Emma's Musings and Meanderings

Well the last few weeks have been hectic! My best friend got married last weekend, and it was fantastic. Poor darling broke her wrist a few days before but she had a great time. The whole weekend was a party. A good time had by all.

Myself and my friends have been helping her plan this for the last six months. I'm not sure what we'll do now, but to be honest, I'm kind of glad that for the next couple of weeks, I've nothing on my plate.

My plans involve sleep, sleep and a little more sleeping. I may throw in a side of dozing. Otherwise, all is well in Emma land. Which is good :)

Well it was every bit as good as I thought it'd be - in fact, it was better. We left Friday afternoon driving in convoy - I was driving behind the campervan. All went well and within an hour, we reached the outskirts of Stradbally and hit the inevitable traffic jam.

 

No worries, all was good. The partying had already started on the campervan. Traffic was moving so slowly, that people were popping back and forth to say hi and have a chat. The cars moved in fits and starts and on one memorable occassion I had one and a half passengers - the other half of her was dangling out the window (moving at about 5mph, she could've walked it faster)

 

Next thing we had to split up - cars one way, vans another. I went ahead, parked and waited....and waited....and waited. There was a terrible delay - the field for the vans was so muddy they had to be towed in. Finally they arrived. We set ourselves up, had a few drinks and went into the main arena.

 

Wow! The first thing I saw was a giant stage with acrobats, some kind of fire shooting machines and a DJ at the very top of a tower. It was incredible. Cue dancing, festivities and wandering around the huge venue.

 

Lots of different sections, different music, a 'Body & Soul' section, an Arts and Crafts area, a cottage made out of Peat Bog playing trad music. People in costumes, people covered in mud (mud was a bit of a feature), The Silent Disco - absolutely hilarious. I even nipped into the cinema tent for a gander. The carnival was avoided that night - mud pit is an understatement. I got seperated from my pals, but so much is happening, you really don't mind...luckily, I found one of them and we stuck together for the rest of the (late) night. After a few hours, back to the campsite for a last few drinks, a few laughs and some much needed sleep.

 

Saturday dawned dry luckily. All up early and raring to go. Into the venue much earlier. Met up with a lot of people, mostly by accident :) A visit to the Bacardi Tent for some truly delicious Mojitos. Ate some great food, chatted to total strangers about random nothingness and all in all had great fun. Brief break back to the campsite before heading back in for the evening. Madness played the main stage and were FANTASTIC! Had an absolute ball. Another late one rounded off by yet more drinks at the campsite :)

 

Sunday it rained, and rained and then rained some more. Having partied for about 48hours at this point, I decided to call it a day. Packed up and headed home - with my car full of other people who were done. No traffic, home in an hour and oh the shower was bliss!

 

Still a little tired, but already looking forward to next years Electric Picnic!!!

Electric Picnic is this weekend and I can't wait. It's a music and arts festival where there's always something to do. I love this weekend. It's a total switch off from real life - you get there, you disconnect and indulge in music, art, comedy, cinema, political debate - whatever you fancy you can find it, or so it seems.

Work has been so hectic, and away from work, there has been a lot going on. So this weekend is coming right when I need it. The campervan is hired, the tents are ready. My ticket is long paid for - I bought it nearly a year ago!

So I'm going to go and I'm going to listen to music that's too loud and meet strange people, and drink too much and eat weird and wonderful cuisine from all over the world (it's the one festival where you can guarantee the food will be good as it has a stage of its own) and I'll spend time with friends - people I've known for years, who let me be me, and I am going to totally relax.

All the day-to-day stuff will be here when I get back, but for 3 days and nights, I get to ignore it as if it wasn't. Life is good when it offers up these little slices of pure pleasure.

I've been working on the same project now for a few weeks and every time I'm nearly finished I'm realising that it's just not good enough.
So far there have been 4 (oh yeah 4) versions - and when you're talking about a 60 page brochure...well that is a ridiculous amount of work.
I have resized, rejigged and photoshopped images, rewritten vast amounts of text and the fun with tables, shading, strokes, gradients - well that's just a laugh riot.
Anyway...I finally arrived at the final version today (and it is final, I'll end up giggling maniacally in a corner otherwise) only to remember that a) I haven't incorporated the design for web into this launch (more work) and b) there is a few sections of that site still needing to be finished which I've been ignoring for a few weeks!
Time to pull the hair out. My laptop and I are going to be even closer than ever over the next while...

I am sure that somebody, somewhere else has discussed this - make that many people, in many places - but, when did it become cool to appear to have left your brain behind?

I'm not perfect nor am I a genius, but I do believe I have a reasonable working brain. I can read and write, I can carry on a conversation. Yes I have the benefit of a pretty decent education, but the kind of thing I'm talking about has little to do with academic achievement. It has become more and more apparent that there is a whole group of people out there who believe that pretty and dumb is not just acceptable, but is a valid goal.

I'm talking about the people who communicate solely by "text speak". (Now I am something of a purist when it comes to language but I do accept that language is fluid; it grows, changes and evolves over time.) My issue is where it is used when it is entirely inappropriate - I swear sometimes I can almost see the hair twirling and giggles IN a post on a board, a comment on a website, a line of a blog.

I'm talking about the person who, when a serious topic of conversation arises, giggles and declares that they know nothing about that. Do I know everything about everything then? Of course not, but it is the manner of the declaration - they are downright PROUD not to have any awareness of anything it seems.

When this happens and it's a teenager, it is sad. It's also hopefully just a phase, although I fear for them somewhat. What is far worse is when it is one of my peers. Most of my friends are late 20s/early 30s. When it happens then, I find it really appalling - particularly as some of these people are well educated professionals who, by their achievements to date, have a demonstrably working brain.

Why? When did this happen? Yes you can point to celebrities who have made careers out of appearing to be idiots, but really, shouldn't you be past relying on celebrities as role models at that age?

There are a few things about this that I've noticed. The first is that this phenomenon seems to mostly manifest in the women I know (or girls as they prefer to be known) and mostly in mixed company.

The second is that some of the guys that I know seem to buy into it. So clearly, these 'girls' are getting positive feedback when they act this way.

The third, is that although it is mostly the women, the men are getting in on the act too, which while occasionally entertaining -  'No, no, I'm more stupid than you are!' - is equally depressing.

Personally the notion of 'dumbing myself down' to appear more attractive to a man a) is ridiculous to me and b) makes the man for whom I'd need to do it unappealing to me - I appreciate a guy who can have a conversation. Furthermore, it's deceitful, which is always a bad thing in my book - what happens when the other person figures out you are not the airhead you've presented yourself as?

I'm curious about how others feel about this, so any and all comments would be appreciated. Yep, rant over :)

 

 

It's not a sudden realisation, but having been deprived of it for way too many weeks; it's incredible to get an awareness of how much you rely on it! What's on in the cinema? No clue, no internet. How do you make such and such? Hang on I'll Google...er no I won't.

I first started using the 'net on a regular basis over 10 years ago now. I was still in school and it was handy for researching. At that time, it was a bit of drama...dial up connection, error messages, sites lagging, all were commonplace. Google wasn't even around when I was painstakingly searching the web. There was also a clear distinction between 'good' and 'bad' websites - the former were usable, the latter were not!

So during my time of disconnect, I got to ponder on the things I was missing. FT was definitely one of them - for me it's one of the sites I hit almost everyday, even if it's just to say hi to some of the great people I've met on here. Online banking, whats on where and a couple of online retailers also featured in my frustration.

Strangely enough though it was the random things that made me really nuts - with the other sites I could take a bit of time out of my work day to drop in...but when you're standing in your kitchen with a bit of broccoli, a couple of mushrooms, some chicken and random other bits in your I-haven't-shopped-yet cupboard, the ability to get online and look for a recipe that isn't another stir fry is very very upsetting! :)

So I got reconnected last Friday, just in time for a long weekend here in Ireland. There was serious joy. I considered sending the technician flowers and offering him my firstborn. (I don't have a first or any other number born, but it was his if he wanted it) There was an actual happy dance, and a song that went something like "I've got my net back, nah nah nah nah nah" - complicated lyrics were beyond my joy-filled little soul.

I spent the rest of that night researching a quiz that I'd been putting together as part of the author challenges. I had my ideas, the question outlines, but the fine details and some of the interesting info needed to be fleshed out - and I'd gotten as far as I could with the books I have on the subject. So I searched and researched to my hearts content...and finally got my quiz finished. It was very similar to the way I spent the very first night I connected to the internet way back when.

At that time, it was a paper for college that I was researching, and this time it was something much more for me, but it really brought home to me, in a way that I hadn't though of in a long time, just how much good information is out there.

Yes the 'net has it's flaws, some terrible sites, some terrible misinformation, but there really is a wealth of knowledge out there in the ether if you take the time to look. Personally I'm planning to take a little more time to do just that!

 

 

Well, I've moved at last and the giddiness is still there...only one teensy tiny problem. The delay in getting my internet connection set up. I've been in nearly three weeks now and while I do have my phone connected, still no broadband.

Every evening I creep home after work and peer at my little modem hoping against hope to see that lovely little green light glowing out at me...maybe this evening...maybe...no. Glumness.

I've tried whispering sweet nothings to my modem, giving it loving little pats and encouraging talks, but so far to no avail. I won't give up on it though...

Maybe it's a little angry with me, I did store it in a cardboard box, and gently wrapped it with packing, but maybe it missed the sunlight on it's face...

So as you can all clearly see, I'm going slightly mad (which let's face it, is really the only interesting way to be - although I should perhaps use the word madder) without my internet connection. Stealing a few minutes here and there at work is not the answer - I need to know that when random thoughts are persisting (what were the lyrics to that annoying 1980s juice drink thingy?)  that I can google till I just can't google no more.

In the meantime, I'll have to survive on slivers of time at my desk - good thing I have a lovely little office and nobody reading over my shoulder!

At last the house is looking house-like! There are wardrobes, a nearly functioning kitchen and a fireplace that I swear I'm going to sit and gaze at so happy be I over it!

Months of madness are coming to a close (uh oh, how do I explain my madness now! LOL) and the excitement level is off the charts. It's a bit of a strange experience...the outside is still pretty worn and dated looking (70's building at it's best) but step inside and it's a bit of a time warp!

All the frustration, insanity, and, dare I say it, the cash (renovating is like lighting money on fire as it turns out - disappears that fast) are now proving to be worth it. I LOVE it. I'm like a giddy kid, every time I see the place. Another week and it'll be ready to live in and another week after that, well, living in it will I be!

The best thing about it though has little to do with appearances; it's about the fact that I will now be within walking distance of a couple of childhood friends and my little brother - I really should stop with the little, he's late 20's and starting to resent it! It's about that quick cuppa and a chat after dinner, or the stroll to the local for a cold one without worrying about getting taxis or where I'll be staying.

Finally, finally - I'm going home. :)

 

The house is coming along nicely, I have walls, ceilings, doorframes...the tiling started today and the internal doors should be in by next week, whereby I will have actual rooms. Choosing the tiling was a bit of an exercise in mental torture - have I made the right decision - do I really want that one etc. etc.

Then the builder asked me about paint finishes.... oh dear, there is too much choice! I have now gotten it down to ooooh about 50 of the million or so colours out there. As much fun and frustration as this whole house renovation has been, nothing compares to my latest paint dilemma.

A part of me is tempted to say paint it all cream and be done with it, but clearly that won't work. So, I dwell in blues, violets, reds, creams, neutrals (not to be confused with other seeemingly identical colours), greens and yellows. I swear I'm starting to have dreams with paint charts chasing me down the road.

Basically I want to be 5 again, where there were really only four or five colours, and I picked in about 20 seconds. This much choice is quite honestly overwhelming. If I end up with lime green ceilings and purple walls, I'll not be surprised (but might feel a little ill). I really had no idea that I was going to have to make so many choices. How naive am I? :)

Work has been incredibly busy for me lately. I'm aware that in these uncertain times, I'm lucky to be able to say that. I work in marketing, which when you boil it down, is about how to sell stuff. My current job isn't my dream job, but it's a family business and I feel a connection and like to stay involved. Nor do I hate it by any means - for the most part I really enjoy it, it's the kind of job where I see tangible results from a project.

A couple of things have occurred to me lately though. The first is that I'm pretty stressed out. If I can't boost sales, people may lose their jobs. It's not that bad at the moment, but if things don't pick up it may be. This kind of responsibility is terrifying. Of course it is not all down to me, but I certainly play a part.

The second is that this is spilling over into my personal time. I haven't written anything in weeks, apart from a couple of posts here. I have written since I was a child. My mother used to despair because in the middle of my school copy books she would come across stories. She solved it by giving me an extra copybook - and most of the time I'd remember to use it. LOL

I write for a whole range of reasons, for fun, to clear my head, to focus myself. Mostly because I need to. Would I like to get published - of course. The harsh reality of the world makes me think the chances are slim, but maybe, someday. I won't stop writing though. It's a release. An escape, in the same way as reading or watching a good movie can be. Sometimes I'll get a scene in my head and it will be there -  like the annoying song you can't stop humming - until I write it down.

What worries me lately is that I will sit down to scribble and all of a sudden I'm writing new advertising copy, or coming up with a new special offer, or obsessing over how to make the new website better. The thing is, I know if I keep this up, I'll start to burn out.

I also miss it. An ongoing story is suffering for it. I had great momentum until a few weeks ago but now it's gone. The only downtime I'm getting really is playing on FT - and I think part of the appeal there is the competitive element!

I'm going to try to switch off this weekend. The funds aren't there for a night out, but I'm thinking movies, a good book and ice cream may help. Any and all suggestions on how to switch the brain off would be appreciated!