Increase of Quality ‘Me-time’ and How to Use It

The first week in the new job has taught me one thing – I will have more time to myself. Whereas previously, I gave most of my time to other people and their needs (at work: everything, including my week-ends and evenings if a job needed finishing; at home: ‘running the house’, i.e. all household chores; my relationship: care and attention given to my BF), I now only have myself to think about, for most of the time.

I understand that some people thrive on just giving their time and life to other people, in fact this ‘nurturing’ is central to the hegemonic discourse of femininity (see also the concept of the ‘Angel in the House‘, a great and powerful influencing agent on a femininity that is submissive, nurturing, and selfless).

So, with the constant demands on my time and my person from all sides removed, I’m beginning to feel relieved. I still can’t quite believe it. I’m almost back to the way I was as a student in Cologne – in my own little world, where I am queen, and able to nurture and really look after myself.

It’s probably not the norm – there are people who need other people around them all the time, and who thrive on doing stuff for others. I’m not dissing them – but the last year has shown me that it clearly doesn’t work for me, as I wither away and get quite unhappy, instead of growing like a thistle.

All I have to do now is decide on how to use my increased quality me-time. For the moment, I’m not going to be creative and productive (though this is the eventual aim – to get back to producing and creating stuff). Instead, for now I’ll focus on increasing my intake of culture, which has been sorely neglected over the last year or so. As such, I will:

• play more videogames (just bought Oblivion yesterday)
• read more books (renewed my library pass last week)
• at the week-end: go out and explore, particularly, nature attractions and museums (note the recent news that art dealer Anthony d’Offay has given very cheaply his major art collection to the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, brilliant!)

Overall, I’m not going to stress myself over how to use my new-found freedom. I have a fair bit of catching up to do, so I’ll need to tickle my brain with various quality content, before I can even think of starting to create myself!

Ryanair to fly from Hahn to Edinburgh

Ryanair today announced that they are to have a new base in Edinburgh, with new routes to be added including Frankfurt (Hahn) – Edinburgh!

This is great news as it means that my mum and sister can come and visit me soon. The first (and only) time my mum visited, she landed in Prestwick.

There will also be some new Polish destinations – Krakow, Lodz, Poznan, and Wroclaw.

A user-generated comment on the Scotsman article reporting the story earlier today:

Well the flights to Poland will bring polish immigrants into Edinburgh to take Scots workers jobs and the Spanish flights will take Scots holidaymakers to Spain so less will spend their holidays in Edinburgh.

Shocking! But spot on. I have also done the evil, immigrant deed of taking a Scot worker’s job. So has my boss. And my friend. And his missus. And my colleague. And my PhD supervisor. And his colleague. And my friend’s friend. And an acquaintance of mine. And my friend’s ex-flatmate.

 

The IT Crowd

Today I had yet another run-in with IT

I phoned them to ask them to install Firefox on my computer, and their response was ‘this has to be signed off by your line manager… and we need to know the business reasons/benefits for it.’

Wow! The business reasons for using Firefox! When I’m struggling along with fucking IE6, a slow computer, and currently being tasked with updating the website, which can be tested just in IE6. I imagine I get on the IT crowd’s nerves. They are probably used to sitting on their bums all day, dealing with easy queries by a workforce stuck in 1999.

Anyway, enough ranting. I actually think I should make friends with the IT crowd. These are the guys that I can talk to on staff nights out, and I have to get my tech and computer talk quota from somewhere. It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting it from anywhere else

My Computer At Work

The computer I’m using at my new work only has 256MB RAM. It runs Windows XP Pro but only has IE6 installed as web browser. No Firefox, no nothing, and obviously I don’t have admin rights (though I asked for them on my first day  ).

It’s really difficult working with a machine like that – like working with someone who is slow and ineffective. My PhD methodology and theory centred on the philosophy of Actor-Network Theory, basically arguing that, rather than being two separate entities, human and machines form part of one agent-network. Machines e.g. computers can act through prescription – i.e. they prescribe what I can and can’t do. Agency is defined as the ability to cause effects, and is not essential but iterated.

Anyway, my latest machinic encounter at work just proves the point. To establish a good actor-network, the machine needs to be good. By that I mean it needs to be subordinated to me and my fast mind and fingers. It’s the same with people. One guy at my work speaks very slowly and it drives me insane!

New Job – First Day; Hard-Fi Gig

I was going to talk about my first day, but I’ll leave it till the end of the week so I have a proper and good first impression (I remember anaj blogging very early on in a new job, saying she’s loving it, only to quit a few weeks later ).

Just after the induction with my new boss I got a phone call from stv (Scottish TV), telling me I’d won tickets to a Hard-Fi gig that same evening. Brilliant. For myself and one person. I sent a few texts round, but it was too short notice so I went by myself. The gig was part of Rock against Racism, though this was unfortunately not contextualised or talked about much. I would have liked to see the bands or announcers talk a little bit about racism in Scotland today (e.g. against Polish people) or at least give out some more information.

Instead, it was just a free gig, and the people in the audience looked all like regular Scottish white people. So, the opportunity of having Hard-Fi playing and the kind of publicity and interest this attracts should have been utilised more to educate about racism. Probably a wasted opportunity there.

New Job Starting Tomorrow

My new job is starting tomorrow, and I haven’t managed to relaunch my blog yet

It’ll have to wait until… eh… dunno. I still haven’t had a full day off, by that I mean a full day to myself to just do what the hell I like! E.g. staying in bed all day reading, playing games, just doing nothing. Basically, not having to do anything

These last few days I’ve been tidying up and sorting my flat out, paying bills, shopping, seeing friends, etc. Last night before I went out I also finished Kingdom Hearts II. – a game which I hadn’t played in over a year! All that was left on it was the final boss battle, and I got straight into it and managed to do it first time round. I.e. my hand-eye coordination and gaming skills have really been refreshed through playing Ratchet and Clank – Tools of Destruction. Tonight, I’m going to try Shadow of the Colossus – I started it last night but it’s a bit strange and there are puzzles and strange stuff going on, so it’s not as straight-forward as my preferred genre – platformers.

As for the job, my new employer sent a huge list of things I am to bring tomorrow – amongst other things, my original educational certificates! I’ve never had to do that before. I’ve actually got all my three degree certificates (BA, MA, PhD)  framed in my hallway and can’t be bothered to take them out of their frames (too fiddly) – so I’m just taking them framed. I hope it’s just for ‘proof’ and they won’t want to photocopy them or anything.

I’m also taking my driving license – which is funny as my pic is from when I was 18 and look like an evil punk with full make up and red/green hair

Overall, I’m prepared for it – in fact slightly excited as I’m absolutely ready to do something new

Web 2.0 Peaked in 2007

I’m going to say something controversial today. The goldrush of web 2.0 is over. 2007 was the year of Facebook, and of brands latching on to social media, desperate to get a slice of the action.

Now, everyone seems to have sobered up a bit. Facebook is seeing a decline in its users, while YouTube have announced the arrival of video ads.

Having worked in social media optimisation for the last year or so, I can see a change from ‘goldrush’ mentality – where clients let us get on with it, using our expertise of online spaces to devise the best strategy for their campaigns – to their asking more questions – how can you measure social media campaigns, how can you prove its impact, etc. etc. I.e. clients now want to see proof over and above the hype. They want to know what it is they’re actually getting, and, what we’re actually doing. This article has a few pointers on how to provide social media measurements.

Because of companies such as my last workplace, and the need for social media sites such as Facebook to actually make money (Social Ads…), brands now increasingly and aggressively enter the formerly ’secluded’ social spaces and are trying to get a piece of you and me. That in itself will make it less attractive – I for one try to get away from ads, and wherever ads go, I leave (ironic really, as my last and new job will be in the same business of getting ‘my’ brands out there, and into your face).

Mark my words: 2008 will see not the end of the web 2.0 hype, but it will continue to slow down and move towards integration from overhyped, overbuzzed ‘anything can go’ to becoming more part of other media. Social media will turn from the new into the old. Brands will continue to move in and commercialise those online spaces, making them less attractive places to hangout in.

The next big thing must be just around the corner!

HTML Knowledge is Useful

I’m an old school HTML coder. Well, I hardly ever create websites these days, but I used to in the days of Allaire’s HomeSite. I loved that program!

Adding the blog ‘widget’ the other day for the ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’ – campaign made me think that I want to always have at least one campaign that I’m supporting. I know my blog is not that popular (high traffic is mainly due to porn); however, a lot of accidental traffic does seem to end up on here, so I might as well raise awareness of something while I’m at it

The thing is, you don’t have to ‘find’ an actual widget if the site you want to support doesn’t have one. What I’ve done in the case of Freerice is simply nick a banner off their website, and embed a link (“target = _blank”) to their site. All this was done within WordPress’ text widget, which you can use for all sorts of good stuff.

My first thought was to create a link to a Free Grooverider – campaign (blogged about here), but I haven’t found any such site yet.

The whole point of this post though is that HTML knowledge is very useful indeed, and I’m glad that I learnt it before Dreamweaver and WYSIWYG etc. I even downloaded the free version of CoffeeCup the other day, as I wanted to make some changes on my PhD – website. To my delight I discovered that, while WYSIWYG is disabled in the free version, source code editing works fine, and all changes were quickly and efficiently made

If I didn’t know about HTML I would have had a problem (bearing in mind that I’m by no means a web designer… I wouldn’t take on a job ‘doing a website’ for anyone these days; I don’t feel I have the up-to-date skills or knowledge required).

Blog Relaunch

I mean to relaunch my blog today, but haven’t got round to doing it. Went to IKEA today to buy a nice workstation, and have spent all evening putting it together!

Tomorrow I’m sorting out some banking stuff, and I’ll be getting a book out of the library in preparation for my new job, which starts on Monday.

It’s very wild up here, extremely windy and beautiful.

Pic 1: Flags on the right just as you drive into Scotland (A1)

Pic 2: ‘Welcome to Scotland’ – sign on the Scotland/England border (A1)

George Galloway commenting LIVE on Fidel Castro’s stepping down

George Galloway was wicked last night in a Channel 4 – news live interview (the 7pm news). He accused Ch 4’s coverage of the story as Fox News propaganda, and in his excellent polemic attacked the US for their 50-year-embargo on Cuba. It’s good to see that Socialism is alive and well, and I actually really like George Galloway (and that’s not just because he’s a Scot ). Almost makes me want to join his party

Either way, someone has kindly already uploaded the footage onto youtube, and I hope loads of people are going to watch it!