Constitutions-R-Us

The recent Irish blogosphere activity on "the family", victim impact statements, random breathtesting, etc has set me thinking. Why is it that every reasonable and sensible thing seems to be unconstitutional or at least require a constitutional amendment? Clearly having a document that articulates the collective beliefs of a nation is extremely valuable - provided that it reflects the views of all Irish people. And I appreciate that one of the best features of a constitution is that it can't be easily changed.

Of course our constitution was drafted in a very different era. We'd hardly cast of the protective cloak that was the gift of our colonial neighbours. We'd no view on separation of Church and State ; Most of our people were of one Christian religion or none ; We were all (largely) the one colour. No one had sex and certainly not sex of a homosexual kind ; Women were too busy holding the home together to join the our men folk in the smoking room to discuss politics. We viewed the Travelling community as a large European family on an extended holiday in Ireland. Indeed mainland Europe was a strange and alien place to where our best writers decamped and we'd never countenance anyone from there willing wanting to come to Ireland to work. US FDI was unimaginable.

It is clear that if we were to start writing our constitution today, we wouldn't be starting from the same point. And then there is the issue of multiple amendments. Clearly any document that is repeatedly modified soon starts to look a little threadbare. Maybe it is time to take a blank page (*) and draft our new 21st century constitution. We could write up a document based on all those things that we agree on rather than on taking one narrow perspective and trying to modify it to make it more generally acceptable. If journalists write the first draft of history, then perhaps bloggers should write the first draft of our new constitution?

Paige

(*) Like the subliminal advertising?

He's Back!

Those of you who, like me, enjoy pursuing the "Agh sure ya know yerself" blog, will be pleased to learn that JL Pagano has returned from his sabbatical.
Welcome back JL.
Paige

Lets Hear it for the Family

If all that it takes for evil & prejudice to thrive is for tolerant people to do nothing, perhaps it's time for those of us not directly affected to do something.

I've a stock question that I ask of canvassing politicians who come to my door imploring me to give them my number one preference. I ask "What are you going to do about queues in A&E?" Most eagar would-be electees give me some guff about putting more money into the health service and adding a rider that it will be directed towards front line staff not administrators. I thank them for their considered opinion and they depart convinced that they have my vote.

At the last election, the person who told me that the problems of the health service were complex, required taking on vested interests (consultants, nurse unions, etc) and that an enterprise spending €10 billion per annum of my money should have its far share of admininstration staff, got my vote. You see, if I want someone to make decisions on my behalf, I want them to be informed and courageous.

I'm thinking of changing my question to "Where do you stand on family issues and this whole gay marriage lark" whilst projecting an image of a happy, content and conventional marriage. Anyone who defends the right of all peoples to be equally treated and argues that marriage isn't just for heterosexuals like me will probably get my vote. If he/she goes as far as quoting the ideals of a republic for all peoples, his/her running mate will get my number 2 regardless of their party's economic policies.

I don't know the issues well enough. I've been remiss in not reading this subject. But I intend to start. Check out Fiona and London Denizen and start asking questions.
Paige.

Dear Pat

Dear Pat Kenny,
It's Wednesday so no doubt you and your crew of researchers are busy putting together your line up for this weeks Late Late Show. I've no doubt that the Robert Hoolahan murder case will feature prominently. I'm sure that you are furiously working the contacts so that the nation can voyeuristically watch brave and heartbroken parents relive their worst nightmare for the benefit of TV ratings. Perhaps you'll be really brave and look at the case from the perspective of the O'Donoghue family. Whatever angle you take, I don't think that any good will be served.

So could you just do me a favour? Can you give both sides a break? Just leave them in peace to mourn their loss. I'm sure that there is some second rate soap star only too willing to be interviewed about his/her battle with the booze.

With thanks,
Paige

All Time Sports Hero

I was unfortunate enough to catch the tail end of the Gerry Ryan "Ireland's All Time Sports Hero" (or whatever it was called.) I usually would use Mr Ryan on television as a useful proxy for "should be avoided like the plague" but I'm a sucker for those list programmes. (Which is probably why all TV stations are now doing them. You can turn them out at no additional cost to the station.) ( I still haven't gotten over the Top 100 movie stars count down on Channel 4 which climaxed at midnight with, much to my chagrin, Al Pacino pipping Bob De Niro to the top accolade.

This aforementioned RTE programme pulled a similar stunt by incredulously proclaiming Roy Keane as a greater sporting hero than Sonia O'Sullivan. I've decided not to blog this one right now, 'cos I'm still fuming. Sonia has been the greatest Irish sportsperson ever. Consistently of the highest calibre and has experienced more than her fair share of lows (drug taking Chinese opponents, gastroenteritis in Atlanta, etc). Her grace, dignity & determination are an inspiration to everyone regardless of their sports capabilities. She remains the only sportsperson who makes me proud to say I'm Irish.

I may have missed it, but I've never seen Sonia cythe Gabriella Szabo with a vicious tackle and rely in her biography later that she "hit her fucking hard". Never heard that the former world champion had walked out on the Irish team 'cos the track was too hard in the pre-tournament holiday camp. Sonia never complained about the less than state-of-the-art national atheletics facilities. And to the best of my knowledge, she doesn't cruelly walk her dog with a Sky Sports camera crew in tow at moments of personal crisis.

But I'll address this one when I'm less annoyed.
Paige

Irish Blog Awards

Nominations for Irish Blog Awards close at 8am on January 23rd so if you haven't done so already get your suggestions in now to Damien.

Categories include :-

• Best Blogger
• Best Blog Post
• Most Humorous Post
• Best Photo Blog
• Best Fictional Piece in a Blog
• Best Arts and Culture Blog
• Best Political Blog
• Best Group Blog
• Best Blog by a girl called Paige
• Best Comment/Commenter
• Best Personal Blog
• Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog
• Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere (Tech wise)

Can't think of someone to nominate? Shame on you! Might I suggest JL Pagano at Ah sure ya know yerself as Best Blogger?

Milk of Human Kindness

Like navigating around the London Underground system, the trick, I’ve discovered, to get the best out of Irish radio, is to know when to change stations.  Sometimes its best to change early to avoid subsequent disappointment.  Other times it makes sense to ignore the schedule and just go with the flow.  Continuing to listen to Newstalk, after the Dunphy show ends, is like taking the wrong spur on the Northern line.  Staying on until the Orla Barry show is akin to ending up at Hendon rather than Finchley Central.  Both are bleak, soulless experiences designed to push you over the edge.

Ray Darcy’s chirpiness isn’t everyone’s cup of skinny late with two espresso shots.  But I just love the optimistic note his programme strikes.  I rarely fail to be shaken from some stupid pointless downer that I’m on, by his boyish humour.  And so it was today, where Ray invited listeners to share with the nation (anonymously if preferred) their most embarrassing faux pas.  Now I know that this is hardly earth-shattering radio, but it can be damn enjoyable.  (In fairness to Orla, the conversation around single teenage fathers’ rights is a laudable piece.  It would have just been better if it had been covered by someone who gave the impression that she cared or even knew what she was talking about.)

Rather than spend an age texting my anecdote only for it to be ignored by the Today FM switchboard, I thought I’d share it with those who really matter, my blog buddies.

Several years ago, whilst working in a London office, I was tasked with showing an interviewee around before he saw the Director of IT and the Chief Financial Officer.  Being an office junior, and having only recently navigated that hurdle, I felt more than a little empathy with the enthusiastic young man from Bedford.  With his bright new tie, lemon shirt and charcoal coloured suit, he was clearly pushing the boat out for this job opportunity.  I did my best to relax the boy short of offering him a shoulder massage.  Although it was only 2:30pm and the place would have just cleared after the lunch break, I took him to the communal tea area for a cup of tea.  I recall I had to come all Mrs Doyle-esque in order to persuade him that it would be okay to take such an early tea break.  

In his honour, I cracked open a new box of Tetley’s finest.  Knowing that the carton of milk that sat on the worktop had probably been sitting in the sunlight all morning, I got some fresh milk out of the fridge.  Now, although with no more than 20 workers, our office insisted in ordering huge quantities of milk.  (Much to the delight of one licentious colleague that I’ve blogged about before.)  As a result, the UHT cartons in the fridge could have been there for several days.  I took one that was lying on its side on the bottom shelf and the was within its Best Before date.  Taking it out of the fridge with a dramatic flourish, I inverted the carton vigorously several times.  What I didn’t know was that this carton had been opened previously.  To this day, I don’t know how the contents had managed to stay inside whilst it lay on its side in the fridge.  Nevertheless, I managed to twice throw the contents over the poor interviewee before I notice my error.  

I’m sure he thought twice about having this demented Irish as a co-worker, however he never got the chance.   Perhaps it was the milk stain on his charcoal suit or maybe he just didn’t have the necessary skills set?  Either way the poor lad didn’t get a second round interview.  Which is probably just a well, because I’m sure that his suit would never have been cleaned in time.

So if you are that young man, whose career was blighted by a milk shake before it had a chanced to take off,  I’m really, really sorry!

Prevention better than cure

Ireland has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in Europe and while we know screening saves lives, Ireland has no national screening programme. The Irish Cancer Society is lobbying Government to urgently implement a free nationwide screening programme for cervical cancer.

If you've nothing better to do, why not take the 5 seconds required to sign-up to the ICS's petition.

What goes around, comes around

In this life in general, and in blogland in particular, we tend to focused on the negative. We rant and vent on all sorts of subjects, we offer criticism and counter arguments. There is just not enough people who praise and encourage. Which is what makes JL Pagano so special.

Since I started blogging a few short months ago, JL has inspired me with his brilliant "Ah sure ya know yerself" blog. He's inventive and interesting and so damned public spirited he makes me livid (excuse the in-joke). But more importantly, he has encourage my tentative baby blog steps with thoughtful, constructive comment. And I know that he does the same for many other bloggers.

And example of his enthusiastic encouragement can be found in his Shaggy Awards at his other blog. So while I think about writing my acceptance speech, lets give it up for JL and positive people like him. And while you are at it, lets lobby Irish Blogs for a special 2006 award for unselfish services to Blogland.

Paige

Education is such a pain in the back

St Stephen’s Green is a brilliant location to observe the world in all its rich diversity. Precise public servants stride purposefully towards their desks secure in the knowledge that the world is in perfect order. Slightly harassed working mothers scurry to their offices having fed, clothed and cherished their mites and despatched them to school with a good breakfast and a list of instructions to sustain them until they rendezvous. iPod-ladden young men place sell notes on international securities whilst sipping a skinny mocha and draw on a pre-labour nicotine fix. Young students lop reluctantly to their 9 o’clock lectures establishing in their own minds that they have nailed (a) the current fashion dictates (b) the Premiership results (c) The Frames’ most recent set list ; Reassuring themselves in the process that they won’t be a social pariah today at least. Nervous interviewees pace the perimeter rehearsing stock answers and while away 10 minutes so that they can arrive on time.

This morning another young commuter caught my eye. By her uniform she was bound for Loretto College and a life of promise fulfilled. Hence she must be at least four years of age but for her uniform, the tiny frame would suggest 2-3. (I’ve a young niece of three and of average height who would tower over this young scholar.) Perhaps she is one of those child prodigies you hear about – playing the piano at six and the viola at eighteen months. No doubt she is on her way to an early morning class in ancient Greek or a short tutorial on differential calculus. Whatever her intellectual challenge, this young academic trudged – for there can be no other verb more appropriate – gamely across the Green carrying on her back an enormous rucksack. This wasn’t your ordinary jansport one-size-fits-all, this seemed to have purpose-built extensions and probably requires planning permission in some EU states. It seemed filled to near bursting point and I hope, for her sake, that Loretto College’s junior infants are doing a once-off project involving large amounts of low density polystyrene foam. Her wee shoulder blades struggled to maintain their natural contours as she hauled – for there can be no other verb more appropriate – her load to school. Alongside her, in her Prince of Wales check suit and unfeasibly high heels, tottered Mummy. Resplendent in her Newbridge jewellery fashioned by Paul Costello from the remnants of a would-be fish knife, by contrast she carried a dainty Prada handbag. Actually when I say carried, she more swung it gaily around her little finger, cruelly highlighting the absence of weight to her heavily laden daughter.

I was nearly stopped in my tracks by this vision and I wanted to scream at the top of my voice, “Put down that miniature Motorola for a moment and look at what your daughter is struggling with! For the love of God, woman, do you want your child deformed before she is six? I doubt if slave labour in the most oppressive Indonesian sweat shop work their girls so hard! Take those pathetic excuses for earrings off and listen to your flesh and blood exhale her last breath!

But I didn’t, I just smiled a hello (I’ve taken Kaz’s advice to heart and it’s paying dividends) and wondered how many slide rules could you really fit into a Prada mini.

(Red Mum has a photo of St Stephen's Green that I love. I don't know what the etiquette for using other people's images, so I'll send you to her Flickr http://flickr.com/photos/redmum/sets/663106/)

It would nearly drive you to drink

It would nearly drive you to drink.

In his excellent recent novel The Rooms, Declan Lynch gives an interesting insight into the mindset of an alcoholic.  He makes an interesting distinction between someone who drinks a lot (like Shane McGowan) and someone that alcohol really transforms.  The latter is, in Declan Lynch’s book, an alcoholic.  So while Shane might be consuming more than is good for him, he isn’t an alcoholic.  Mr Lynch posits that Roy Keane probably is an alcoholic who is battling to stay off the sauce.  In the novel, he parallels the protagonist’s battle with alcohol and emotional crisis with Roy’s famous Saipan episode.

Roy has since experienced several more crises not the least the painful termination of his Manchester United career and yesterday’s inauspicious debut at Celtic.  Charles Kennedy, it seems, also has a well developed reputation for serious drinking.  I’ve still to hear Declan’s assessment if Kennedy is an alcoholic or just someone who drinks a lot.  Some commentators have noted that through his dignified departure, Kennedy has done a service to alcoholics everywhere.  But I’m not so sure that being sacked from a job you were doing really well because of your battle with alcohol, does alcoholics any favours.     

it set me thinking, imagine that instead of alcoholism, Kennedy developed another serious, but ultimately, treatable health problem.  I’d imagine that the Liberal Democrats would encourage their leader to go off and get himself healed and install the deputy leader Menzies Campbell as a caretaker leader.  Hounding the man out of office and in the process destroying his career forever doesn’t seem too liberal or very democratic.  But then, perhaps it’s just that alcoholics fail to face up to the reality that their drinking has become so destructive that they just can’t cut it anymore.  As two teenagers ran rings around him in a bobbly football field in Glasgow yesterday, I wonder did the penny drop with Roy?

All in all, its not been the best weekend for either man.  Enough to drive you to drink.

Hardest Working Mammy in Showbusiness

The problem with language is that it gets in the way of one's true expression.

Everyone knows that Mammy is not racist. She just greatly admires how one Irish folk band succeeded through a combination of talent and hard work. And so, when overcome with emotion at securing the Fianna Fail party nomination, she paid tribute to her constituency workers by liking their efforts to those of Mary, Frances & Co.

Speaking to reporters after the party convention, she is reported to have said "I'm delighted to have secured the party nomination. Sure I'm as happy as a sa.........."


Paige

Photo : www.buymusic.ie

Bloggers Digest : Blog Review Meme

Following on from the recent post about memes, chain mails and the like. I was sufficiently encouraged (*) to try to take this idea further. I've scribbled up some possible "rules" (see below) for general critique.

Not being too technically minded, someone might tell me that this sort of thing has already been or can't be done. That feedback is also welcomed.

On reflection, I don't think we need to ask anyone's permission. And even though I hate chains, in order to create a dynamic, it might help for each person to tag someone else by a blog for them to review. But just so we don't get burdened with the same tags, I thought about linking everything back to a single blog post.

(* okay so it was only Dunner & Kaz, but in my book that's encouragement!)

Draft Rules for Discussion

1. Select 5 different, unrelated blog sites that you don't normally visit.
2. Spend some time reviewing the content, comments, etc. and compose a short review article (suggested headings below)
3. In your review, include a link to the reviewed site and a link to this post.
4. Include the phrase "Reviewed by XXX for Irish Bloggers" at the end of your review article and include the number of sites reviewed (e.g. 4th review by blankpaige)
5. Leave a polite, thoughtful comment on the reviewed site, link to your review article and ask them to take up the challenge.
6. Encourage fellow bloggers to review as many or as few as they'd like
7. Be constructive and interesting in your review

Possible review criteria could include :-

• First Impressions
• Theme & Content
• Readability, Tone & Style
• Volume of Traffic
• Use of images, graphics
• Star Rating / Marks out of ten

Please tell me now if this is a stupid idea!

A small deficit is no great boast

I’ve become something of a Newstalk 106 FM fan.  Eamonn Dunphy’s programme continues to feature sufficiently interesting guests to allow me to tolerate his verbal diarrhoea.  I think George Hook’s programme is consistently brilliant – again despite (or is it because) of a less than word/thought-perfect host.  Listening to the lads chewing the cud on “Off the Ball” is like eavesdropping on two auld fellas in a bar in Tipperary. And there is nothing wrong with that.  I’ve even found my interest in things sporting has grown considerably – albeit from a rather low base.  It’s all a refreshing change from Moaning Ireland and the need to turn every interview into a major confrontation.

I had occasion to be headphone-ed uninterrupted for a large part of this morning and so was happy to indulge my Newstalk fix.  One topic of conversation was the “huge, unexpected budget surplus” that Minister Cowan has finished 2005 with.  The business news piece on this was nothing more than a playing to the galleries piece which could be summed up by their advice – to “Cut taxes including stealth one, so that we don’t end up with such an embarrassing surplus”.  One of Dunphy’s guests did point out that in fact there wasn’t a surplus just less of a deficit, but this didn’t stop Eamo repeating the misinformation three times in the same interview.  When Orla Barry opened her show with a mini-rant about this huge surplus, and how could CIE fare increases be justified in light of this, I knew it was time to switch off before I got really annoyed.

Now I’m no Economist and God knows I regularly make a haimes of my personal finances.  But even I know that if you are going to run budget deficits in “bad times” then you are going to need to run surpluses “in good times”.  I’ve no doubt that this Government are orchestrating a brilliant election year windfall for Joe Public.  And I feel that they should be held to account.  But could someone not ask why after 10 years of sustained Celtic Tiger performance we still haven’t run a budget surplus?  Why we’ve allowed the state of our public finances to be determined by something beyond Government control – consumer confidence?  When do we think we should start paying off Ireland Inc’s massive credit card bill?

I’d be happy to applaud Government sometimes for not throwing more money at problems.  Instead we criticise them not for being profligate but rather for not being sufficiently profligate.  It’s brilliant stuff this tabloid reportage!

Can you see the bag lady walking the streets of London?

Some years ago, I worked in a large office block in Central London ; A soul-destroying building with acres of cubicles.  I had many strange colleagues though I’m sure that they could have made the same claim!  But one female worker stood out among them.  She was a less than pleasant individual who arrived every day carrying a really large gym bag.  It was the sort of receptacle that you’d see a basketball-playing giant with a penchant for outsized things might be seen carrying his sweats in.  Her amble girth was enough of a giveaway that the bag did not carry her gym gear.  In fact, many of her colleagues speculated why she needed such a large and obviously empty bag.  

Being in my youth and partaking of London’s ample nightlife, I struggled to get in to work before 10 most weekdays and so was obliged to burn the midnight hours “making up” sufficient flexitime to allow me to take every third Friday off in lieu.  My bag-welding companion also kept similar anti-social hours – though for less obvious social reasons.  I think she’d be waiting for me to leave but invariably would give up about 10 minutes before I’d clock out.  Every evening she left with the same bag albeit obviously quite full.  

One of the reasons that the office was so soul-destroying was because you couldn’t put a stapler down without it going missing.  I used to have to tour regularly the major hotel conference centres in the locality picking up freebie pens for the stationery cupboard.  We also had a major problem with no loo-rolls, soap or handle towels in the ladies toilets.  Our male companions revealed similar sanitary supply issues.

Concerned at our escalating consumables spend, senior management put the squeeze on the security staff who come to view the girls on the floor as mule packs in some high level smuggling racquet.  Following an embarrassing altercation involving our new Human Resource Director on his first day, the security staff were prohibited from randomly searching our bags.  This led to more frustration on the part of the security men who began to despise our very existence.

Not once, did anyone but two and two together and finger our larcenous bag lady.  It would’nt have taken CSI Miami to prove beyond reasonable doubt the culprit.  I even did some covert investigations myself – checking the loos minutes before and after she left in the evening.  And low, our loo stocks were rapidly depleted in the five minute interval between spot checks.  

At this point I stopped sweating the small stuff.  I considered that Ffitch & Pfieper were not paying me enough to take on these additional crime scene investigation responsibilities as well as my own work.  I left that hell hole for completely unrelated reasons some time later and managed to survive the exit interview without spilling my superstitions to the still traumatised HR Manager.  To the best of my knowledge, the silent pilferer continued her blatant theft.  And I departed reassured that my former colleagues would have to reappraise their view of that “Irish girl” as the prime suspect.    

The Meme the Merrier

I know that I wrote last year about how I hate chain letters, e-mails and the like. Well the "5 weird habits of a successful blogger" meme that did the rounds before Christmas set me thinking. I realise that one of the benefits of this sort of instrument is that it promotes interaction between bloggers. Well it does after a fashion. But apart from going "you're it!" in someone's blog comments, it doesn't take a lot of effort on the part of the initiator, and hence on the part of the perpetrator.

I thought it might be interesting to try something that required a little bit more effort.

Say, for example, in order to be tagged, you had to review 5 different blogs. 5 of your own choosing, ones that you rarely land on. Then offer up a short critique/commentary on what you've read. It would need to be a positive contribution although it doesn't have to be complimentary. But anyone can be critical the trick is being constructively critical. I suppose as a courtesy, you'd need to check if someone was happy with being the subject of your review

At the end of the session, you'll have written on 5 different themes. Each individual will have relevant feedback and the community will have begun to compile a useful guide to Irish bloggerville.

What do you think?

Less than great expectations

Funny how your expectations can get revised so quickly. Yesterday, like my blog colleagues, I ponder my goals and targets for 2006.

- Lose weight?
- Spend more time with Tony?
- Leave work early?
- Get fit?
- Trek in the Scottish Highlands?
- Write my first novel?
- Quadruple my blog traffic?
- Learn to play the violin?
- Stop snogging my boss at work gigs?
- Rekindle my love affair with painting?
- Do some charity work - or at least something less self-centred than blogging?

Then 24 hours of blog silence. Not at solidary visit. Not a single comment. It's all one big reality check. Is there anybody out there?

Now my list for 2006 reads more like.

- Blog more often (I'll probably lose weight - and I'll probably increase the web traffic).
- Get Tony into blogging that way we'll spend more time together.
- Stay late in work so that I can blog on the cheap.
- If I blog while standing up, I'll probably get fitter. Won't I?
- Sod the Highlands, the painting, the violin and the novel, I'm not really that energetic or talented.
- Oscular interactions with my employer have been exclusively drink related. Stay off the gargle!
- Could you consider blogging as a form of charity work?

So yes, less than 24 hours later and my expectations for 2006 have all been reviewed downwards. Now all I want is to get nominated in someone's end of year "Best & Worst of Irish Blogs". I don't care about winning. An honourable mention will suffice.

Happy New Year, Y'all!

Paige

It's all about me !

I have to confess the run up to Christmas caught me a little unawares this year. I know that I'm never, ever as organised as I'd like. Each year I swear I'll start that little bit earlier and will be able to enjoy the run into the festive period in fine fettle. Of course it never happens. This year, Tony and I had a procession of work gigs that ran for six successive nights. It doesn't help that Tony freelances a lot and being the sociable fiend that he is, we get invited to all sorts of cool gigs.

I wanted to have a clear head. I wanted to stroll around Grafton Street, check out the live crib, have a coffee in Coocoon, a spritzer in the Westbury with my friends while everyone else was stressing the Mastercard. It just never really happened as I'd planned. Never got to have the mocha in the mall. Nevertheless it was an "interesting" Christmas this year. And if I get enough encouragement, I might even write about it some day.

One of the reasons that I started blogging was to convince myself I could discipline myself to write a few hundred words everyday on a specific subject. Convince myself and then convince my boss that I could do more than sub-edit dire prose submitted by illiterate, gin-sozzled hacks. At last year's christmas drinks, he told me that I had potential. And after we snogged, he said, all I need to do was convince myself, then convince him by regularly turning out articles each day. Now I know that he is full of shit, but I think people say what they really mean when pissed.

Of course, anyone who knows me, knows that me sub-editing anything is pretty laughable. Attention to punctuation, spelling and grammar detail just aint my strongest suits. Which kind of goes to show you just how fucked up the Irish print media really is. So I've stuck with it. Gone ahead compiling those useless classified listings that never get read, prepared stupid supporting tables that people gloss over. It's all drudgery, mindless list compilations. And to keep myself sane. I started writing 'articles'. Looking back at my body of work over the last 3 months, I realise that I've posted relatively few of the articles I wrote. I'm not such why this is the case. I felt that were just homework chores and not worthy of posting, I suppose.

I also realise that I have browsed a lot more than I've contributed. Read a lot more than I've written. This must be totally against the whole blogging principal. But I've got to say, I've been inspired by so many brilliant writers. And realise that my potential isnt' a lot to write home about. Still, got my customary christmas grope from the boss and he seems to have been happy
with my work!