My Talented Friends

Fun, Life

Know that feeling, where you hang around with talented people and it’s totally inspirational and then you buy a sketchbook on sale at Paperchase because money shouldn’t be a barrier to talent?

Anyway, I have a bunch of talented friends, and I’m constantly awed and inspired by the amazing things they do, so I thought I’d do a bit of a compilation listing of some of those people.

Firstly, the wonderful and talented people who run Northern Opera Group. This company is currently run on love and spare time, and they are still managing to turn out some of the most impressive shows I’ve ever seen. The next is The Wandering Scholar, and I look forward to seeing you there.

Want to read some awesome stuff about fashion, and disability, and a bunch of other stuff? My friend Gem has you covered. If there’s any blog/vlog to follow, it’s hers, because you’ll learn all of the things, also while being made to giggle.

Want a singer because REASONS? I know a lot of them to be fair, but I’d definitely recommend the lovely Heather Watson if you’re in the Leeds area.

Need some awesome photographs of your stuff and/also events? Try Pelly  & Me. Need a band for your stuff/also events? The Ashatones are 100% ridiculously talented. Proof.

Want to watch videos of actual magic on your phone? InadequateChris does that, and also other things, on Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube (so really all of social media I think probably)

Do you need a thing drawn? Literally, anything. A dinosaur? A face of a character from that book you just wrote? OTHER THINGS? Charli Vince is an awesome illustrator with exceptional style. Also look out for Charles Vincent Animation, horse-gif expert, coming soon.

Live in the US and are vegan/want to know about vegan places/want to eat vegan cake? Try Sugarloaf Bakery, or at least follow them on Instagram (particularly if your aim is to always feel hungry)

Want to go to a unique and alternative club night? I don’t really do that, so I won’t come with you, but I’d recommend Come Thru, because I think it’s what you’re looking for, and it’s run by my friend H among others, so you’re basically in for a good time.

I’ve definitely missed some amazing people off this list, but I really think this is a good start. If I’ve not included you then I’m super sorry, please don’t get mad, just tell me. Or don’t and be really passive-aggressive about it, while still piggybacking on this post for advertising (I generate great advertising, one time I got over 50 entire views, all of which were not my mum).

Holibobs

Life, Travel

I’ve been away for the Easter weekend. Let me take you there.

Imagine, the sunlight cascading lightly across your skin as you gaze out across the beach. It’s not busy, but there are plenty of people, and children shrieking as they play in the chilly sea. Glancing over your shoulder you can see back as far as the peaceful caravan park, and then beyond to the quaint village. As evening draws in, you wander to one of the array of beach-side restaurants for a quick supper and a glass of wine. On the walk home you admire the twinkling of the stars.

Now, drop that image entirely from your head, because I went on holiday to Skegness.

For anyone unfamiliar, Skegness is a coastal town next to the North Sea on the Lincolnshire coast in England. It could be everything mentioned in my description above and nothing more, but it has a claim to fame. Skegness was the site of the first Butlins Holiday resort.

Butlins are purveyors of the seaside holiday experience, which as Brits we are exceptionally proud of. Despite our seeming obsession with going to other countries, ruining them a bit, then coming back and complaining, we have an enduring attachment to the idea of the quaint seaside holiday which arose in the mid-1800s.

One might think the attraction of camping is to get away from it all, and experience nature without the hustle and bustle of other people. Not so at the British seaside holiday park. The name of the game is to get a fancy tin, put it as close as possible to as many other fancy tins as you can find, and then hide inside it for a week so you can complain about the nearby tins and their inhabitants while you struggle to stay warm.

None of this is to say that I didn’t have a nice time. Yes, I do think a youth (“youf”) may have threatened me as I arrived. Yes, I think a gang of girls shouted at me to “get back to Chelsea”. But none of that matters when you’re spending time with friends, even if it is in a rainy tin.

So I suppose today’s take-home message is get some friends, and if you don’t have them then I really wouldn’t recommend Skegness.

Songs to Sing To

Music

I’ve spent all afternoon singing, and I’ve no idea where the song choice came from. I do love a good sing though, so I thought today’s update could be the songs I most like to sing.

*Disclaimer. These are not songs I sing for other people. I will not sing for you. I am not a good singer. Yes, I know I did opera. Still not a singer, still not singing for you.

  1. Fly me to the Moon – Frank Sinatra.
    Who doesn’t love singing swing?
  2. Transatlanticism – Death Cab for Cutie.
    (Who was guessing how long I’d manage before a DCfC song?)
  3. Life in Letters – Lucy Scwartz
    To be honest, this is just a lovely tune.
  4. Angels – All Angels
    I love this version, and I definitely always try to sing all the parts. Also All Angels were just great and I definitely wanted to be them.
  5. Chained to the Rhythm – Katy Perry.
    Because how can you not really?
  6. Don’t Stop Believing – Journey
    HOLD ON TO THAT FEEEEEEEEEEELLINNNN
  7. Ferry Cross the Mersey – Gerry and the Pacemakers
    Or really anything from my mum’s 60s album. But mostly this.
  8. Eliza’s Aria – Elena Katz-Chernin
    The most fun piece of bank advert music ever.
  9. Swing Life Away – Rise Against
    I can’t help my age, ok.
  10. Don’t Cry for Me Argentina – Evita
    One of these at least was going to be a musical, and if we’re talking about a slow build and fantastic finale (which we are, obviously) then nothing comes close to this.

Story of my Life

Fun, Life

Sometimes I wonder who would play me in a film of my life, but then I think it’d probably be some relatively unknown recent graduate, because so far that’s the age I’ve reached, and also if anyone were to make a film of my life I think it’d be one of the shoestring experimental ones, not a blockbuster.

I’ve not led a blockbuster life (yet).

The older I get, the more I look at people around me and envy them for their life achievements. Not the sensible ones, like getting fancy jobs and houses and things, because I feel like those are all things which will come. I envy the ridiculous things, like winning an Olympic bronze medal for gymnastics, or speaking 14 languages by the age of 12. I hear about those things and think, what have I achieved.

Except, of course, I’ve achieved quite a lot, which is why eventually they’ll make a shoestring experimental film about my life. Starting with a small northern girl who loves to swim and sing, transitioning across living in North Africa, noting my EXTENSIVE family and general backstory on the way. Returning to the UK to experience all kinds of cool and edgy (pahaha) teenage experiences – a great role for an up-and-coming child actor, ideally with massive cheeks – and then on to the magical world of University, living abroad, and working in a students’ union.

It writes itself, that’s all I’m saying.

April Resolutions (2, return of April?)

Fun, Life

Those of you who know me will know I don’t buy into new years’ resolutions, because January is a terrible time of darkness and chubbiness and remembering you have to go back to work, so literally why would you also promise yourself some lies about running?

Instead, I’ve decided on the tradition of Aprils’ Resolutions. Because if you’re in the UK right now then you’ll know that today is GORGEOUS, and I feel like I can take on the world, and I’m wearing shorts and making pie, so we’re all set for some resolve. Firstly, a recap on last years’ stuff.

  1. I have cooked more. But less pizza. I think this time last year was the last time I made pizza. Hey ho.
  2. I have made many beautiful things in the last year, helped by having a “crafts” page in my bullet-journal.
  3. I resolved to enjoy my friends more, and I think I’ve achieved that to a certain extent. I’m certainly better at getting up of a morning to meet up, so I’ll call that a win.
  4. I have 0 plans. Resolution failed.
  5. Self-care y’all. I am bad at it, except for face masks because you can do a ton of chores while also looking terrifying to your loved ones. So I suppose we can count that as not a total loss?

So, what am I aiming for this year?

Firstly, I resolve to blog more. I know that’s super easy for me to say (because I have said it a lot of times before), but I want to hold myself to account a bit on this. Aside from anything else because I love it, and so should just do it more.

I resolve to listen to more things. There are so many great radio shows and podcasts, and music, and here I am still taking in content with my eyes like some kind of peasant. I’ve just been introduced to My Favourite Murder, and it’s creepy and great and I refuse to be judged.

I resolve to get healthier, by which I specifically do not mean doing more exercise. I may do more exercise, but I also want to walk more, eat better, and sleep better.

I resolve to spend more time on Twitter, because if I’m honest I really enjoy it, and it’s a bit hilarious, and it’s not as distracting as long-form internet so it’s really a good solution to that particular interest.

And finally, I resolve to cook more recipes. I have a bunch of recipe books but I’m just very bad at following written guidance, so I end up getting an idea and just mostly make it up. So. More actual recipes. They are almost always better than my attempts to redesign cuisine using only my quite minor GCSE food tech knowledge.

Socialite

Fun, Life

I’ve been trying to get to grips with social media, and I know that makes me sound somewhat older than I am, but bear with.

When I was about 10 (I think) I got my first phone. Said phone was small and orange, and I decorated it with nail varnish, and I don’t think it had snake because it wasn’t a nokia, but it had some snake-like game. I could text fairly quickly, mostly used full words, and only used one hand (because my phone was tiny, and who is using two thumbs to type, really).

A few years later Facebook blew up in the UK, and I refused to buy in at first because I had Bebo, which seemed to basically do the same thing, and MySpace, because I was alternative. Also, Facebook wanted you to say which university you were at, and I was 15 and therefore not at university.

Of course, it didn’t exactly take long for me to succumb, just like the rest of the “youth”. I wasn’t so easily lulled into Twitter, I only got that once I started working for a digital development company (where a colleague suggested I’d get sacked for not having it). This came about the same time as my first smartphone, and really I think it’s just spiraled from there.

Not badly spiraled. I haven’t tried all of the different forms of social media, of which there are now MANY. But if you wanted you could find me on twitter, possibly YouTube (not that I make my own videos), instagram, and snapchat.

Instagram I love, because it has enabled me to become a minorly less terrible photographer than I once was. I’ve never been good at photos, as this blog will attest because I have hardly any of Morocco or Spain. If only I’d had instagram with it’s various make-it-look-better settings, and the ability to pretend that strangers might be interested in the quirky (“quirky“) things I capture. It romanticises my terrible photographs further than I could have hoped or dreamed. I even take pictures of myself, though as far as I’m concerned the art of the selfie is for wizards with extending arms and an unnatural understanding of light.

Facebook is a bit creepy in all honesty. I think because I don’t really use it to communicate except by private message (which might as well be text), I just see other people’s lives pass by, and occasionally I get in someone else’s life and they acknowledge it on the internet through the wonder of tagging. My entire history feels so well catalogued now, in an incredibly imbalanced way.

Twitter catalogues the unbalanced side of my history, I feel. There’s a definite art to putting your thoughts into words, let alone a limited set, and so it really shines through what you considered to be important to share with the world in that second. Or, what you needed to get out of your head before it exploded. Or, how unfunny you are. Really any of the above. It’s also not very cool any more, which is fine because it’s full of shouting older people who think they’ve won the internet by tweeting, and I LOVE them.

YouTube and Snapchat are both a bit of a mystery to me. I ‘get’ how vlogs work, I just would never willingly film myself and then let other people see. It is totally great for learning how makeup works, however. Disappearing content I’m still getting my head round, but I do think I see the appeal – looking back over some of my social media history there are things I’d like to just vanish, but I don’t think I’m totally on board with actually making content designed not to last.

You know, because I write a blog.

Blogging feels like something quite other than social media. It’s something more outward than journalling, there is an implication of involving other people, but it’s also very private. There are drafts of posts on here which I’ll never finish, and some which I’ll never start. There are views I’ve shared which I’d probably entirely go back on now, but I shared them for a reason at the time, so committed to the page they stay. I think blogging is my favourite social media because really it’s quite anti-social, but it’s still inclusive.

So I guess what I’m saying is, thanks for joining me.

Can’t get no (decent) sleep

Language, Life

I know I’m blogging a lot recently, but don’t worry, soon I’ll find something else to amuse myself. It never lasts.

I’ve decided to define myself as a missomniac. I’m not an insomniac because that would mean that I have trouble sleeping, which I don’t. I’m great at sleeping. I sleep for hours. But then calling myself a somniac wouldn’t feel quite right either, because that’s just the logical opposite of insomniac, and so it doesn’t quite describe me. I’m a missomniac because I get plenty of really rubbish sleep. I am bad at sleep.

The internet (where the facts live, as we know) suggests that if you have a balanced sleep pattern then you go through 4-5 cycles of sleep a night, each of about 90 minutes. You begin in light sleep, then move to deep, then to REM. REM is the good bit, where the dreams happen,  and deep is the bit where you catalogue memories and generally recharge.

Deep and REM should be about 20% each of your night, and then light should be the other 60%. It depends on your age and various other things of course, but given I’m not an elderly lady or an infant, that should be about right.

So when I tell you that I get around 5 – 10% deep sleep per night, you can understand why I call myself bad at sleep.

Of course, I’m fairly used to sleeping “badly” at this point, but it’s still disappointing to wake up late on a weekend and feel no more refreshed than I do waking up early for work. Or worse, having days like today where I only really sleep just as I’m meant to be getting up, and then proceed to battle my own hair all the way to work because I had to rush and didn’t have time to dry it. It’s a drama.

Aside from the above, if you google my blog then it even knows that I have something dodgy and probably sleep-related going on.

Oh spirit! Sod off and let me sleep.

Brave New World

Language, Life, Work

(Two asides to begin with – If you haven’t read the book ‘Brave New World’ I really recommend it. Also this is my 497th post, and since I’ll totally miss whenever I hit 500 I’m celebrating now. Look at me and all my fancy internet writing)

Anyone who read my last post, or who knows me, or really has interacted with me in the vaguest way, knows I am a nerd through and through. So it is of no surprise that I’m very excited about Leeds Digital Festival. Aside from anything, I know it is happening, which is often a challenge for me – I hear about all the most exciting theatre shows as they close, or academic talks just the final ticket sells. I’m generally bad at “keeping up”.

Other reasons for my excitement about the Digital Festival revolve around the thrilling world of data protection law, and data in general. Not to mention WordPress, cybersecurity, and people doing cool things with code. I’m a big fan all round to be honest.

My previous job was heavily involved in digital, from web content and plugins through to data processing and SEO. I fell into it (as one does), and for me it’s been down the rabbit-hole of digital ever since. It’s a brand new language to explore, not just in terms of actual coding languages (which are a mystery to me, just like most other languages, see the origins of this blog for context) but in terms of the entire world of digital culture. Timeframes are different, the landscape is new, and the risks and rewards are somewhat crazy, but diverse and exciting.

I’m lucky, because I’ve managed to take a passing interest in digital and turn it into something that impacts my whole life, from this blog (which needs a new theme, I know, I know) through to embedding data analysis into my job (where it probably never belonged, but hey ho). And so the idea of getting together with the other digital nerds who like pretty graphs and confusing algorithms and the whole of our brave new world of digital, is slightly my idea of heaven.

Only friendly nerd comments welcome today, please and thankyou.

Geek/Nerd

Language, Life, Music

Boyfriend and I had a discussion about this the other day, essentially along the following lines. What is the difference between a geek and a nerd, and are we one or the other or both?

The answer is, I’m definitely both, and he’s probably only a geek. This is using my personal definition, and also the definition provided by the internet which states;

Geek/Nerd Debate

There is a difference between geeks and nerds.

Nerds are smart, people who lack much of a social life. They often have very few friends. Nerds don’t talk much, and don’t expect others to talk much to them. They are usually nice people, but don’t have the social skills to go out and meet new friends.

Geeks are different from nerds in the fact that they have social lives. However, these social lives are often spent pursuing some passion that the geek is obsessed with (i.e. Yu-Gi-Oh!). They spend all their time thinking about their one obsession, and play it in all of their free time. Geeks are usually only friends with other geeks, and attempts to converse with geeks is futile, unless, of course, you want to talk about Star Trek or whatever the certain geek is obsessed with.*

My definition is more that nerds are analogue, and geeks are digital. But I’ll take both.

Today, I met up with a friend from many many years ago (pre-blog era, so I mean, AGES AGO) and decided that I am well and truly both a geek and a nerd.

Evidence for this. My friend is internet famous and I think that’s really cool. Apparently, I’m the only person who has said this to him, though I’m presuming he means in real life and out-loud (because the whole point of being internet famous is really not to be real life).

I think it’s cool, because I’m a geek, by my own definition. I love digital, and people who digital well, and understand technology and make it do cool things. The furthest I might go is a blog, but guys, at least that’s something. I also like games, which seems to lead to automatic geek status (unless those games are football games, which don’t count).

Boyfriend is a geek because this is our crossover. We play games together, and watch videos of people playing games, and he tells me about coding and I’m genuinely interested. He’s also a geek by the internet definition, because he has friends who are also interested in games, as well as friends who are interested in Astrophysics (his other geek subject of choice)

Here’s where my nerd thing comes in. My interests are very diverse, and I can practically see Boyfriend’s brain switching off once the topic moves away from geekery and into nerdery. And because I’m a bit of a nerd, I don’t talk to as many people because of my lacking social skills (see internet definition above).

I’m nerdy about all kinds of things. I’m a language nerd, a governance nerd, a theatre nerd, a fantasy nerd. In terms of fulfilling the stereotype, I’m there, with bells on. I’m also initially shy on any of those topics, until it becomes clear that I should share absolutely everything I know about Celtic mythology, or whatever the topic is. Once that happens, I imagine I light up like some kind of insane ball of energy, and unleash fact after fact until someone calms me down or I tire myself out. Being a nerd is a definite lifestyle choice.

All of my conversations with my friend today were geeky or nerdy, and it was pretty wonderful to remember there are people out there who are as far down those roads (maybe) as I am. We ended the day sitting in a park, and it was really as if the 9 years since we last really saw each other just hadn’t happened. Here’s to more geekery and nerdery and friends.

*Side note: When did Urban Dictionary stop being full of offensive definitions of my name and become all about actually useful definitions? I don’t like this new modern world.

**Second side note, not referenced at all in the text above (I’m bad at this). I’ve spent all day with this in my head, which I think was popular when me and my friend were friends previously (shut up, I know what I’m saying).

You’re welcome.

Don’t get mad, get petulant and fix it

Life, Rant

I like to think that I’m not quick to anger, except for certain situations. I get very angry very quickly if someone is rude or inconsiderate, because I fundamentally believe there is no excuse or cause to make the people around you feel bad. But that aside, I’d say I have a long fuse.

So for me to say that I was furious ALL DAY today, is a fairly big deal in my books.

My fury stems from having spent a long time now watching something done badly. For weeks I’ve been plagued by that gnawing feeling you get when you see someone do something and think “why would that be the best way to go about that?” – not, to clarify, because anyone is doing anything wrong per se. I get this a lot with boyfriend though, when he cooks. You’re not wrong to put dry pasta into cold water and then let it heat up as the water boils. But WHY would you do that. W.H.Y.

This feeling provokes me into my worst bad habit, which is doing things which aren’t mine to do. Things in which I have no expertise other than the gnawing feeling that I could do them better. That feeling is a lie.

I took several things into my own hands today, and don’t for a second think it was the best use of my time, because it only  served to irritate me more, to the point where I ended my day petulantly insisting that I would move some barriers myself because I didn’t believe the builders would do it (under my watchful eye, the builders did it).

And this is really the sticking point, because like all habits, it’s difficult to give up when it actually scratches an itch. My itch is things not being done, and knowing that if I get petulant enough things will get done is a very dangerous motivator.

I guess what I’m saying is, I’m grumpy and I can’t be trusted to not tell builders what to do.