Better To Just Be Real. Show Up, Do Your Job And Be A Nice Person

That Time We Discussed My Declining Years and The Disparity Between Your Early Twenties and Mid-Late Twenties

Oh yes, dear readers, it's another rant.

I've come home from work, quickly demolished two glasses of wine and of course a Blog Post has been born.

Strap yourselves in; it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Buckle up now.

As I am sure I have complained about before, and as we all know, I have studied Law at University and now for some unknown reason have completed the Legal Practice Course at Law School as well.

An example of the many, many hoops I have jumped through thus far on my journey to become a badass solicitor.

Not bitter.

Obviously.

(Although my bank account is still crying from the last round of financial assault the Solicitors Regulation Authority managed to get away with.)

ANYWAY.

The next step after a 4 year Law degree, 2 years at Law School and 6 years' work experience as a paralegal/legal assistant is a 2 year training contract completed on the job and a Professional Skills Course repeating much of what I have already undertaken at Law School.

Do you understand why I have a permanent eye twitch yet, dear readers?!

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?!

The next step requires training contract applications.  Having waited several years for a training contract to plop itself down in my lap (not really sure why I thought that was a valid tactic), I have decided to take a more pro-active approach to the whole farcical situation.  Better late than never, or so I'm told.

The other night I sat down ready for application hell and discovered...well...exactly that actually.

I was half way through an application when I got to a set of three boxes that enraged me so much that I had to go and watch calming videos of people applying acrylic nail polish to calm myself down lest I fling my laptop across the room.

Oh hush, you big baby, I didn't go through with it!

The application enraged me so much that I have decided to write this Blog Post and correct the glaring errors in employers' ways.

For it is not just one application that is needlessly grueling; all applications seem to be designed to confound, irritate and otherwise perplex.

So, here are my attempts to help those misguided HR departments out there...

1. Questions to Avoid

"Why do you want to work for this firm?"

Stop, stop, stop asking me this.  The answer is, invariably; "Because you have a vacancy and I need money."

Which apparently employers don't like.  Even if it is the truth.

Case. Point.

But then why do I have to explain myself to this stranger in a dodgy pinstripe suit.  Tell me why YOU want ME, Big Partner Solicitor Person.

Apparently employers don't like that either.

The truth hurts, boo.

I know that you are supposed to say a load of buzz words that you have managed to pick out from the firm's website but, let's be honest, it's always a lie.

Is this the way we want to start this new glorious relationship, potential employer?

Oh, apparently it is because I can hear you muttering about how important the work/life balance is in this firm (normally exclusively reserved for Partners who need to spend the afternoon boozing with some clients), progression is available (after 5 years and we dangle that carrot in front of you for the whole time to make sure you work your little yoga bum off) and that our salaries are competitive (competitively shit for this over saturated market you mean).

Ah.  So lying it is then.

And they say lawyers are unscrupulous. 

2. Provide Results From All University Modules, Exams, Driving Test and All Smear Tests

I'm not saying that academic results aren't important; of course they are. Especially in a career in Law.  All I'm saying is, why do I need to provide every single result of every single exam since I was 15 years old?  I got 9 GCSEs, 4 A Levels, a University Degree and a Post-Graduate Diploma.

Do you realise how many exams that adds up to?!

I do: 53.

53 individual exam results I need to include on every single training contract application.

I mean...seriously?! Is anyone even looking at these at this point?

Apparently not.

Isn't it enough to say that I passed them? Can't I just give a vague outline instead of the actual percentage that I got in each module at Uni? (This is not an exaggeration - I have to type out the number for each exam.)

And haven't we got passed that ideal that only academics can make it in the Law world? What if I didn't excel at school but have a great work ethic, an understanding of how to handle clients without wanting to poke my eyes out with a stapler remover and the ability to click buttons in my case management system which generates all the necessary letters for me anyway...don't get me started on that last one.

I understand that employers need a bar by which to judge the multitude of applicants against but why does it need to be in this much detail? If I was a complete fraud and unable to string a coherent thought together I am pretty sure one of these institutions would have outed me by now.

No caption required.

3. My Life Is Empty and Has No Meaning

And, finally, the questions in the training contract application that lead to this Blog Post in the first place:

- List your hobbies/interests and membership of clubs
- List your involvement in the community and/or charity work
- Positions of responsibilities

I was looking at the above questions and pulled this face:-

And am just as cute. Obviously.

Hobbies and memberships of clubs? Err...next.

Involvement in the community/charity work. Umm...

Positions of responsibilities. ...my boss let's me put the clean tea towels out sometimes?

Looking at these questions blankly and scratching my head (which incidentally is turning grey because I'm old) it struck me how geared up these applications were for University students.  In fact, the only things I could include in most of these questions took me all the way back to my early twenties.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.  These questions started making me question my life: why wasn't I a member of a club? Why didn't I do any charity work? What did I actually do in my spare time?!

My new Facebook profile pic.

And the more I pondered, the more I thought...why the hell should I have to explain myself to you, anonymous and mystical training contract giver?

I like my life.  My life is fulfilling and fun and full of light, laughter, love, family and friends.  If I want to spend the entire weekend in my pyjamas watching Big Bang Theory or bouncing around in muddy puddles with the Boyfriend and Nessie, in what way does that affect my ability to do a fantastic job 9-5, Monday to Friday?

It doesn't and that is what infuriated me so much.  Why should I spend my time filling these boxes with guff from years ago?  What employer wants to know I joined the snow sports team (but only for the socials) or that when I had loads of free time and wasn't desperately trying to pay off Law School loans (thanks again, SRA!) I had the time and inclination to raise money for charity.  I work damn hard in the week and if I want to devote my weekends to doing nothing that is my prerogative.

My thoughts exactly Mr Puss Cat

Why wasn't there a box for 'shit you do really well at work', 'list all the jobs you've had and the experience you gained i.e. leave a URL to your Linkedin here' and 'what is the nicest thing you've done for a colleague' or 'would any of your employers have you back or would they laugh in your face and tell you to take a long walk off a short pier?'

See? I fixed your stupid application, Head of HR.

It was at this point that I put the application away for fear of typing in caps lock 'WHO THE CARES?'

Won't some magical training contract guru think about us, the aging, work weary wretches of the world that didn't get off our arses at Uni and make all these application at the appropriate time?

Please?

Pretty, pussycat please?

In light of the above, maybe it has become clearer to some of the non-Law crowd as to why I have been preparing my lap for the training contact ploppage instead of actually filling out the applications.

Or maybe it just goes to show I'm too lazy to be a solicitor.

Eh.

Paralegal for lyfe, innit?

(I didn't say any of those GCSEs were in English.)

&&Fin.

I Think Children Are Like Pancakes; You Sort Of Ruin The First One And You Get Better At It The Second Time Around

That Time We Indulged the Foodie Inside Me

What The Buzz: #PancakeDay

Dear readers, I have sadly neglected The Blog for several weeks and, for that, I apologise.

Life has been insanely busy recently but that is no excuse.

I thought I would make it up to you all by discussing one of my favourite days of the year: Shrove Tuesday.

This holiday always creeps up on me and I am only aware of it at the very last minute despite my deep-seated love for the day itself and the eponymous confection the day brings.

We're talking about Pancake Day for anyone still unused to my writing style.

I am something of a traditionalist when it comes to pancakes - sugar and lemon is just fine with me thank you very much.  But I fully appreciate the benefits of the more outlandish recipes:-

Warning: Product placement. 

....errr....

It seems as though the Twittersphere is equally as excited for Pancake day as I am:

Can we just eat all the pancakes now?? 🍴 #PancakeDay pic.twitter.com/5Qu1Nvdste

— Brastop (@Brastop) February 8, 2016

And let's not forget the inevitable puns...

Holy crepe, it's flipping #PancakeDay tomorrow.

— Danny O'Reilly (@dannyoreilly84) February 8, 2016

Even the Beeb aren't above puns on Pancake Day:

Did you know tomorrow is #PancakeDay ? Apparently it just creped up on us..

— BBC Good Food Show (@BBCGoodFoodShow) February 8, 2016

Regardless of my own personal love of Pancake Day, the reason for choosing this Hashtag for #WhatTheBuzz this week was this headline which immediately grabbed my attention:

It's #pancakeday tomorrow but did you know pancakes are helping to prevent blindness? https://t.co/8iEWbGMAwk pic.twitter.com/C8rf5dyjPy

— CNET (@CNET) February 8, 2016

Okay, so total click bait title but the article was actually very interesting.

And if, like me, you were hoping that eating a buttload of pancakes will help improve your eyesight, prepare to be greatly disappointed.  The truth of the matter is that cooking different types of batter at different thicknesses and noting how the fluid escapes is assisting UCL in determining better methods of treating glaucoma which is a build up of pressure in the eyes caused by fluid.

So, there you have it; the humble pancake is helping in modern medicinal miracles.

Plus...there is also Pancake Art:




If that doesn't make you love Pancake Day, then, frankly, I don't know what your flipping problem is.

(I, too, am not above puns. ...Sorry).

&&Fin.

If You Think Adventure Is Dangerous, Try Routine; It's Lethal

That Time We Made Some Predictions

Happy New Year, dear readers!

2016 is well and truly upon us and 2015 has been left in the dust.  I realise that over the holiday period I have been particularly rubbish with updates so I am trying to get back into good habits and good routine.

...by missing the first What The Buzz post of the year.

Ahem.

In any event, the start of a new year is always a chance for reflection and prediction. And rather than focus too much on the past year (dear readers, 2015 has been a whirlwind of an adventure I can assure you!) I thought we would cast our eyes to the future and make some deeply insightful predictions.

But not just for 2016.  That is far too mundane for All Those Books And Still Not Smart.

Let us cast our aspersions further into the future and, in hundreds of years, when this blog is found amongst the rubble (after the nuclear war, zombie apocalypse and inevitable insanity that will ensue when George R R Martin passes away without completing A Song of Fire and Ice), the people of the future will hail me as a Prophet with knowledge beyond her years.

...Maybe.

So here we go, I am now going to predict a list of things that the People of Tomorrow will find bizarre that we find very mundane - even routine you might say (not a tenuous link to the title AT ALL).

1. Waxing

Of any and all varieties.

How do they make it look so gentle?! HOW?!

I am a major fan of waxing - legs, eyebrows, bikini line you name it! But it dawned on me on the drive back from my latest appointment that it was just bizarre. I pay a lovely girl a princely sum to rip the hair from my follicles.  All in the name of beauty.

The People of Tomorrow will see this folly and laugh.

For when the nuclear winter sets in, the hairiest people will be the ones to survive.  And us hairless idiots will curse the day they ever invented the 'Brazilian'.

2. Brussel Sprouts

I personally quite like these mini vegetables.  Particularly in bubble and squeak. 

But I know plenty of people (weirdos) that force themselves to eat brussel sprouts over Christmas even though they hate them because it is The Done Thing. 

How could anyone hate these little guys? They're so cute!

The People of Tomorrow will not force themselves to eat things they do not like.

They will have developed food synthesizers that automatically inject the necessary vitamins and nutrients needed to live with receptors in their taste buds giving a realistic impression of eating. 

...or they just have a butt ton of Willy Wonka's three course gum.

Either way - food is obsolete. 

And brussel sprouts even more so.

3. Emojis

This will go one of two ways:-

a) Emojis are viewed as modern hieroglyphics and scholars spend lifetimes trying to figure out complicated phrases like

Turns out we are a very one dimensional generation...

or;

b) Emojis have replaced all meaningful communication:

Ah...young love...maybe?!

4. Plastic Surgery

Much like the lobotomies and electric shock therapy of the 20th century or when women used to visit doctor's surgeries for 'hysteria' (read as: sexual frustration), the People of Tomorrow will balk when they realise that we, as a race, are comfortable with the idea of slicing ourselves open and inserting plastic bits and bobs to enhance/shape and otherwise sculpt our physical appearance.  Liposuction, face lifts, lip plumpers will all be viewed with the same disdain by the androgynous People of Tomorrow who value personality far, far about physical appearance.

Spread love not war and all that other good stuff.

Hey! A girl can dream.

This in turn leads to sexuality no longer being a defining characteristic as the People of Tomorrow will fall in love with individual people and not a gender overall. 

Sexual relationships for the purposes of reproducing will be redundant as science will have advanced and perfected the pregnancy process so that it is no longer necessary to heave a sack of baby and goop around for 9 months in order to pro-create.  Of course, the People of Tomorrow fully appreciate that should people wish to continue this antiquated practice, they are more than welcome to. 

They just don't have to.

But back to plastic surgery...

The kind of operations people are undergoing fairly regularly haven't really been around that long and I always wonder whether there are any side effects later on down the road.  For example laser eye surgery - if I had my eyes done now, what would be happening in there in 50 years time?  Nobody could tell me because we haven't had the procedure available for that long. 

People are very quick to jump in and alter their bodies almost irreparably without really knowing whether there is any long lasting damage or latent side effects. 

Perhaps the People of Tomorrow will also share my concerns.

5. Justin Bieber

Hundreds of years into the future, Justin Bieber will be hailed as the mastermind musician of our time. 

Justin knows.

Justin will continue to rise through the charts and one day will be considered 'a classic'.  The People of Tomorrow will laugh at the blip in 2012-mid 2015 when Bieber was the butt of jokes and generally a hated public figure.  They will scratch their heads and wonder how this could have happened given his enduring popularity following the release of his fourth studio album 'Purpose'.

(I'm serious though, those songs are damn catchy. #guiltypleasure)

These are just a few of my predictions for the coming decades. 

In the meantime, for 2016 I foresee several holidays, Wilderness Festival, Comic Con and finishing Law School.

And that is quite enough for me to be getting on with for the time being.

&&Fin.

If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play On

That Time We Listened to Some Tunes

What The Buzz: #MusicMonday

Music to me is a big deal.

It forms a large part of my day - from listening to music whilst I get dressed, singing on my commute in to work, humming at the office and then doing the reverse at the other end of the day.

I, for one, am all for having a soundtrack to a life.

So the twitter trend #MusicMonday was an obvious choice for this blogpost.

Silent Discos are ftw tbh, lol. (#relivingstudentdays)

I think music is a very powerful thing as it can make you feel a whole range of emotions in about 3 minutes, recall a memory from years ago or change the atmosphere of a room almost instantly.  There are songs that can almost immediately bring me to tears and there are others that can bring a smile to my face just as quickly.

I'm also one for new music.  I love hearing a song for the first time and becoming completely addicted to it.  And that's not just 'current' music.  My Dad used to do this weekly thing when I was at Uni which we labelled my 'music education' in which he would send me two or three songs I hadn't heard before but that were relatively old.  Plus I got to go to Reading Festival this year and listened to so many new artists that I had never heard of before.  The atmosphere definitely made it but the music was all incredible.

See you there, readers?

So I thought I would take this opportunity to post some of my new favourite songs that I can't help but love.  

(Plus it got to like 9.45 on Monday evening and I realised I hadn't done my What The Buzz post yet.  ...total professional over here, guys.)

Here we go, in no particular order (just keep Olly Murs away from this):

1. Pvris - Holy

This is a band that I didn't get the chance to see live at Reading but one of the girls I went with (hello Sophie!) said I should check them out when I got home.  I didn't think too much of it at the time and ended up listening to a Reading Festival playlist on the drive home (unwilling to end the weekend!) and heard this song.

When I looked up who it was, my suspicions were confirmed: Sophie was indeed a music maestro and should be trusted from here on out with all musical recommendations.

I think part of my love for this track may come from the Disney references but it is very catchy and the lyrics are at odds with the upbeat tempo which I really like.

Definitely one for belting out in the car.


2. The Other Tribe - Skirts



I heard this way back in 2012 when I was working at Sweaty Betty and my assistant manager's boyfriend had produced (? or something...I forget what it was in the end) this song.  When I first heard the song I thought it was the perfect summer tune and it takes me back to my uni days when things were easy and the only planning we did was whether we would be going out on Wednesday and Friday or save our pennies and just go super hard on Saturday.

When this song comes on I think of dancing around my tiny room with a glass of the cheapest rose wine I could find in Tesco, trying desperately to draw a straight(ish) cat eye with my liquid liner.

Ah, good times.

3. Sarah McLachlan - River



Okay, so this is a lot more mellow than the other entries so far.

But I love this song.

Seriously.

I don't know what it is.  I kind of like melancholy songs anyway and the lyrics came at a really poignant time for me.  Plus I have a thing for Christmas music so this is just ticking all the boxes.

The piano in this song is so elegant and the song doesn't rely on much more than the melody and the lovely tone of McLachlan's voice.

If you ever need a Christmas cry, this is the song for you.


4. Conchita Wurst - Rise Like A Phoenix



THIS. SONG.

If this comes on in the car, I almost lose my voice because I am singing with such gusto.

This feels like a James Bond theme with a sassy edge which I love.  This is a song with attitude and I Love it.  Capital 'L'.

For a Eurovision song entry I really think this was underrated in the charts.  I was so glad when the song won because I felt that it really did deserve more recognition.  (Also see The Common Linnets - Calm After The Storm.  Another epic Eurovision entry from 2014.)

Seriously, if you are not singing/shouting this by the end of the last verse and if you are not slightly out of breath then you have listened to it wrong.

Try again.

5. Uh Huh Her - Dreamer



This song played on an episode of Smallville (8x15 - Infamous for those that are interested).  It was a pretty sad scene in which we thought Lois and Clark were finally going to do something about all those feelings they were not-so-secretly harbouring for one another but then the writers (darn you, PTB!) let us down at the last minute.

It is one of those songs that was so perfect for the scene that it has stuck in my head ever since.

In other circumstances, I am not sure that I would have been so obsessed with it but at the time it was so wrapped up in the emotion of that particular scene and it felt so powerful.

I am a super fan of soundtracks/scores that are done well.

And so this song makes the list.


The above are just a few of the more random songs that have been stuck in my head either very recently or for quite some time.  There are, obviously, hundreds of others but most of those are Disney and people tend to glaze over when I start discussing Disney.

One of these faces or a combination of all three normally.

But hopefully you have been introduced to a couple of new artists or songs and if you like them then that is fantastic.  If not; no worries - everyone is different! (But you are wrong about Conchita Wurst. Seriously.)

Leave a comment with a song stuck in your head at the moment or any comments on the songs in this list.

For now, that is #MusicMonday and now, I'm off to listen to some more of my Reading Festival playlist.

Really though...2016? Yeah?

&&Fin.

If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It

That Time We Discussed Real World Change

What The Buzz: #DoItDay

So Monday afternoon rolled around once more and I found myself chewing absently on the nib of my pen, unbeknownst to me, ink smearing across my lips, and I suddenly realised that I had not looked into the trending topics of the week.

My bad, readers.

But, fortunately for us, I stumbled across the hashtag #DoItDay.  This intrigued me (mainly because the others were Star Trek, Remi Garde and School of Christmas.  Not that I have anything against Star Trek but I don't feel I know enough to do the fandom justice, I have no idea whether Remi Garde is a person or a delicious pastry and finally, I refuse to discuss the glorious festivity that is Christmas until the first week of December.  I mean really.)

So what is #DoItDay?

Do It Day - missed a trick by not using Shia LaBeouf tbh.

My internet research informs me that this is a day organised by The Drum.  I have tried to look into exactly what it is that The Drum does but the correct definition has proved frustratingly elusive.  The closest thing I could come up with was 'media branding'.  The Drum deals in marketing, media and advertising if their website is to be believed but it appears to have its fingers in many other pies.  There are articles, an awards ceremony, various insights into the marketing industry and, what we are looking at, the Do It Day.

This is not the first day that they have organised, previously came the Plan It Day (title seems somewhat self-explanatory).  The Do It Day brought together a plethora of global businesses in order to implement global change and show that changes for good can really happen in one day through the power of social media and marketing.  The activities were planned on the afore-mentioned Plan It Day and the results were posted on social media all day.

One of the most successful campaigns of the day was planting 10,000 trees which was a challenge set by Dennis Publishing.  The deal was, every time someone posted a picture of a tree or what a tree meant to them via email or tweet, a real tree was planted in the Heart of England forest.  An incredible challenge made even more amazing when you discover that they pulled it off.  Thanks to over 200 volunteers, this brief was filled and 10,000 new trees were planted on Monday 2nd November 2015.  This is an incredible accomplishment and something that The Drum and the other Partnered companies should be proud of.

This hashtag is also something that personally intrigues me as part of Team Socially-M which deals with social media for businesses.  Perhaps next year Team Socially-M will be involved in such a fantastic day.  Watch this space I guess!

I think the Do It Day is a great project and seems to have brought lots of big brands and companies together to be the change for 24 hours.  The organisation and the planning behind the challenges doesn't bear thinking about and the amount of volunteers that got involved definitely restores my faith in humanity.

And after a rather hellish Monday in the office, it's always nice to be reminded of the good in the world.

If you get a chance, check out more of the Do It Day challenges here and let me know in the comments which brief is your favourite.

Until next time, dear readers!

&&Fin.

We Do Not Seize Happiness But, Rather, It Seizes Us

That Time We Discussed What Happiness Means

What The Buzz: #MakeMondayBetterin3Words

Monday.  Potentially the most dreaded day of the week.

Unless of course you work in retail and have been slogging over the 'traditional weekend' until your day off.

But for the majority of us Monday is the worst day of the week.

The weekend is over, back to work or school, and it generally marks the passing of another week.  Ah, one step closer to the sweet release of death...

Ahem.

Since people are generally so miserable (on any day ending in 'y' really) it makes me happy that Twitter has such a positive trending topic.  It got me thinking about what happiness means to different people.  And I realised that mine is really very simple.

Happiness to me is very easy to come by.  I am a naturally happy person with happy people in my life, in a good job, am able to enjoy many (too many) hobbies and am really very privileged.  I know this and this is nothing new to me but it is worth reminding ourselves every now and then just how lucky we are to live the lives that we do.

Most people will have something in their lives to be happy about, something that makes their day a little bit easier and that should be celebrated.

So huzzah! Well done Twitter for reminding us that sometimes we really only need 3 words to make it seem that little bit brighter.

Here are a few of my favourites;

Netflix and chill #MakeMondayBetterIn3Words

— IYYASSS (@DN_Fckg_Care) October 12, 2015

#MakeMondayBetterIn3Words "order chinese food"

— alvira❁ (@motherdelhi) October 12, 2015

Joffrey's still dead. #MakeMondayBetterIn3Words

— Daenerys Targaryen (@Daenerys) October 12, 2015

#MakeMondayBetterIn3Words Someone Loves You

— Trevor Donovan (@TrevDon) October 12, 2015

Choose happiness today #MakeMondayBetterIn3Words pic.twitter.com/jQ3FwmJ3lO

— Theresa Caputo (@Theresacaputo) October 12, 2015

Or my Mother's addition when I asked her what would #MakeMondayBetterIn3Words: #call it Sunday

&&Fin.

...Because Nerds Like Us Are Allowed To Be Unironically Enthusiastic About Stuff

That Time I Was Super Excited for Comic-Con

MCM London Comic Con is fast approaching (23rd - 25th October 2015) and I am ridiculously excited.

Like can't-sleep-can't-focus-jump-up-and-down-pee-your-pants excited.

This will be my second time at Comic Con and my second attempt at cosplay.  When I went to MCM in May earlier this year, I had the best experience.  I cosplayed as a Weeping Angel with my friend joining me as the Doctor(!11). We knew our costumes were a bit rubbish, home made and last minute but we were determined to have a fantastic day.

We were gobsmacked at the reaction we received.

At one point we could barely move four or five feet without somebody requesting a photograph.  We were stunned and so humbled by the reaction.  And what was even more amazing was how lovely everyone was.

I don't care what anyone says; the nerd/geek community is the best.

Everyone was so warm and friendly and welcoming.  We got lots of hugs and chatted to all sorts of different people! I think I could have spent all day in the corridor talking to different people.

But, as it was our first time (snicker), we wanted to see as much of Comic Con as possible.

This was somewhat hampered by my entirely impractical and ridiculously over sized wings.  (These things were a monstrosity in all honesty.  They were too large by far and I don't know why I thought they would make for easy movement around a crowded expo hall).

In any event, it quickly became apparent that I (and my friend) were undeniably out of our depth.

We were both comfortable in our nerdom and so were fairly confident we would be able to establish which stalls and booths were dedicated to which fandom.  Comic Con proved us very, very wrong.

The stands and stalls and various talks/panels were all related to things that I had no idea about.  There were a few mainstream fandoms I could see skulking around but there was infinitely more that I had never even heard of.  It was incredible and I loved every second of it.  It fuelled a desire to go and find out what these fandoms were, who was involved and what medium they played out on.

In any event, I had a fantastic time at Comic Con in May and am now thoroughly excited to be attending again in a few short weeks.  I am hoping to take my new camera with me and film some of the day so keep your eyes peeled for that montage that will be appearing soon!

And just for your information...my Jareth the Goblin King cosplay is coming along nicely. ;) - pics will follow.

Oh.  Will they follow.

&&Fin.

Cyberspace; A Consensual Hallucination Experienced Daily By Billions

Day 1 - That Time I Decided That A New Year Meant A New Day Count

It is 2011 - a new year and new opportunities are waiting. I went home for Christmas and it was wonderful to be back. It made me realise how much I had missed my friends and family. It also made me realise how much I want a good degree and how I need to seriously get my act together if I am going to deserve one. I'm back in the Netherlands now and, after getting through my 'first day' chores (which included food shopping, showering, tidying my room etc etc), I have managed to study my week 1 War and Peace lecture slides.

This is a good start for me.

I was also struck recently by the realisation that the majority of my generation really don't know how to treat/communicate with other people. I was only home for 10 days and yet this applied to at least 3 separate occasions where I was left quite speechless because of other people's behaviour. And, before I sound like an old woman that is just taking a pop at the youth of today, it's not just people in my age category either. My University has been absolutely terrible in terms of keeping its placement students updated with what is happening at home/about second placements. I also had a telephone interview recently to work with some barristers and, not only did they call me over an hour late, they spoke to me for about 10 minutes and mostly about the fact that the man's parents were stuck in Heathrow.

It wasn't a particularly impressive display of professionalism.

In this day and age, with mobile phones and facebook and instant messages, people seem to have forgotten actual, conversational courtesy. I recognise that I am ranting about our dependence on technology in an online blog but when I was at home I refused to go online for longer than a few minutes to check my personal emails and then I went back to my family.

And, actually? It was rather liberating not checking facebook every few minutes, not trawling through junk mail in my inbox, not making idle small talk with people I haven't physically spoken to in over 3 years.

If I didn't think it would make me a complete social outcast, I would delete my facebook right now and be happy about it.

(This rash decision would later be followed with floods of tears since most of my photos are saved on facebook and not backed up anywhere else. So I'm just as dependent on the internet as the best (worst?) of them. Irony; thy name is facebook.)

&&Fin