girl + internet
The following is annoying me today – the person on Flickr with the username ‘Cas’ is blatantly not making full use of the Flickr-y goodness.
S/he’s had the account a while (at least a year and half) because when I registered with Flickr the name was already taken, but still.
Grrr.
I would make SO much better use of that name!
Posted by in Grump, Mini Meadow
Honestly, tag a guy once and you can never get rid of them! Still, this time I will forgive him because just when I had run out of inspiration on what to write (that slug-post is still blocking all normal creativity), Josh comes along and tags me. Then I got mentioned by Jay and I knew I really couldn’t ignore it.
1. Why do you blog?
The first question and I’m going to wimp out. I’ve already answered it elsewhere in some depth.
Briefly however, I blog to:
1) Make sense of my world/my thoughts.
2) Connect to people and get into conversations.
3) Have fun.
4) Improve my writing.
2. Which author and/or book has most influenced you?
Again, a question I can refer to a previous post – I’m liking this!
I’ve read a LOT in my life and it would be hard, if not impossible, to say “this one author has most influenced me”. At different times different books have had the most impact on my life. For the reasons behind the four I picked last time (The Bible, The Darkness Visible by William Styron, The Skull Mantra by Eliot Patterson and Yes Man by Danny Wallace) read this post.
Other authors/bloggers/writers/academics whose work I adore and frequently come back to include Neal Stephenson, danah boyd, Jane Austen, William Gibson, Robin Hobb and.. Oh, countless others for many different reasons.
3. Which three blogs do you most visit?
Evil question! Are you trying to make me play favourites here? I read so much (and read it through RSS to boot) that this is, as already implied, a hard one. But here goes…
Phew! Answered the question without picking any personal blogs. Result.
4. Why do you read fiction?
Because it takes me to different worlds and times and lets me experience things I would never have the opportunity to otherwise. Because it can help you see the truth behind situations and dares to talk about the taboo.
5. What makes you laugh?
Lots of things. Most things. I am easily amused by most of the world to be truthful – it is just all so absurd. I find life inherently amusing, which has got me into a few misunderstandings along the way, but it I find it a much better way of living my life.
Terry Pratchet makes me laugh, so does Monty Python. Billy Connolly usually has me crying in laughter and Eddie Izzard makes me laugh so hard I can’t breathe.
6. I tag…
Well, last time I tagged people, people got grumpy, so I’m not going to tag anyone. If you want to, feel free to continue with the meme. Pass on the love 
Posted by in Daily Waffle
Turns out Mr Tall, Dark and Great Smile is rather good artist and even has a website.
Go, have a look, buy a piece of art (I’ve got my eye on that eagle piece), and tell him Cas sent you. He most likely won’t have an clue who the hell you mean, but it will amuse me 
Posted by in Daily Waffle, Mini Meadow
OK, so today at lunch time I was very bored and very pissed off with work (this week is the admin week from hell – roll on next week and the new job!) and when I’m bored and pissed off I have a tendency to spend money. If it’s money I don’t have even better… I’m now the proud owner of two more books (Akira vol 1 & Ronin) and a CD by a band “The Calling”.
I don’t listen to much radio so I’m not exactly ‘hip’ to the latest bands. I do occasionally watch TMF if really bored so have a passing understanding to some of the latest popular/indie music. It’s also hard to move in this country without hearing music in shops and on the bus so whilst I’m not up to date, I’m not in the Stone Age either.
I’d heard “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling being played in various places before I knew who they were. I happened to be channel hopping at the weekend and passed through a “Top 50 hottest guy’s” feature as it was in the middle of the song. The power and beauty of the singers’ voice caught me before I saw what he looked like.
I couldn’t believe it! He had the voice of a fallen angel. The mental image in my head was a 30-something Nickleback grunge guy. Rough around the edges, just as I like ‘em. Instead I get this 16 year old pretty boy! Honestly, he wouldn’t look out of place in Hanson (I’m not linking to them, if a link even still exists). That’s not to say he IS 16 but… Dear god I’ve not seen/heard such a mis-match of voice and face in a long while.
I am seriously in love with this guy’s voice though. It’s like a good whisky – smooth, long, with a kick at the end that warms you down to the cockles of your heart. A girl would go a long way for that voice… And in five, ten years I expect the face will match. When it does *whistles* watch out.
Till then? And back in the real world? That’s why I like music. You can plug in the headphones and be in another world. Who cares what you look like 
PS – the music ain’t half bad either. It would be generic boy-band/soft-rock lyrics with any other group but… Oh that voice.
Posted by in Daily Waffle
So there was no Roast last week – well it was my birthday and every once in a while things more important than blogging will occur. I know, heresy, but it’s true. In recompense, this week you will have a bumper-sized Roast with offerings from the past two weeks. Aren’t you fortunate people?
A recent study has shown that wearing cycling helmets makes you more likely to crash (especially if you are a man). Like the article says, I wouldn’t take this as a reason not to wear a helmet, but I do love how drivers gave the researcher more room when he was wearing a long wig…
This is just plain cruel – Gloucester city council is giving gulls fake eggs in an attempt to confuse them and stop them breeding. The thought of a pair of gulls looking after this plastic egg, wondering why it isn’t hatching, is just so sad. What do they do with the real eggs? Because I’m assuming substitution has to be made at some point, in the manner of cuckoos. Mean.
As a recent fish-owner, I resent that a museum gave a fish a make over because it was too ugly. Not only that, they took out one of it’s eyes!
It’s been a while since I linked to ProBlogger. Time to remedy the situation. Darren wrote a piece about cliques and how easy it is to unintentionally exclude people which set a few alarm bells tinkling. I don’t have an excessively large readership here at Bright Meadow, but there is a core group of you who can be relied upon to pop up in the comments more often than not. As a reluctant commentor myself I know how intimidating it can seem the first time on a new blog, especially if there seems to be an extant community. I’m not sure how best to deal with the phenomenon, but I shall continue to be as welcoming as I can. No scaring off the newbies now!
Bewjeweled and Tetris on the iPod. Oh lordy, lordy, lor. You’d never get anything done!
I was going to be a good girl and download iTunes 7, but luckily I saw Tammie’s experiences before I hit the ‘download’ button. Eek! I don’t actually listen to music through the PocketCalculator, just turning iTunes on when I want to rip a new cd and upload it too the iPod, mainly because even iTunes 6 makes my (old) G4 with 512 mb memory (which was top spec when I brought it!) sit back and act like it’s digesting a big meal. I’m waiting for a fix, or at least for when I can get down and dirty and completely wipe my HD and start over. Of course the ideal solution would be a new computer (how the hell will I be able to resist when this opens?) but as I don’t have a few grand spare to waste, no iTunes 7 for Cas right now. If only I could get the automatic software update to shut up about it!
So simple, so subtle and ties into my own fascination with graffiti.
Again with the ugly pets getting makeovers.
I’m going to go see Imogen Heap in a few weeks time, so I’ll let you know how her decision to pick supporting acts through MySpace turns out.
Have you got your Moo cards yet? I’ve ordered my ten free (go being a pro user!) and I will let you know how they look when they arrive, but I’m really quite excited about them. I’ve been pondering the idea of business cards for when (if) I get my arse in gear and get to some conferences (CAA UK in Jan 2007 for sure) and these are just so much more… fun! And personal.
I would be remiss in my 9rules duties if I didn’t point out to y’all that the next submission round is October 25th. I’ll try not to get all recent-convert on you, but they are a great bunch of people. It might not be for you, but if you ever fancied hanging out with some scarily smart people and having a laugh in the process, try it. You might like it
Sad news for motor and Top Gear fans every where this week when presenter Richard Hammond got seriously injured in a crash. His family have requested that instead of flowers/cards/etc people make donations to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. To do so, just go to this page at JustGiving.com
And lastly, 
Are you?
Posted by in Sunday Roast
I have to bring you sad news this Saturday morning.
Bright Meadow’s latest resident, Alexander the Fish, unfortunately died in the night. I have no idea why – he was swimming round quite contentedly in his bowl last night, though he hadn’t eaten anything since Thursday evening (he was normally a greedy little so-and-so). Whilst I’d only known him a week, he was still dear to my heart, and he will be missed.
Perhaps it was the confusion over his name that finally got him? No creature under an inch and a half in length needs three names.
Whatever the reason, clearly, I am not one of natures fish-keepers. Cats I am good with, unfortunately, our lease doesn’t permit us anything fluffier (or bigger) than a goldfish. I wish I had a better picture to share than this one, but Alexander was remarkably camera shy for a fish that was such a flirt under all other circumstances.
As I said, he will be missed. That’s me back to talking to the Spider Plants then.
Posted by in Daily Waffle
Help!
Job Interview One on Wednesday – new team doing interesting, worthwhile things. As a new team, I’d be there from the start, with a chance to shape things to how I think they should be done. Vibe of the people from the interview was fun (but businesslike), excited, vibrant. A good job. Not too stretching but decent(ish) salary.
Job Interview Two on Thursday – two established teams with set ways of doing things (they were interviewing for two posts at the same time), but again doing worthwhile work. As an established team, have to come in from the outside, take over supervision of people who have been doing the job for a while (have to ask yourself why they didn’t promote from within when they created the role?). Vibe of the people from the interview a bit more businesslike, slightly less youthful and fun, but still nice people. A good job. Will definitely stretch me, look good on a CV (I won’t have just been marking time), but the same (ever so slightly less) salary than Job One. Possibly room to negotiate this up a little bit though.
Now I was semi-confident after Interview One that they would offer me the job but Interview Two left me feeling that no one would ever employ me. Interview One said they’d let me know by the end of the week, Interview Two said in about a week’s time. As I was coming out of Interview Two I got a call from Interview One saying they’d like to offer me the job…
At the time it seemed like a good idea to say “yes”, especially the way I felt Interview Two had gone. My Da’ didn’t raise no pre-emptive chicken-counters – if I wasn’t going to hear about Two for a week, would it be a good idea to make One wait and potentially loose it?
Then Two ring me this morning and offer me THAT job as well.
Bollocks, bugger, shit, and other expletives.
I would have put money on Two not wanting me, but it turns out not only did they want me, they BOTH wanted me and so had a little fight over who would get me. As I said, the pay isn’t initially so good but after I said I’d have to think about it as I’d been offered another job yesterday, they started to backtrack and mentioned negotiating it up a little bit.
Poo! What do I do?! All logic says Two is the better job – more prospects, it would stretch me to develop my skills, and keep me fully occupied whilst I worked on the move into publishing. But at the same time, more stress means I’m more likely to bring the work home with me, and I want to be able to focus on my A-Level and writing as well. Job One would (probably) have slightly less of an impact on my life.
Add to that, I have technically already said ‘Yes’ to Job One. If I took Two, I’d have to go back to One and say ‘sorry’… and that would mean one department in the organization where my name would be mud.
Oh… Bugger… Life is easier as a temp – you don’t have to make these decisions. It’s nice that everyone seems to want me, but what should I do?! It’s not exactly like I can challenge them to an Ultimate Showdown, with the winner taking my admin skills…
Posted by in Daily Waffle
I’ve been called “Ma’am”, Mrs, and Madam today. I must be starting to look old!
Posted by in Daily Waffle, Mini Meadow
All evidence to the contrary I’m not just sitting on my arse, enjoying the last vestiges of summer, before my island is plunged into the eternal dreariness that is a British autumn and winter (I don’t mind the cold, I don’t mind it getting dark early. I don’t even mind it when it rains heavily. It’s the constant grey drizzle that gets to me).
There is a blog post coming I promise you, it’s just proving harder than usual to write. Unfortunately for you, dear readers, I have to get this post out of the way before I can go on with the show. It’s sitting there at the forefront of my mind like a giant slug on the garden path of my creativity. I HATE slugs, so I’m having to psych myself up before I can step round it. Basically, till I write this one post, nothing else of any merit is going to come out.
As an important aside here, in the Bright Meadow Household, traffic hold-ups are rated on a slightly unusual scale:
1) The Preserve.
This is a slight slow down of traffic, but nothing too bad. You’re never really stationary – it will annoy you, make you five or ten minutes late, but the world ain’t gonna stop on it’s axis.
2) The Jam.
This is your average hold-up. You’ll be stationary for up to 15 to 30 minutes, but whilst it’s a right bugger to be caught in one, you’ll forget about it as soon as you’ve got to your destination.
3) The Marmalade.
Forget all your plans for the next decade. This is the 20 mile tail-back halfway round the M25 in both directions. You’d follow the diversions sign posted but you’ll just end up in Outer Mongolia (or Lower Wallop, which is even worse). Forget about going anywhere in the BMW – it’s either set out on foot or settle down and plan to raise the family on the hard shoulder.
Why the detour into traffic reportage? My brain is in marmalade territory. Sorry. It’s the time of year unfortunately. September (and October to some extent) suck monumentally.
On top of the post-from-hell, I have two job interviews, the start of college, a chunk of freelance work I really can’t put off any longer, and my day-job to finish (and a new one to start), but when that’s all out of the way things should return to their even keel.
Or not.
Whatever happens, happy birthday Jack!
Posted by in Daily Waffle
Yup, it’s my birthday weekend so don’t look for any posts till Monday. My Dad is coming down for the weekend and, quite frankly, what we have planned is more fun than aggravating my RSI by blogging, so I’m going to spend the weekend away from the computer. I know! *gasp* Shock! Horror!
What is planned? Well, there will be the buying goldfish, having a nice meal, watching a movie, and going to the boat show (this will be my third year in Southampton, I should go at least once). There might also be other fun and exciting things happening – I wouldn’t know, I haven’t done them yet.
If you are in need of blogging brilliance, check out these bad boys.
And the picture is what greeted me when I opened the fridge door this evening when I came home and wanted some milk for a cup of tea. Moose assures me that it isn’t my birthday cake but I don’t have a post graduate degree for nothing you know. I have my suspicions…
Have fun without me and when I speak to you again I shall be… older. Ugh.
Posted by in Daily Waffle
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