lenina is currently approx. 22 years old
Image via WikipediaDue to various circumstances I currently feel a HELL of a lot younger than what I in fact physically am. Various elements have triggered some kind of regression (well regression sounds negative, and it’s not negative). The main trigger has been finding out that Amanda Palmer is playing in Edinburgh and digging out her old CD (well the demo tapes that I burned onto CD), and that made me think of my (hot! but fucked up!) BF at the time, David.
Combine that with the fact that I’m getting a tattoo on the 19th, next to the one that both David and I had done (I’ll post a pic of a mock-up soon – it’s on the other computer and YES it is a thistle, but NEITHER of the ones I blogged about a year ago).
The other contributing factor has been reading Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook and my brain cranking slowly back into gear, also caused by starting a handwritten (w00t) diary again where I write down thoughts occasionally, mostly introspective ones. The great thing is of course that I have this fresh new lenina but combined with a settled, happy lenina (not the fucked up lenina from 12 years ago). Hence, I might be able to put the fresh lenina to good use, without getting self-absorbed and suicidal 
We’ll see what happens. I feel quite full of myself at the moment, probably expanding and taking up space. It’s like you nearly burst of happiness, instead of dragging yourself behind, aching.
New BBC iPlayer, new Firefox
Image via WikipediaJust now I’ve had a look at the new BBC iplayer site. Very much an improvement on the old one – you can now just go through the different channels, and a great bonus is that the radio stuff is now integrated too. Might even get me to start listening to the radio!
Though I was looking for The Tudors with tasty Jonathan Rhys Mayer, which I think started again this week but which I couldn’t find. Actually I think it’s back on from this Friday – that’s why I couldn’t find it 
Yes, the new BBC iPlayer site has been around for a month or so, but I don’t usually get ‘the latest’ things straight away.
See also Firefox 3. I only downloaded it the other day, and to my desktop (I still don’t have it on my laptop). So far so good – I’m sure extensive reviews have been posted elsewhere.
I’m also behind on other online stuff. These days I have upped my reading and game playing, and have reduced online time and watching TV. It seems not everything can be fitted in!
It’s quite good the way it is now. In fact last night I finished Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, which may free up some time. To be honest though, I may just start another book 
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The Wifebeater’s Argument
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeLast night my downstairs neighbour (P.) and her boyfriend AKA the wifebeater had another row. I was in bed and couldn’t sleep as the argument just went on an on (mainly him shouting). I then got up and went into the lounge (which is above their bedroom), hoping that walking around would reign them in and hopefully stop the wifebeater shouting and potentially hurting my neighbour.
As I sat on my sofa, I tried making out what it was the beater was shouting about. It was very difficult but every other word was ‘fucking’ (fucking this, fucking that), and, after nearly each sentence he would say ‘right?’ (this ending sentencens with ‘right’ is a Scottish thing I believe, though not sure. Tends to be used by people who are angry/aggressive and want to get their point across).
I’m pretty sure I overheard the following:
What have you ever done for me? OK you do my washing, but you don’t even have my dinner ready when I get in!!
FFS Wifebeater! She doesn’t just do your washing, you also fuck her whenever you want, and you beat her up when you feel like it. You can shout at her aggressively for half an hour and be mean and cruel, and use her as your emotional punchbag. I bet she gives damn good blow jobs too, and swallows. What else is it you want?
Twitter is cool but
I now understand the reason why I’ve never really got into Twitter, even though it’s a very cool app. I love the fact that it follows a one-to-many communication model, which is especially useful for people like me who don’t really bother with msn and ‘chatting’ in general.
Twitter, on the other hand: you don’t chat as such, instead you just ‘broadcast’ what you’re doing or anything you pick up on to whoever is interested (follows you). Result: Communication with no obligation to engage! Wow that sounds horrible – without having to then follow the etiquette of conversation (e.g. on msn you can’t just type a couple of things into the chat window – you then interact with that person. Plus you can only ever do it one-on-one, which is very time-consuming).
But herein also lies the problem with Twitter and my use thereof. I don’t know anyone apart from anaj who uses Twitter. None of my friends work in new media/marketing or anything remotely similar, and with some I still communicate via regular email (not even msn/Skype!).
Thus, I need to find some peeps that do use it. I might just randomly search for people and start following them. Then we’ll see what happens. I definitely want to keep using Twitter as I like it for the reasons above; however, there may be no point due to the fact that I’m writing into empty space with hardly anyone noticing 
(sounds like this blog, come to think of it 
).
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Shout Out To Amanda Palmer
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAmanda Palmer has a solo album out. Finally. I never liked her Dresden Dolls stuff much (well, it’s ok, but the best songs on the Dresden Dolls albums are those from her solo demo tapes).
I got into her when my BF at the time in Cologne, David, had gone to see a very early solo gig of hers and kinda struck up a friendship (must have been in 97 or 98 ) and got the demo tapes. Subsequently I burnt the demo tapes via my PC onto CD (terrible quality unfortunately, lots of ‘rauschen’ that you can’t get rid of). The early demos were just her playing the piano, singing, with great lyrics (including self-mutilation, gender roles, people killing themselves, etc., but all in a positive way. I.e. she wasn’t whinging. A typical line is somthing like ‘I don’t think it’s right for a woman to breed for attention’).
In fact I’ve just dug out the CD with her demos on it and listening to it. I’m going to import the songs into my computer and see if I can clean them up a bit more.
So, shout out to her, and I’ve also found out on lastfm yesterday that she’s playing a gig in Edinburgh’s Cabaret Voltaire on September 30th. In fact I’ve just booked a ticket to go there. It’s only £12 which is incredible. Basically this lenina’s ‘insider tip’ in terms of gigs. Looking at lastfm and noticing that Coldplay are the no. 1 most listened to (their new album), and thinking how much they probably charge for gigs these days and how fucking easy this mainstream shite is. Just don’t make people think – wrap them in some soft sugary easy bubble wrap and coat them in pseudo depth.
I think I’m going to turn all radical again – well, what else is there to do?
Facebook Libel UK (£22000)
Interesting Guardian news story about Facebook libel case:
After Grant Raphael had a row with his old school friend Mathew Firsht, he wanted revenge. He disseminated a web of lies via Facebook, to cause Firsht stress and humiliation.
Yesterday Raphael was ordered by the high court in London to pay £22,000 damages to Firsht, after the freelance television cameraman created fake, malicious entries about the businessman.
Confidential details about Firsht’s whereabouts, activities and birthday were “laid bare” on the social networking website for 16 days after Raphael posted the false profiles.
Interesting because not the site publishing the content, i.e. Facebook, was made responsible, but the individual posting the fake entry! The legal situation in the UK isn’t that clear cut as there haven’t been that many test cases when it comes to Internet libel.
Not so good news then for moderation companies – one of their arguments for providing their service is to protect clients from issues such as libel. If the sites aren’t held responsible, then you don’t need to worry about moderation! Well other than for community friendliness and abuse etc.
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Wee Holiday 19-22 August
I’ve taken 19-22 August off so I can have a quick break. It’s the Maximo Park gig on the 18th so it’ll be great to have the next day off! I don’t have any concrete plans and I’m not going away – I think I just want to stay in Edinburgh, enjoy the festival, and maybe go on a day trip to the Highlands (where embarrassingly, I’ve never been!).
I’ll also do some touristy thing, maybe go and see Tantallon castle, or going back up the Fife coast to St Andrews as I didn’t have time to explore St. Andrews when we were there a few weeks ago.
The one thing I’m definitely going to do is having my thistle tattoo done. In fact last week-end I went to a tattooist to talk about motive, design, location, but they were really busy and asked me to come back again on a weekday evening (which I haven’t had the chance yet to do).
The tattooist place I went to is run by Poles. I fully trust that they’re
- going to do a great job (precise, attention to detail, doing things properly)
- won’t ‘rip me off’ i.e. overcharge
Yes, these are prejudices – they have no substance anyway. I have a really rubbish, thick and scarry tattoo that was done by a German woman (it was my first one ever, ages ago), and my best one was probably done by an Italian in Camden. I’m looking forward to the thistle though and identifying a good tattooist in Edinburgh. After all, knowing me, the thistle will awaken my desire for tats again and will get me going back for more
lenina is the best ebay Sniper
Yesterday I sniped on ebay to get a set of alloy wheels (4!) for £16. Starting price was 99p, and buy-it-now was £50. I reckon I did well. The seller says they need refurbishing and so forth, but I’m only interested in the wheels adding safety to my car, not in their prettiness etc.
The fun thing is how I went about it. The auction ended at 4.30PM and I knew beforehand I would be in a meeting just at that time. Since I no longer trusted this ebay sniper software (can’t remember what it’s called now), I thought I have to do it myself. So I borrowed a colleague’s watch and, while sitting in the meeting, kept an eye on the time. At approx. 4.28PM I apologised, saying I needed to go to the bathroom, rushed to my desk and started refreshing the auction (I had set up ebay and logged in before the meeting). 25seconds or so before the end I put in a bid of £25 – I had noticed the price had started going up so there was obviously at least one other sniper. However I was the best – the others must have only incremented by a smaller sum.
Here’s how to snipe if you really want something:
- don’t start minutes before the end of the auction, putting in only small incremental bids
- instead: wait till 25s or so before the end, and go in with your max bid then (as in: whatever highest amount you’re willing to pay)
- that way, you can zap all the other ‘last minute’ snipers who use the method of small incremental bids
And tonight after work, I’m driving straight to Glasgow to pick the wheels up – the seller is away on holiday from Friday so it’s got to be tonight. Not ideal but at least I can then get my car fitted with the wheels at the week-end.
Google Maps Car Spotted in Edinburgh
Image via WikipediaYesterday I saw a real life Google Maps car with a camera on its roof in Restalrig Road, Edinburgh, at around 1.45PM. I was driving, so I couldn’t take a picture, but scouring the net I came across some pics of what it looks like (see on the right. There’s also some photos of a Google maps car being busted on Flickr ).
These cars film locations around the world for Google Street View, the idea being that users can ‘view parts of selected cities … at ground level’ (according to Wikipedia). It’ll be interesting to see if the camera on top of this Google Maps car was switched on – if yes, my car might be on it! though I’m not sure as to the value of Restalrig Road – but it was driving towards Leith Links so definitely some pretty views there.
Incidentally, I wonder what it takes to be a ‘google maps’ driver, and how these people got their jobs. Probably some students. I would be great at it – I know Edinburgh really well and I’m a good driver
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lenina is being Headhunted
Well, not quite. But for the third time since February, I’ve been approached about a possible job opportunity. this time via LinkedIn. It’s quite exciting and links to my thinking about spreading myself horizontally a bit more (online! filthy minds!). All this despite the fact that my online spread isn’t that good at the moment and it’s definitely on my ToDo list for, say, the next few months.
The thing is that I don’t really want to leave my current job as such. I still enjoy it, it’s close to where I live, and it does have some good perks (money is good too). However, there is a frustration in that I’m not in a position with a lot of influence or power. I’m not used to having to justify what I do and to make a business case for every single thing (having to justify why we need Firefox for instance, when all they had was IE6 FFS). They’re not very progressive and it stifles my creativity and my mind. It’s like having to deal with slow people, or children, carefully explaining everything from the very beginning to people who don’t have a fucking clue.
So, I was going to stay because of the perks and the job security, because I like the product/my colleagues, and, because I can learn a lot after all (e.g. accepting people who have expertise in other areas, working together with them towards a common goal etc.). However, in moments where I’m banging my head against the wall or having to deal with ignorance and slowness, I feel held back and that my brain is withering away.
I ‘ve always been on the edge of whatever I do, and the success of a PhD means I have less respect for people who happen to be above me in the pecking order (basically I think I can do whatever they do and probably better). If I had a job where I had more responsibility and deciding power, and where people would trust that I deliver the goods, I think I’d be happier. I just don’t like answering to people too much, especially when they have no clue about my specific area of knowledge and expertise. It’s like me telling a car mechanic about alloy wheels.
I’m a bit more open to potentially being headhunted, then. It doesn’t have to be now – but I will work on my ‘personal brand’ and just keep my eyes open for whatever may come along.
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