do these access performances in an attempt to make it a more common thing and, presuming everything goes to plan, I am going to attempt to contact the theatres to try and make theatre more accessible for everyone.
One of my friends has a visual impairment which means that if I was to go and see anything with her, which I really want to, we will have to go and see an audio-described performance. However, it is rare that shows do many of these, if any at all and sometimes, if they are done, the performances are on really awkward days. For example, in the first 3 weeks of May, Jersey Boys, one of my favourite shows, are doing one of each of the access performances I previously mentioned but all on Tuesdays.
To do this project, I am focussing on 3 things. Firstly, I am collecting data on shows running in West End theatres and when their access performances are so I have data to back up my points. This data collection will be lasting for a year and I started it in February. Secondly, I am going to be attempting to contact people who would be using the access performances to see the shows to see if they would actually use them. However, the reason I’m tweeting a lot is that I am looking for the viewpoints of the people who see these performances but do not require the audio description or captioning or signing to find out whether having these performances would dissuade people from seeing shows.
Of course this entire project is resting on the hope that people who need the facilities would actually use them and that the facilities aren’t going to affect the experience for the people who don’t need it.
If you have seen any of the kinds of access performances I have mentioned, please contact me via Twitter or the comments, even if it is a negative viewpoint as those are important too.
2) 1500 Books
This has been a long time coming. When I was about 9 (I think), I watched The Gadget Show and someone said that most people don’t read 1500 books within their lifetime so I decided to attempt to prove them wrong. The issue with this of course was that most of the initial books I put on there were things like ‘JONAS: The Official Guide’ which doesn’t really count and eventually I stopped updating the list . However, I have decided to now take this back up again.
So far I have read (For this project):
1) ‘Wicked’ by Gregory Maguire
2) ‘Periodic Tales- The Curious Lives of the Elements’ by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
3) ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck
4) ‘Little Men’ by Louisa May Alcott
5) ‘Jo’s Boys’ by Louisa May Alcott
6) ‘Behind a Mask, or a Woman’s Power’ by Louisa May Alcott
To add to this list, I am currently reading ‘A Brief History of Time’ by Stephen Hawking and ‘The Periodic Table- A Very Short Introduction’ by Eric R. Scerri. Because I’m rock and roll.
My aim is to review lots of the books I read for this project and I hope to put them up here. I’ve got one on the Alcott books which I’m updating as I finish them so they’re all going to be in one post and I’ll publish it once I’ve finished all the Alcott books I have.
I am looking for book recommendations of stuff to read as I need 1500 different books and I want to read good ones.
3) The Combeferre Research Project
I have a teensy obsession with Les Mis which I’m going to talk about in another post but, as a consequence of that, I have read the book and undoubtedly, my favourite character is Combeferre so I have decided to attempt to learn and do some of the things that he has learned or done that are listed in the book
1) Research Condorcet.
2) Learn about the polarization of light.
3) Find out who Arago, Geoffrey Sainte-Hilaire, Saint-Simon, Fourier, Puységur and Deleuze are.
4) Be able to explain the double function of the external cartoid artery and the internal.
5) Be able to draw a silk moth from memory.
There’s heaps more which I’m going to try but not detail in this post because it might get a bit dull, if it wasn’t already.
I do have other projects going but they’re science ones that are going God knows where right now so I’m not going to talk about those.
In conclusion, I’m spending too long on a data spreadsheet, if you’ve seen an access performance of anything please contact me on Twitter (@EllaZinc), I will read for no reason what so ever and I have way too much time on my hands.
Hope you have a good week!
Ella 😀