I've said it before, and I'll say it again: applying for jobs is very boring and time consuming. Especially considering that I haven't actually applied for any yet. I'm still working on getting everything that I need ready so that I can do it all in one blast. More or less. So far I've got my CV and supporting materials in reasonable shape, and picked out the places that I'll be applying to. But I still need to notify my referees which places to send letters of (dis)recommendation to, and write a bunch of virtually identical cover letters but make subtle differences (like the name of the place I'm applying to) to each. So some more work to do yet.

So, in the meantime, here is my discovery of the week. Stop words are the words that are thrown out by search engines as being too frequent to be meaningful: words like "the", "and", "is" and so on. So that means that the longest phrase in the works of Shakespeare [allegedly, but plausibly] is "To be or not to be, that is the". Which means that searching for these words in most search engines fail to get anything very useful. Although, searching for anything in search engines these days usually fails to get anything useful. Oh well.

While I'm on the subject, a quick google search reveals surprisingly few hits for the phrase "The Ring of the Fellowship". So, anyone who needs a title for their blue movie set in a Cambridge college need look no further. (Actually, does anyone feel like attempting to start a rumour that such a film is being made? I can't be bothered myself).

Some quick "why not try"s while I'm in the mood:

Why not try... raising the stakes?
...lowering the bar?
...bowling for Columbine?
...exceeding expectations?
...freeing the Birmingham Six?
...having a coincidental meeting?
...foiling a dastardly plot?
...extracting more energy from a system than you put in?
...staying in bed?
...being wantonly obscure?
...being wilfully obscure?
...being Jude the obscure?
...recording a new answering machine message?
...censoring yourself?
...censoring someone else?
...listening to pop?
...splitting up?
...taking the piss?
...taking the pills?
...not trying?
...keeping a web-based diary of things that happen in your life and making it publically available so that the world can read about it?
...juggling too many balls?
...mixing your metaphors?
...thinking up new insults about Jamie Oliver?
...memorising train timetables?
...getting yourself up, dusting yourself up, and starting all over again?
...writing a chapter of a book on a topic that you know a lot about?
...stopping doing that?
...applying for a job?
...pausing for thought?
...pausing for breath?
...pausing to go to the toilet?
...getting married?
...having a nice cup of tea and a sit down?

Sorry, once I get started it's hard to stop. So I'll stop.