Monday, 14 January 2008
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Insomnia
This morning on the way into work I found myself listening to an excellent wee essay from this week's Book of the Week on Radio4, At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist By Anne Fadiman. Today Fadiman was talking about the fact that your likeliness to be a lark or an owl are actually hard coded into your DNA rather than just being habits. Her description of being a well adjusted owl was a reassuring burst given that I was listening as I lugged my immense mocha to work in a semi-comotosed state having the previous night been positively buzzing with energy come bed time.
And today here I am at 1am still fairly wide awake and with a wee pile of things to do before bed. Sometimes you just need to give in to night owl temptations I think. Although I don't have to give in to watching the OC which is currently polluting my audio landscape and is about to be unceremoniously switched off.
A whole lot better entertainment can be found with Dan Savage at the Stranger.com. John recommended his podcasts when he was staying recently and they are a catty explicit treat. Today I started subscribing at work and though the content is a little work inappropriatte, it's actually therapeutically wakeful and spikey in a day otherwise dominated by munging data and counting sets of 3 consecutive digits. Not that work is bad at all at the moment but in the pre-Xmas lack of goals and leave taking bonanza things are less than fabulously exciting. Especially with the charming December weather and light levels in Edinburgh at the moment which have me about fit to hibernate.
Thank goodness then for sleaze, sequins and stripping in the form of Burlescapades, a classy slice of kink that will be livening up Heather, Sarah and my Friday night. Having raided my substantial collection of ludicrous gowns (years of murder mystery parties have left me with a formidable dress up/formal collection) I eventually found my chosen combo: a chartreuse green showgirl skirt from an outfit I made for Vegas in about 2002/3, the corset I made for my wedding, the pearly necklace (to be draped on the corset) I made for a murder mystery where everyone was a colour (I was Lady Pearl White), several fabulously OTT plastic and glass rings, the chandelier earrings I bought in jenners some time back before they were evil (if not evil then certainly bland), my dress pins (yes that would be a matched pair of bling a ding ding retro brooches brought in two completely different places but fortuitously perfectly matched) and some necklace or other to be decided from the general beaded collection. All that remains to find/make are two kick ass fabric rosette type flowers to meld corset with skirt. And an outfit for Heather who is significantly less interested in such dressing up silliness. Which I mostly don't mind as I get to show off more but it's a shame as Burlescapades looks like a glam affair. Ho hum.
Which reminds me... Many many moons ago I used to write a column called "Dyke Without Dungarees Ranting" (see links at the end of this rant - I tried to find the inappropriate picture but now I get a lot of political pics as Google thinks I mean some unholy combo of Nicola Sturgeon and George Osborne :::::shudder::::) and a friend at the university's then excellent gay group BLOG's (now more a guys dating network than the serious minded lesbian-led political group it was circa 1999) told me I needed to write about the nightmare that was PMT in a long term relationship. At the time I was single, nieve, and less than enlightened about the sheer predictability of much of life's crankiness. I now believe said lady so expect the theme to raise its ugly head if/when I get around to updating this blog at a suitable time.
Now is not the time though: I have loads of transatlantic pressies I swore would be wrapped before bed, work tomorrow and a world of panicking over how few christmas shopping days there are left to take precedent...
For now I will leave you with links to my former column:
I can't find a feminine lesbian for love nor money!
Rant of the Month: Nicola Osborne on the gay press
And an excellent film that all this Googling reminded me to rerecommend (review hosted by the lovely Amber and co at eyeforfilm:
Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic
Monday, 15 October 2007
The day I took the train...
A little Ocean Colour Scene reference for you there. Today I am stuck on a currently static (I lie, it's just started to crawl along) train down to London for the excitement that is the Aleph User Group meeting at the British Library.
Apparently the problem was:
That's about all for now, odd little post as it is, as I'm watching the end of Nurse Betty and feeling only slightly guilty for not finishing my minutes for work yet.
Apparently the problem was:
Traction motors in the Drem area...Anyway, much fun with trains and delays, trying to type minutes and occasional bursts of badly streamed Radio 4 including the shock news that Oh My God, Ming has resigned! I think it's probably overall a good think but it seems a shame that he's basically been nudged out for being too old. But maybe someone will notice that the Lib Dems are actually coming up with the few original policies in the weird Thatcher political soup out there. We'll see...
That's about all for now, odd little post as it is, as I'm watching the end of Nurse Betty and feeling only slightly guilty for not finishing my minutes for work yet.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Showered with frustration
It's turning into an odd autumn...
Since a rather horrified neighbour called at our door early last week we have been without the use of our shower which had been leaking into their newly redecorated bathroom. Until our tiler gets in contact and/or a new tiler is found and whichever of them gets on with making us water tight we are stuck having bathes or very odd showers whilst sat in the bath (too impossible for me to deal with but Heather's an expert). It's surprisingly frustrating even though the bathes themselves are strangely calming (mind you tomorrow I have a meeting so calming is less what I want, fast and wakeful would be better) and just a tad decadent (bubble bath being essential).
All the bathing fun is just a wee drop in the ocean of some rather seasonal depression though: we are down to much lower levels of light and shorter days already; we are starting on the boring road to an entirely root veg filled weekly veg box; work is getting duller and duller as we await some excitement like the changeover to the next funding period while at the same time also having lots of meetings at which we have less to report than would make them exciting; I have a newsletter to write and a website to update but getting round to it is proving hard and even my happy distraction of dress making is tough as I'm losing patience already and haven't even finished H's dress let alone started mine. I've just lost my energy lately and having lunch in doors away from the rain, having only my 18 minutes of walking to and from work as my exercise for the day is all taking its toll. And just as I'm slowing into flabby winter hibernation the world seems to be holding parties and social stuff for the first time in months...
So now I'm hoping I can get my rather unmotivated and unusually flabby arse in gear sufficiently to get into swimming and maybe belly dancing again so that I have a bit of energy injected into my day. Fixing my lunch hour so it's not so cabin feverish would be good but I'm not sure how. That said when my MSc starts in January that will help keep me over busy. I'm also trying to wean myself off my daily Metropole Mochas. That is going to be hard but it's a special request from my Missus as it becomes an expensive habit over the course of a month and is hardly useful so I'm gonna try my best. And I'm trying to arrange some social stuff as any deadline/goal helps me sort stuff out in a way I never manage without some sort of cut off point (that's the main problem with work at the mo actually - endless unchanging frustration with no point at which to be able to feel something is completed or achieved).
However any ideas for perking me up at the moment would be much appreciated. Currently emails from nice work and non work folks are keeping me just about chipper at work but something needs to change as badly as I normally cope with winter this year could be really horrible if I can't wake up my routine and shake it up a bit... I'm trying though.....
In the meantime it's off to the daily challenge of bathing and hair washing without splashes, leaks or soap bubbles escaping the tub... much fun... !
Since a rather horrified neighbour called at our door early last week we have been without the use of our shower which had been leaking into their newly redecorated bathroom. Until our tiler gets in contact and/or a new tiler is found and whichever of them gets on with making us water tight we are stuck having bathes or very odd showers whilst sat in the bath (too impossible for me to deal with but Heather's an expert). It's surprisingly frustrating even though the bathes themselves are strangely calming (mind you tomorrow I have a meeting so calming is less what I want, fast and wakeful would be better) and just a tad decadent (bubble bath being essential).
All the bathing fun is just a wee drop in the ocean of some rather seasonal depression though: we are down to much lower levels of light and shorter days already; we are starting on the boring road to an entirely root veg filled weekly veg box; work is getting duller and duller as we await some excitement like the changeover to the next funding period while at the same time also having lots of meetings at which we have less to report than would make them exciting; I have a newsletter to write and a website to update but getting round to it is proving hard and even my happy distraction of dress making is tough as I'm losing patience already and haven't even finished H's dress let alone started mine. I've just lost my energy lately and having lunch in doors away from the rain, having only my 18 minutes of walking to and from work as my exercise for the day is all taking its toll. And just as I'm slowing into flabby winter hibernation the world seems to be holding parties and social stuff for the first time in months...
So now I'm hoping I can get my rather unmotivated and unusually flabby arse in gear sufficiently to get into swimming and maybe belly dancing again so that I have a bit of energy injected into my day. Fixing my lunch hour so it's not so cabin feverish would be good but I'm not sure how. That said when my MSc starts in January that will help keep me over busy. I'm also trying to wean myself off my daily Metropole Mochas. That is going to be hard but it's a special request from my Missus as it becomes an expensive habit over the course of a month and is hardly useful so I'm gonna try my best. And I'm trying to arrange some social stuff as any deadline/goal helps me sort stuff out in a way I never manage without some sort of cut off point (that's the main problem with work at the mo actually - endless unchanging frustration with no point at which to be able to feel something is completed or achieved).
However any ideas for perking me up at the moment would be much appreciated. Currently emails from nice work and non work folks are keeping me just about chipper at work but something needs to change as badly as I normally cope with winter this year could be really horrible if I can't wake up my routine and shake it up a bit... I'm trying though.....
In the meantime it's off to the daily challenge of bathing and hair washing without splashes, leaks or soap bubbles escaping the tub... much fun... !
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Appropriatte Behaviour...
I've been wondering lately about what it is and isn't appropriate to chat to people about. You know, whether or not to tell your work colleagues about your partner's job situation or your horrible encounter with scabies; whether to complain about how bad your day is to the Big Issue Man (my normal seller, John, is studying to be a veterinary nurse in Glasgow so I think he won't be selling in Edinburgh much anymore which will at least appease my guilt for suggesting his day of selling might be less stressful than my day in my cosy office upstairs converting libraries. I think I'm right but I'm also well aware of how flexible and lucrative my job is and how much more preferable. However John always seems upbeat and a veritable guru of life advice - apparently I should brighten up my desk for maximum effect); whether you try and engage in stilted conversations with the barista you buy your daily hazelnut mocha from, how to tip fairly amongst the variable quality baristas and, worse of all, how to deal with an exchange like this:
then several minutes later as I make moves to pay, I get told the charge...
Now this would be fine in Starbucks or Costa or anywhere with a set in stone pricelist but this exchange took place in Metropole, my very favourite coffee shop in Edinburgh, which is eccentric to the point of bafflement. In the last 7 days I have been charged: £2, £2.50, £1.60 and £1.87 (reduced by a number of completely inexplicable moves from about £2.80). However the nice Barista (I don't know their names but this was Nice Man With Kids Who Gave Me a 10% Discount Card, there is also: Camp Teddy Boy, Cool Inks Guy, Ginger Man, Eczema Guy, Trying Not To Be Ya Girl etc...) was trying to give me massively discounted coffee (in my gorgeous big UC Davis plastic mug stolen from Heather) when a big queue of non-regulars was waiting. But I ask you... what should I have paid??! I went for what he charged me last time and that seems to have stuck now but Heather was with me and the blank looks exchanged were quite something to behold.
The world is a minefield!
Anyway I am off to Alexandras birthday but before I go two links both sourced from that national treasure that is Stephen Fry. If you saw part one of his "HIV & Me" documentary you won't need my recommendation for part 2 next Tuesday at 9. If you missed part 1 I suggest you seek it and part 2 out as it looks to be an excellent balanced show (except the omission of the ladies who like ladies but since we are a stupendously low risk group I do understand that). Anyway, to the links:
Stephen Fry's latest excellent blog entry, this time on Fame
Oh it's the aesthetically hideous but content rich Richard Dawkins site, he's certainly controversial and I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't like him a lot more if he didn't work as such good PR for organised religion since his attacks are often rather below the belt, surreal or simply displaying as much closed mindedness as his subjects. However I'm fascinated by genetics and I really can't get into any supporting any religion whatsoever no matter how positive or negative it's cultural impact so for my money it's worth having a wee look at Prof. Dawkins thoughts...
And finally a link to the Radio 4 show, 4 at Forty, which saw me through the last of my stressful conversions of Cambridge Library records. It's taken ages but I think I've cracked it hence my chirpiness! On the slight chance that it's still there when you read this I also highly recommend this episode of Lives in a Landscape about showgirls - fascinating, respectful and so strange to listen to on Radio 4 but so entirely the only place on radio or tv that they could do it properly!
Barista: The usual?
Me: Yes please.
then several minutes later as I make moves to pay, I get told the charge...
Barista: Er, the usual...
Now this would be fine in Starbucks or Costa or anywhere with a set in stone pricelist but this exchange took place in Metropole, my very favourite coffee shop in Edinburgh, which is eccentric to the point of bafflement. In the last 7 days I have been charged: £2, £2.50, £1.60 and £1.87 (reduced by a number of completely inexplicable moves from about £2.80). However the nice Barista (I don't know their names but this was Nice Man With Kids Who Gave Me a 10% Discount Card, there is also: Camp Teddy Boy, Cool Inks Guy, Ginger Man, Eczema Guy, Trying Not To Be Ya Girl etc...) was trying to give me massively discounted coffee (in my gorgeous big UC Davis plastic mug stolen from Heather) when a big queue of non-regulars was waiting. But I ask you... what should I have paid??! I went for what he charged me last time and that seems to have stuck now but Heather was with me and the blank looks exchanged were quite something to behold.
The world is a minefield!
Anyway I am off to Alexandras birthday but before I go two links both sourced from that national treasure that is Stephen Fry. If you saw part one of his "HIV & Me" documentary you won't need my recommendation for part 2 next Tuesday at 9. If you missed part 1 I suggest you seek it and part 2 out as it looks to be an excellent balanced show (except the omission of the ladies who like ladies but since we are a stupendously low risk group I do understand that). Anyway, to the links:
Stephen Fry's latest excellent blog entry, this time on Fame
Oh it's the aesthetically hideous but content rich Richard Dawkins site, he's certainly controversial and I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't like him a lot more if he didn't work as such good PR for organised religion since his attacks are often rather below the belt, surreal or simply displaying as much closed mindedness as his subjects. However I'm fascinated by genetics and I really can't get into any supporting any religion whatsoever no matter how positive or negative it's cultural impact so for my money it's worth having a wee look at Prof. Dawkins thoughts...
And finally a link to the Radio 4 show, 4 at Forty, which saw me through the last of my stressful conversions of Cambridge Library records. It's taken ages but I think I've cracked it hence my chirpiness! On the slight chance that it's still there when you read this I also highly recommend this episode of Lives in a Landscape about showgirls - fascinating, respectful and so strange to listen to on Radio 4 but so entirely the only place on radio or tv that they could do it properly!
Monday, 1 October 2007
fluffy ol' egg head
Wohoo! I'm feeling all creative ahead of the Big Knit and wondering if I can also find space for more beading and the marvels of such places as Beadworks.
In less good creative news I'm struggling with Flickr netiquette. Someone has posted LOADS of comments (mostly sarcastic but nothing offensive - more the sort of comments that amuse 8 year olds) and I'm now not sure whether to:
(a) politely email the chap and ask him nicely not to comment
(b) delete some of his comments
(c) delete all of his comments
(d) start making more of my pics private
(e) all of the above
(f) something else entirely...
Oh the modern virtual minefield of Web 2.0!
Mind you I'm getting off lucky if this young Flickr star's torment is anything to go by.
In less good creative news I'm struggling with Flickr netiquette. Someone has posted LOADS of comments (mostly sarcastic but nothing offensive - more the sort of comments that amuse 8 year olds) and I'm now not sure whether to:
(a) politely email the chap and ask him nicely not to comment
(b) delete some of his comments
(c) delete all of his comments
(d) start making more of my pics private
(e) all of the above
(f) something else entirely...
Oh the modern virtual minefield of Web 2.0!
Mind you I'm getting off lucky if this young Flickr star's torment is anything to go by.
Friday, 28 September 2007
Jack Straw has some odd ideas about law and order...
On the news yesterday there was a bizarre story from the labour party conference:
"Self Defence" Laws to be reviewed
Ostensibly Jack Straw is encouraging people to take the law into their own hands - after recent stabbings and shootings though this seems like a ludicrous idea. One wonders if he only came up with it to show off about his own Have A Go Hero exploits. Anyway vigilantism with government approval as a concept surely puts Jack Straw somewhere right of Thatcher. Although he still looks like a leftie compared to Blunkett.
I fear common sense has taken a permanent holiday in a world of terrorist paranoia and wrapping children in cotton wool. Indeed this week I was intrigued and horrified (for lots of reasons) by Radio 4's show Bullying.com which both told me of untold nastiness of children but also the bizarre level of protection, aged naivety and weird attitude of some parents. However it was the total unthinking trust, peer pressure and dependence of what should have been fairly mature teenagers which was really shocking -both the victims and the bullies. One wonders if the age of maturity in the UK isn't now edging towards 50 rather than 18. Odd.
Anyway. The whole weird thing is at least an excuse to show this bizarre newspaper hoarding from the Glasgow Airport bomb scare. At the time I thought it was insanely unhelpful, an opinion that only grows stronger with time.
"Self Defence" Laws to be reviewed
Ostensibly Jack Straw is encouraging people to take the law into their own hands - after recent stabbings and shootings though this seems like a ludicrous idea. One wonders if he only came up with it to show off about his own Have A Go Hero exploits. Anyway vigilantism with government approval as a concept surely puts Jack Straw somewhere right of Thatcher. Although he still looks like a leftie compared to Blunkett.
I fear common sense has taken a permanent holiday in a world of terrorist paranoia and wrapping children in cotton wool. Indeed this week I was intrigued and horrified (for lots of reasons) by Radio 4's show Bullying.com which both told me of untold nastiness of children but also the bizarre level of protection, aged naivety and weird attitude of some parents. However it was the total unthinking trust, peer pressure and dependence of what should have been fairly mature teenagers which was really shocking -both the victims and the bullies. One wonders if the age of maturity in the UK isn't now edging towards 50 rather than 18. Odd.
Anyway. The whole weird thing is at least an excuse to show this bizarre newspaper hoarding from the Glasgow Airport bomb scare. At the time I thought it was insanely unhelpful, an opinion that only grows stronger with time.
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Interesting little view of Facebook
As a full on FB addict I was interested to read today's blog entry from the always interesting Susan Mernit's Blog
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Ruff Bus 3
I spent some of my bank holiday yesterday (a weird edinburgh/uni holiday, no idea why) uploading some very old pics to flickr. This is an ongoing effort to try and get myself organised, the pics archived and tagged and also shared with folks.
So I started yesterday by adding pictures taken with both my various mobile phone (the quality evolves noticabley) and the pocket digital camera that lasted about 2 weeks until a bright day of sunshine busted in sensors into oblitoration. And I found some weird gems in the collection because I take mobile pics as the mood takes me and really quickly so it's often for stuff that I wouldn't otherwise snap...
Such as Ruff Bus 3... !
So I started yesterday by adding pictures taken with both my various mobile phone (the quality evolves noticabley) and the pocket digital camera that lasted about 2 weeks until a bright day of sunshine busted in sensors into oblitoration. And I found some weird gems in the collection because I take mobile pics as the mood takes me and really quickly so it's often for stuff that I wouldn't otherwise snap...
Such as Ruff Bus 3... !
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Bank of Scotland Festival Fireworks 2007
Oh my goodness! Tickets to the park means I got to take possibly the coolest shot I'll get this year!! (If I'd actually remembered the mount for my tripod who knows what other gems I might have taken?!)
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