THIS IS THE NEWS

now, I may just be crazy and procrastinating. Well, that's a given. But I think our local paper The Mercury has pretty much outdone itself in terms of confusing and terrible headlines this week. If you like news articles about women who have received incorrect post, you'd better calm yourself down now, I'm warning you, it gets wild.




I know there is a phrase "baptism of fire", which might be what they're straining towards, but that phrase is itself a tired cliché crappy metaphor. So saying "baptism of water" is tautologous. They're bending bad language back on itself to the point that it's close to snapping.


George is made of stronger stuff, apparently. Good for him.


this is three journalistic clichés strung together. And it's always inappropriate to describe anything that isn't a massacre as a massacre. Especially when it's football.


Do you have horse sense? I'm pretty sure I don't.


...what to put on page FOUR of the newspaper? RUMOURS!


...and what to put on page FIVE? Someone got a letter! Oh, what a world we live in!


this is the one that set me off. The actual story is really sad. But the headline is a classic. I think growing up watching The Day Today has profoundly influenced the way I perceive news coverage.

update

have been trying to watch Mad Men on iPlayer, but it kept on stopping to load every minute. I imagine lots of people who have gone out tonight are coming back to watch Eastenders. Ah, going out drinking on a Friday night. What's that all about?

This week has gone really quickly. I haven't done too much job seeking this week, I probably should be doing a lot more. It's just difficult. I have a few jobs I can apply for in the next few weeks. Ach. I'm just sick of the whole thing. I seriously thought I'd be able to get a job within the first month after uni. It's February now. It's okay, it's going to happen eventually, it's just incredibly frustrating.

I've met some interesting, eccentric people in the past few weeks.
A retired gay dentist with a bald head and big grey moustache came into courtyard and we had a chat about him leaving dentistry and exploring the paranormal world. He is apparently becoming a medium. I'm serious. He's a real person who I spoke with, who was lovely.
And on Tuesday when I was in London with Rana, we went to the Poetry Library and randomly met her lovely friend Anna, who I met a while back and is great. She was there meeting a colleague of hers, who was another older bald man, this time an ex-neurosurgeon who currently works in psychiatry. But he actually wants to be an illustrator. So all four of us sat in the poetry library painting watercolours.



here is my effort. I call it "pyscho-sexual knight-mare. Is it you, G-d? Or are we through, Elizabeth?"
I am of course kidding. I was just dicking around with a paintbrush.




these are what the guy painted of us. I'm the red figure. I love the second one the most.


I found doing watercolours surprisingly relaxing. I've been doing a few at home. I'm obviously not going to be doing watercolours of landscapes with canals and houseboats and jolly farmers in them, but it's nice to be painting again. And I also made some more art. Some actual art! It's not finished yet, but I'm doing it. It's obviously not amazing and I don't expect it to be taken seriously, but I like it and I'm pleased with it so far. Need to buy some big frames though and they're expensive. If anyone wants to buy my silly art, let me know. I may indeed post pictures when it's done. So glad I went to the Tate the other day, it really got me thinking again. Trips into London just always revivify me, it's crazy. I see more people in one day in London than on most weeks out here in Hertfordshire. That feeling of being in a crowd is something I crave sometimes.

Anyway, have a good weekend everyone, love to you all!

The Yellow House (part one)

BEWARE! THIS IS MY POETRY!
This is part one of the poetry sequence I've been working on. I thought it would be fun to film it. I think there will be three more parts, I haven't completely finished writing it all yet.

Great video

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

This is such a fantastic video.

Snow Day

MOAR PICS

you're probably all very sick of pictures of snow by now.



well here are some more, WITH DALMATIANS




Shawne's wearing a sporty coat. Apparently Molly is "fat enough not to need one".


I see this flag everytime I go for a walk, it really annoys me. No-one ever had flags in their gardens when I was a kid, all of a sudden a few years ago people started doing it saying there was nothing wrong with doing it (which there isn't per se) but why suddenly start? Why haven't these people had flags up outside their houses all along? That's what I don't like. Because it was never really done until a few years ago, it seems very sneaky and suspicious indeed. It's like something has brought it on, like a bout of flu. Wonder why people in the Daily Mail belt would want to start putting up union jack flags? I guess I'm a lefty liberal homosexual guardian reader, so I'm naturally too politically correct to be comfortable drinking black coffee. The flag makes me uncomfortable, and I'm not really in charge of my emotional reactions to things, so I'll say nothing more of it.




EVERYBODY: Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky little boxes on the hillside and they all look just the same


Once again, the dog without the coat is apparently "fat"




They weren't really too bothered by the snow. Just a bit more sniffing. Poor Shawne fell over though.








Sshhhhh! That's my mother!








That old moped as been in the woods for years and years, I'm pretty sure it's given kids tetanus.




Can you see Molly's face, she's like: "Ed, what the fuck?!"


Frozen pond


Very stylish.

pics of the snow

I think I might go out again a bit later and have a wander around the village. It's so beautiful and quiet, I love it. Also the security lamp on our shed is a great light source.



out of my bedroom window