what do you do?

i had some trouble with my desktop PC.

my alphasmart portable word-processing device decided to stop transferring files to my PC.

i started craving the convenience and flexibility of a laptop.

i earned some money.

i found out laptops were tax deductible.

i saw some special offers on laptops.

i started reading martha beck’s 4-day win (thanks for the tip, keris - it’s great!) and bought into her concept of small and large rewards.

i set myself a goal: to do an awareness meditation for 5 minutes every day, for 4 days straight.

i successfully completed my goal.

can you guess what i bought last night?

if you can’t, you must be even more dazed and confused than i feel after working almost all weekend… when i can think in paragraphs again i’ll fill you in on my university interview: hopefully soon.

my techie alter ego is still going strong: i’m currently working on two tech features for a national newspaper, answering basic tech questions in woman’s weekly every two weeks and…

this week i was offered a blogging job at a wonderful american site about women, lifestyle and tech. woot!

i haven’t started posting yet (i’ll keep you, er, posted, and remove the veil of mystery then) but i’m very excited about this! it’s such a great site, and very well-respected.

want to know how i got the job? 

i just emailed to ask if they wanted another writer.

it was a powerful reminder to me of the value of asking for what you want - you never know where you might end up!

update: i’m so excited, i got offered another fabby blogging job (and of course accepted), again just by asking - more details soon!

fistula fundraising: the final tally! (sorry, you might have to squint)

thanks so much to everyone who contributed! *mwah*

together, we have helped at least one woman with this devastating condition. yay! (i thought mother’s day was an appropriate day to share the news).

if you missed it, or are itching to give to another great cause, may i recommend this one? (you get a free e-book!)

updated update: well done everyone! just one and a half quotes to go…

i saw this on gabrielle’s blog, and thought it was appropriate oscars day fare…

i’m going to post quotes from 15 of my favourite films below. (take note: some of them are two-parters…) guess in the comments if you know the quote and the first one to each gets the credit. NO GOOGLING or otherwise trawling the net - play fair! (and if you know ‘em all, be nice and just guess one or two so others can join in, k?) okay, here we go…

1. - “You are so self-righteous, you know. I mean we’re just people. We’re just human beings, you know? You think you’re God.”

- “I gotta model myself after someone.” - yay for sally! it IS manhattan.

2. “I’ve had it up to my ass with sedate.” - LOTS of guesses about which one was thelma and louise, but finally helen nailed it!

3. “Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash.” when harry met sally - good work, keris! i *knew* you’d get that one. (honorable mentions to sue and claire, just not quite fast enough!)

4. “Claustrophia and a dead body - this is a neurotic’s jackpot!” - well spotted, pom! it’s manhattan murder mystery.

5. “He’s all right! Aren’t you, cat? Poor cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name!”  breakfast at tiffany’s - helen TM got it! (and was the first to get one, btw!)

6. - “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

- “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” sally nailed it - classic babs streisand (and ryan o’neal making fun of love story) in what’s up doc? (which i lurrrrrrrrrrrrrve).

7.”That’s it. Out you two pixies go - through the door, or out the window!” - it’s a wonderful life, isn’t it, peepo?

8. “I am so glad that I got sober now so I can be hyper-conscious for this series of humiliations.” - postcards from the edge - right again keris! :)

9. - “I already know an awful lot of people and until one of them dies I couldn’t possibly meet anyone else.”

- “Well, if anyone goes on the critical list, let me know.”

10. “Don’t worry. We can walk to the curb from here.” - annie hall, of course! pom said it first.

11. “Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called in-breeding; from this comes idiot children… and other lawyers.” - after a hint or two, peepo finally got it: adam’s rib. if you haven’t seen it, why not? katharine hepburn, spencer tracy and (my favourite) judy holliday in a classic almost-feminist film.

12. “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” - goodfellas, good stuff peepo!

13. “”Abt natural, I’ve got a gub!” - jas gets half a point for flagging it up as a woody allen quote… but which movie?

14. “You and your lousy letters. Just to get one of them made me special even before I opened it. All your crappy stories, all your big dreams.” - good work again, helen TM! it *was* the biggest girlie weepie of all time, beaches (remember all those letters they wrote?) - sob!

15. “Okay, so you’re probably going, “Is this like a Noxzema commercial or what?” But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl.”  - sally got it again! - she’s not clueless… (geddit?)

good luck!!!

…except when i say ‘going to the chapel’, i mean [drumroll please…] i’m going to australia!

and when i say ‘i’m gonna get married’, i mean i’m not. (and perhaps i should have picked a more appropriate lyric to title this post).

anyway… i leave (i think) on april 10th for about three months.

so i’ll either be blogging loads or not blogging much at all until then.

is it wrong - or so very very right - that i’ve already started packing? 

in work news (don’t yawn!), i have been sending out pitches like mad, dead keen on getting in lots of lovely lucrative and interesting writing to do. yes peeps, the sabbatical is officially OV-ER… send yer (lovely lucrative and interesting writing) work my way, and be quick about it!

and you can see my new, improved, pimped up and ready-to-rock work website (which i made myself, just like a proper person!) at:

www.dianeshipley.co.uk.

also, i’ve signed up for a photoshop course.

dorkily, i’m very excited about it. it’s a two-day introductory thingy, in february. which is good ‘cos i know not one thing about photoshop and i think i need to. fabbily, i got 40% off the price! (i don’t know how i qualified for that, it was all v. secretive, but somehow i did.)

i want to expand my “skills portfolio” by getting to grips with graphic design at least a little bit and then i’ll conquer stuff like CMS, CSS and HTML so i can take over the internet and be reech beyond compare do more.

finally, i got the BEST business cards from moo. after dilly-dallying with picture cards, i finally went for some text cards (i got aqua, black, pink and red) with ‘DIANE SHIPLEY. FREELANCE JOURNALIST’ on the front in a cool font, with a stripey print background. that sounds gaudy; but they’re just funky. and small! (cute). i love them and will be finding all kinds of excuses to give them to people.

i have other work-related news involving spreadsheets and the like, but even i have to draw the line somewhere…

remember last year (oh so many moons ago) when i laid out my plans for 2008? (they included vegas and uni and australia and i’m not sure what else… is it coming back to you now?)

well, it’s all changed. i’ve just sent off my uni application (just NOW! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!) but for a deferred place - i.e. i’d go in 2009, not 2008, if they let me in. (PLEASE let me in!)

vegas and the grand canyon is off the table for now, but i can always visit if i get into the study abroad programme for 2010 (please let me in!) australia is hopefully still on, just postponed til - well, we have some travel agents to see…

y’see, planning is all very well, but sometimes life has other ideas. and i’ve learned that it’s very nice to make plans, but no good if you don’t follow them up with actions, like eating well, resting enough, exercising and making sure you’re fit enough to follow through.

hopefully i’ve now struck the balance between wild optimism and hopeless despair: i hear there’s a place called REALITY? i’d like to spend some time there, making real plans that will actually happen.

having said that, everything is - of course - always and forever open to change. i’ll only really know what i’m going to do when i’m actually doing it.

and you’ll know right after that, when i blog about it. naturally.

i’m not blogging here today because i’m blogging there, and when i say there, i mean of course most excellent hot igloo blog the fashion police. thank you for having me, amber!

read my guest post by clicky-clicking here.

coming soon to this blog: reality bites and the clintons do voodoo. (probably). and i’m still taking birthday celebration suggestions: would do you like to do?

it’s the seventh! which means! it’s only 20 days! ’til my birthday!

whence it will be one year ’til i am thirty, and also - i will stop saying ‘whence’.

what shall we do to celebrate, internets? (apart from the ‘whence’ thing.)