what do you do?

sorry for the lack of a proper post. this one will probably be most of interest to my fans relatives.

a couple of guardian blogs i wrote recently:

the great chick lit cover up

and

the talented ms lipman (since it was published, the book and movie release dates have both been pushed back… ah well, i tried!)

i’m also still popgadget-ing away (and loving it).

i have some more articles to link to, but haven’t uploaded them yet… soon. and expect a blog post in flowing sentences… also soon. perhaps.

no disrespect to ms sarpong, but that’s not a sentence i thought i’d be writing this week.

today i’ve been researching her pet project, politics and the city, for something i’m writing for popgadget (coming soon!) and i came across her blog.

i was gratified by what june had written about knife crime, which is the most sensible and real thing i’ve read of all the many (many!) things i’ve read and heard on the subject recently.

she says:

“When I hear both David Cameron and Gordon Brown talk about tougher sentencing for knife crimes, I can’t help but wonder why neither of them are focusing sufficiently on what we can do to ensure these young people don’t carry knives and, more importantly, don’t use them.

It seems to me there is an erosion of the moral compass of these knife-wielding youngsters which, at it’s core, stems from an immense lack of self-esteem. This has desensitised them from caring about their own lives and therefore they do not value the lives of others.

We live in a society of instant gratification, which teaches its young to act on impulse. It’s imperative that we create a framework where disenfranchised youth realise that crime and violence are not the only options and that there are serious consequences to harming or indeed taking another life.

We need a much more effective state education system which not only demands excellence from its pupils but also focuses on their emotional wellbeing. This is a problem that we must tackle together as a nation - irrespective of race, class or region.”

update: in case you were wondering, this is the info you need. i can’t make sense of it all (yet) but i will… i’m so stubborn that not being competent in the behind-the-scenes side of blogging is killing me: i want to do it aaaaall! (from design to coding, to writing seriously: i’m a control freak).

i want a bit of a newer, fresher, easier-to-update look for this blog — and i also want to learn more HTML, some CSS and get more up to date with wordpress.

all of which is my excuse for the fact that this blog may go through a funny-looking, awkward stage (or two). bear with me - i’ll keep on blogging, and things should get good-looking again one day.

and if not, well - change keeps life interesting, doesn’t it?!

some unrelated ways you can maybe help me (well, it *is* my blog…):

1. i’m doing a project kinda thing (you know you love it when i get specific!) about women, men, gender, technology and the internet. if you have any relevant info or see any sites i should know about relating to any/all of the above, please email me a link. i’m collating everything here, so you can see what i have so far.

2. i’m putting together another secret project to do with blogging, and i also need help with that: i need you to recommend great blog posts (specific posts if possible, rather than just great blogs - and they can be your own posts!) one proviso: they need to be relatively clean. i haven’t set up a place to collate these yet, but i will in due course. (don’t you love the saying “in due course”? it sounds official yet could mean anything. i use it to mean “soon… probably”.)

3. and in non-tech related news… on my way back from america last year, i had a fantastic meal on the plane (i know!) of chicken and sweet potatoes in a chipotle sauce. which was serendipitous as i’d just watched rachel ray cook with chipotles… but i can’t find them in the UK. do we have a different name for them, or are they just not available? i have the recipe, i just need the chipotles… help!

*hey, that’s my second beatles-lyric title this week. will i make it three?

no, i will not.

no one has asked me how i’m going.

no shop assistant has asked me how my day has been, if i collect fly-bys, or if that’ll be credit or savings.

when i place my order in a restaurant, the waiter/waitress doesn’t say ”easy as”, “no worries” or “not a problem”.

gordon ramsay and law and order:svu aren’t on tv every second of the day.

it’s damp. and small, and kind of dark, even in the day.

people don’t wear coats when it’s 20 degrees C.

a white cat in a pink t-shirt isn’t howling for my attention. i don’t have to feed some very demanding crows before breakfast.

it doesn’t get dark at 6pm. people stay up past 10 o’ clock at night.

there are no drive-through “bottle shops”.

there’s no train down the middle of the highway.

speed cameras are big and yellow, and called speed cameras, not multinovas.

people say pepper instead of capsicum. and documentary, salvation army and journalist instead of doco, salvos and journo.

no national news presenter would say “good on ya” during a broadcast (nor call the sports guy “tommo”).

police don’t wear baseball caps… or guns.

there’s no gloria jean’s. no-one knows what a flat white is. i can’t go to dome for lunch.

but i can go to starbucks.

and i can catch a bus at the end of my street (and be in town in less than half an hour)

but i can’t see my dad.

yep, i’m back.

nope, i’m not that happy about it. (you think post-holiday ennui is bad, how do you think it feels after three months?) (not that i was on “holiday” all that time, i worked quite a bit. but it was sunny.)

now i’m exhausted, depressed and have to try and get back into my normal routine, which is so disheartening i can’t even tell you. i also have some stressful stuff to deal with that i literally can’t tell you but which i’m dreading. i want to do nothing more right now than jump straight onto another plane, but my conscience (credit card) won’t allow it.

as usual, i’m totally out of step with life. every other blogger i read is having a fantastic time, creating wonderful new opportunities, loving their life, or some other such fabulousness. i’m pleased for them all, i really am — or i will be once this crying jag wears off – but i do wish i could blog about some of the fabulous things happening for me. but unless you count my low-key excitement at being reunited with the far superior british version of itunes, i haven’t got much to contribute.

so i’m throwing myself into an office makeover project (my “office” being one corner of my bedroom, but still - i’m getting a real desk, and a filing cabinet instead of a pile of boxes!) in the hope that this will keep me busy, and bring in more work and other good things in some magic feng shui/law of attraction-type way.

for now, i feel the same as i do at the start of every new year: that i have too much to take on, that everything feels too hard, and that i’ll never feel motivated or enjoy life again. it is kind of nice to be home — apart from the weather, and the dread — it’s just adjusting to the change that i’m having some (a lot of) trouble with. (i also have raging PMT).

so, yep, i’m back.

and nope, i’m not that happy about it.