Free the Rice!

Sorry, been feeling sleepy of late. Clearly the lengthy time-off I took has left me unprepared for the world of work - or, more specifically, the early wake-up time. I consider myself quite a morning person, but there are limits. Once I have a cup of tea inside me, though, I'm bright n' breezy.

Thought I'd share a couple of things today, in lieu of anything particularly bookish to report (though am immersed in The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters and may not emerge for some time)

1) Handed in my Masters Application for English Literature 1900-Present! Yes, back here I annouced my intentions (sounds like I'm an Austen hero requesting a lady's hand in marriage) and, but a short 2.5 months later, I handed the forms in. Nine days before the deadline, mind, which in my book is organised. Should find out whether or not I've got a place in about two month's time.

2) www.freerice.com
Not in the sense of freeing injustly imprisoned rice (though that is also a worthy cause) or even the United States Secretary of State. This website, which can speedily become addictive, combines both a love of language and charitable giving. It's basically a game of synonyms - a word is given, you choose between four possible definitions/synonyms/vaguely-related-words-sometimes - every time you click, the companies which advertise on the site will give rice to United Nations World Food Programme. I don't know the ins and outs of this organisation, but it certainly seems more + than - . And the worst that can happen is that I procrastinate for a few minutes.
Go try. The words get harder as you get more correct (and easier if you get them wrong) with a running 'vocab level'. This goes up to 50, but I haven't got higher than 45... very addictive game. But with the added bonus of absolutely no guilt.