The Referee's a...

This is one of those weird pivotal moments that tells you you've just reached adulthood. It's not as huge as putting down the deposit for your first house or seeing the birth of your first child (obviously written from a male perspective). It is something small yet still signifies that someone considers you to be a bona fide, mature adult. One of my youth group has asked me to be a referee for a job application. Okay, it probably isn't going to be a huge job for a London Banking Firm, but still, someone thinks me adult enough to be a referee. That's scary stuff.

I recollected as I was writing this post that Rachel had already written a post about this, and endeavoured to search for it. After a lot of scanning I was back to March 09 and then realised that there was a search button. Epic Fail.

My brother comes back tomorrow. Tehmorrow! Tehmorrow! I love ya, tehmorrow! You always a day away. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I usually reserve this stuff for my other blog (if you're asking, "what other blog?", keep with the program and click here), but I'm going to ask some questions. 

• What makes you feel all grown up?
• Do you see yourself as an adult?
• What rites of passages are there to adulthood?
• Could you write the word 'adult' anymore times in one paragraph?

In other blogging news. I've added tick box things, so you can rate my posts. Again, scary stuff.

Look Left, Look Right

Look on the right, and you may notice something has changed. Seen it yet? You may have to scroll down a little. Yes, there. The box which says 'Go to a random post', with the words 'Take me there' in it? If you're feeling bored or adventurous, click the words 'Take me there'. Be careful, though. You might be taken to the deepest, darkest realms of The Week that Was.

I've put in on my other blog, but seeing as it has four posts (the statistics on my dashboard says five, but it lies) theres little point to it yet.

On the Zemanta toolbar thing that gives me pretty pictures and cool links to put in my blog, one of them said 'A young writer with too much to say'. Okay, I take the hint.

What's a guy gotta do?

Carmen Miranda via last.fm

Sheesh kebab, people. What do I have to do to get you to comment on here? Dance around wearing nothing more than a fruit-festooned head piece and jock-strap singing 'I like you very much' alla Carmen Miranda? I've tried everything. Well, more just self-promotion via facebook. Yes, I am shameless. But not shameless enough to dance the samba concealed by nothing more than carefully placed fruit. So, just comment people.

Unfaithful Blogger

I need to tell you something, The Week that Was. You've been a faithful blog. And we've had our ups and downs. It's just that sometimes a man has needs that one blog can't fulfil alone. Yes, I've been writing another blog.

I have a second blog. It's about my youth-work experience. The highs, the lows... the lows. I'm quite excited about it.

My infidelity doesn't stop at writing a second blog. First, some point this week I'm to be a guest blogger on Dreaming of the Country (post already done and dusted, finally). Also, last evening I spent most my time sorting out Rachael's blog. Wow, doesn't it look pretty, who could have sorted out all that?

Zemanta

Image via CrunchBase

Third time lucky, eh? Blogger Buzz suggested what seemed to be a really cool application for Firefox. And from what I've seen, everyone seems to enjoy it and think it's the bee's knees. The application is called Zemanta.

If you knew what it does (or meant to do) you'd probably think 'Why had no-one thought of this earlier. This is genius!'. Imagine this scenario, one that I frequently face. You are writing away and you think 'I need something to jazz this post up a bit.' Perhaps an image here, a link there. Then you think, I will have to trawl through Creative Commons sites (such as Wikipedia) to find the content I want. Then go through the hassle of inserting it, or highlighting the word, and copy and pasting the link. No more, my friends. Zemanta does this for you. I finds the stuff you want and then with just one click it inserts it.

That's the idea anyway. So far I've had limited success. First, the images only go on the right side of the text. Second, you can't preview when Zemanta is activated. Third, if you spell check with Zemanta stuff, everything goes crazy. I'm liking the italics today. Then you get scripting errors. And on my last attempt I managed to select and dump just about everything Zemanta had to offer, wanted or not, onto my blog. Some of this may be the fault of blogger. My dedicated readers (how snobby does that sound? Dedicated readers) will know of my love-hate relationship with blogger. Some of the fault may lie at my doorstep. It wasn't Zemanta's fault that I highlighted and dumped everything, it was doing what I told it to do.

So the jury is still out on Zemanta

Famous Bloggers

Steve (from yesterday's post) also gave me a list of sites. One of them was cartoonchurch.com. He has a site which give you free pictures for blogs. This is one of them.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Anticlimaxical

Yes, I know that's a word I've just made up. Anyway, I've finished my degree. No more essays, not more exams, no more Reading Theory. It is all done. Also, I've pretty much packed everything in my room, and it's all been carted off back home. It's quite depressing looking around and there being nothing. All my posters and postcards I had on my wall are gone. All my books are gone. It's so sad. I'm going to be leaving on Friday, for pastures new. Well, old actually, I'll be going back home. It's all anticlimactic.

My parents came up this weekend to collect all my belongings. Rachael and I went with said parents to the Tynllidiart Arms in Capel Bangor. It holds the World Record for being the smallest commercial brewery in the world. We ate lots of nice food. Very nice food.

Sunday, my friend Jenny got baptised and confirmed, so that was really nice. She was so nervous, bless her, but it went fine. Also yesterday, Rachael started her own blog.

So I'll just impart some words of advice to Rachael. It will ruin your life. Not really. But you do need to change which timezone you're in. So head over to her blog and say a great big 'HI!'.

Awesome

The May Ball was last night and it was AWESOME. The Zutons were really cool, and I enjoyed dancing like a loser. At the moment I am 1/10 of the way through packing my room and my parents come at 1 (that's two hours, people). The house is a mess. My room is a mess. Life is a mess. Thank God for Jesus, is all I can say to that.

Speaking of Jesus, I'm getting really anxious about my job situation. What has that got to do with Jesus? I hear you ask. Well, probably I wont actually hear you because a) you're probably out of earshot and b) you possibly already know about the job interview I had. I applied for a job at a church in Oxford, and I want to know if I've got it. I don't think I have. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I'd be cool but I did like the other candidates. They were nice. Okay, less of the random ranting. I have a habit of verbalising my random thought processes, now I've begun to type them.

I'm tired and ill and I have a random ironing board in my room. It is a rubbish ironing board. As a matter of fact, I'm going to save this post as a draft, take a photo of said ironing board and post it up. Because I'm cool like that. Note the fiendish holes in the cover. That was how the board was when we arrived, and I had to iron my shirt on it. What you can't observe is that it also likes to collapse. Okay, this has got to be perhaps the most random post ever in the history of blogging.

In Oxford

I am currently writing this from Oxford. I'm disappointed that I forgot my camera, but I'll probably use my phone. Then I'll have to get around connecting it to my laptop. I have seriously neglected the prettiful picture side of things with this blog lately.

I'm not at all nervous about my interview at the moment, but I soon will be. I'm going to got out, get some dinner and look like I've been ditched in some cafe, come back, read through/correct/improve/cry about my presentation for tomorrow. The B&B is really nice, it is called Lonsdale Guest House, so if you're ever in Oxford (visiting me after I got the job...a bit presumptuous) it's a good place to stay and with a bus route right to the city centre.

I forgot to bring the girly magazines I bought. But I learnt something new about women's sanitary products. You really don't want to know.

So off to get food...but first Molehill Empire calls. Yes, I am a loser.

Trend Setter

After updating the layout of my page, 2 others have done so already. However, you could argue Rachel updated hers first, but I have been improving my blog for a while. So I am officially a trend setter.

I have been investing a lot of time (usually at the dead of night) into improving my blog. This has included adding tags and such. At the moment I'm setting up mobile blogging. That means I can blog on the move (as well as twitter on the move). Well, I have to use my new shiny phone appropriately. But its taking ages.

I am insanely bored doing my dissertation at the moment. I'm hoping to get to 7000 words by tonight.

News on the coffee front. I've discovered a new and exciting way to have your coffee. Okay, it isn't probably that new. Instead of putting sugar in it, try putting honey in, instead. Does that merit a 'recipes' tag? Why not, eh?

Coffee and Layouts

Rachael, my girlfriend, is staying over at the moment, and I'll probably write more about the visit at a later date. However, I can't neglect my blog for too long, especially as I wrote about no-one updating in my last post.

I've found a cool new site, btemplates.com, that has allowed me to make my blogger blog as exciting and cool as a wordpress one. So I'm playing around with them at the moment. This one is called 'Coffee Desk', but I'm not sure about it. Expect there to be a rapid succession of changes until I finally hit upon one I like.

One erksome thing is that my widgets disappear everytime I change my template. Also, the blogroll is being stupid and not letting me put other blogs beside blogger ones on it. Which is silly, as the blog I most read is dreamingofthecountry. However, I link to it in about 1 in 5 posts, so it won't be neglected.

It's funny that I don't even drink coffee and I have this as my current layout. I'm going to try and develop an appreciation of it. I love the smell of coffee and I like the idea of the different varieties available. But I need to pack, as I'm returning to the mouth of the river Ystwyth tomorrow.

Blogs of Note

I do occasionally have a look at the blogs of note. First, because a part of me wants to be involved in this community of bloggers. Second, because I get bored when my blog roll doesn't update. Well, to be precise, the bloggers don't update. Even if the last blog was only updated yesterday, it still feels like years since I've had someone else's life to read about. Yes, I need to get out more.

Anyway, on reading these, I've realised a fail proof plan too get my blog listed as a blog of note.

1. Get an etsy account and make something pretty. 2. Eat something organic. Grow the organic edibles for better Blogs of Note points.

3. Take photographs. Lots of photographs. Don't worry, they don't have to be of different things. They can be the same thing from lots of different angles. Even better if you intend to sell it on etsy or it's organic, or both!

4. Use pastel colours. Not a necessity, but they help.

5. Move to an exciting urban metropolis (e.g., and especially, New York) or a rural idyll (e.g. a farm an hour away from New York). No mundane suburbs, I'm afraid.

Although this may seem a vindictive attack on the Bloggers of Note, it is not. I wish I had the talent to make and sell something on an etsy account, and I take photos. But the blogs of note seem to buying into the same way of life nowadays. Perhaps less of the same?

I apologise for the rubbish photos, by the way.

21st Century Citizen

I was talking to a friend the other day on what historians and anthropologists would say about the 21st century. It was quite staggering the type of cultural reforms that have taken place during my lifetime. So here are some key points that have defined the ways of my generation:

The Internet

The years that has probably defined our Internet culture were 2003-2005. Between those years we have seen the rise of such sites such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook. MySpace and Facebook have revolutionised how we 'network'. We are able to share information instantly, follow people's moods and doings, organise events and throw sheep at one another. Youtube allows us to watch videos, listening to music and watch videos of random strangers tell us about their lives. I am a bit of a youtube addict. My subscriptions include communitychannel and fiveawesomegirls. This is rather amusing as one person I've encountered via YouTube is jerryhcooke, who happens to be good friends with Rachel. It was surreal when my irl and url lives met. Blogging is obviously another trend worth mentioning, as is Twitter, the micro-blog site.

Terrorism

Terrorism is not a phenomenon only encountered by my generation, but it is a threat that has somewhat defined us. After one day school my twin and I were told by the deputy head, who bumped into us, about two planes flying into two tall buildings in New York. Just under four years later I was sitting in my sixth-form common room reading about explosions in London. These days will be remember for many years to come. However, the threat of terrorism was one already known by the British, due to the activities of the IRA. In 2001, alone, the IRA detonated car bombs outside the BBC news centre, outside a post-office and Ealing Broadway; these are the ones just in London. However, the somewhat internal troubles of Northern Ireland have been superseded by more extensive international problems.

Economic downturn

The society of the 90s and 00s will be defined as decadent and frivolous. This is possibly set to change as we reach the 2010s. In December of 2007 the economy took a downturn and has kept on going. Perhaps our culture will become more frugal, especially if things get worse.

Landmark

This is a landmark post (helpfully hinted at by the title). This is-wait for it- my fiftieth post on this blog. Can I hear you cheer? This is a mark in my love-hate relationship will blogger, and this blog has been with me through the best of times, and the worst of times. Well, it never really got that bad. This post will hopefully incorporate a few of the things this blog has come to be known for. Take this opportunity to look at some of my older posts. Perhaps the one that started it all, Books and Big Brother; or the one from Paris, Surviving...just; or perhaps my favourite, Interactivodular. So knock yourself out.

Talking of knocking yourself out, I had quite a close call today. Rose and I went to explore the shore line under Constitution Hill, with the cave I went to last Sunday. The rocks, being slate, do not provide the best friction, and I tried to cross a particularly slippery bit. Also, due to the general tectonic activity the slabs of slate are all at an angle. I slipped, fell on to all fours and the struck my head against another slab of slate. Oh the blood, oh the gore. No, there was no wound, unfortunately; making this tale rather dull. But Rose found a propeller, and we saw some anemones in the rock pools. So it was all good decent fun, despite slipping over a total of three times. We saw a mother with her young daughter who was doing better than me.

Recipe time! Tonight I cooked a vegetable stir-fry which was quite nice. It contained spring onions; snap peas; green pepper; mushrooms; and carrots which I shredded with a potato peeler. I added some soy sauce and about half a teaspoon of ginger. It was quite nice, but I cooked it too long (mainly because Rose was on the phone to her mum so I had to wait to dish up).

I went to Oxfam again. I have inherited a love of charity shops from my mother. Every time we pass one we have to 'just pop in'. But I'm always amazed at the things they stock. They have notepads made from elephant dung. Elephant dung! Sorry, that was a random aside. You'd think they're paying me or something. Only nominal expenses.

Recently I've been trying to recycle better, and I saw this video on facebook. Well, I found it funny.

Sorry that this post was a bit of a miss-match. I tried to make it entertaining yet informative. Fail. Just one note, it was brought to my attention (well, actually, I thought this too, but I failed to mention it). The Green Granny's advice about buying a product from a developing country, despite it not being fairly traded, is perhaps not the best idea. We don't know who is getting the money, so it is best in these cases to buy more locally.

Lethargy and lasagne

I've been feeling really lethargic lately and really unable to motivate myself. The only positive thing is that I'm not the only one. I think it must be end of degree syndrome or something. It seems the closer we are to finishing the harder it is. Maybe the sense of anticipation has worn off, or the end wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Or it has just been too long.

Anyway, enough of ranting. Wednesday was quite a good day, despite a pervading sense of stress and anxiety I felt for most of it. I went shopping in Lidl, where I was slowly losing faith in humanity and just about everything, when I nice lady let me go in front of her at the checkout. I nearly cried. No, actually I wasn't even really close, but it made me feel a lot better. I had to go to Lidl because I was cooking for some friends, Josh and Rachel. I made lasagne; my original intention was a chicken pasta bake but the chicken was way too expensive. They came over and we ate, played Kerplunk, and generally chatted. We did chat about blogging though, that's how sad we are. The lasagne below is not the one I cooked on Wednesday, but one I made a couple of weeks back.

On a random aside, Stephen and I are currently racing each other to see who can complete their post first. I'm sure rewards will be given for quality. Obviously Stephen will win on that front.

I have no ethical ramblings or cooking recipes to think of at the moment. If you do need your fix, Rachel's blog abounds in those (well, ramblings is less applicable to her blog than mine).