For those of you who customarily read Bright Meadow in an RSS reader, I really do recommend actually visiting the site and glorying in all the pink that abounds. And trust me, there’s a *lot* of pink.

Why go pink?

The idea is to spread awareness about breast cancer.

In the last three decades the number of breast cancer cases has soared at the same time as the death rates are falling. The later is due, in the most part, to a much greater public awareness of the disease. Like with all cancers the key is early diagnosis – being aware of your breasts is vital.

If you are feeling in a generous mood, I would suggest donations to any of the following:

• Breast Cancer Care (UK charity)
• The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (US Charity)
• Cancer Research UK (UK charity)
• Association for International Cancer Research (International charity)

To lighten the mood slightly, there are 7 changes that have been made to Bright Meadow – the observant among you who can spot all of them will get Minionhood. Some of the changes are glaringly obvious. Others, not so much.

Even if you can’t/don’t want to do a full makeover of your site and join the pink side, there are badges available for you to show your support.

Go on – go pink! I dare you…

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!

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…

• 9rules and all it’s attendant blogs form the core of my daily browsing, especially when I am at work. I don’t have a list of my bookmarks on the work computer, so 9rules is a great way of finding something to read when I am at a loose end.
• BBC News again is central to my day-time reading. Whilst not technically a blog it does supply a lot of material for my blog. That and it’s always a good idea to know what is going on in the world so you can have conversations without looking TOTALLY dumb.
• Flickr. The wonderful, wonderful photo-sharing site provides hours of amusement, blogging inspiration, and eye-candy.

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 🙂

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 😀

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.

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.

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…