Entry tags:

adventures: bardcamp, books, character: margaret, cities: london, food, gainful employment, girl reporter, plays: henry vi, poll, readthroughs, religion: judaism, theatre: shakespeare

Man Bardcamp was amaaaaazing, I am going to post a giant post as soon as the pictures are up HINT HINT mirabehn AND mostlyacat.

Although I did feel a bit knocked-out and less INTO IT than I wish I had been; I was ill all through the first night, and although I love the late-night partying and singing and games-playing, starting the weekend out with dehydration and a massive sleep deficit didn't do me any favours later on! But I still had a great time even if I did have to sneak off in the middle of Richard III for a nap before I passed out onstage. ANYWAY. Pictures and boring notes about my favourite ad-libs and character moments to come (HINT HINT mirabehn AND mostlyacat).

Currently I'm trying to fill out my performance review form. I actually really love performance reviews (I get to talk about how great I am and someone else is paid to listen and give feedback! How is this not amazing?!), but this year I'm working on tactics for getting what I want, which are in the following order:

a promotion

more compensation, either in pay (HAH!) or eg more holiday time

skills I can use to apply for better jobs, namely:

internet knowings (so I can start reasonably applying for web editor jobs)

writing (so I can go 'look, people have paid me to write things, therefore you should pay me to do that too')

process management (if they let me do more of this, it has the side effect of my possibly being able to mitigate some of the stonkingly stupid decisions of upper management, although considering my manager has been trying to do this for years it seems unlikely)

So I'm currently trying to fit "I want a new title (and also more things to do) and also to learn how to make the internet happen and oh yeah I want to write things too" into a coherent Development Plan. Especially since I'm not really fussed about which one to focus on: if they let me write things I'd be happy to learn computer things at home, and vice versa.

In sadder news, the Pod they are building across the street from my office STILL HAS NOT OPENED. It has been 'coming soon' for at least six weeks! SIX WEEKS! The nearest Pod is like EIGHT MINUTES away! WAH.

atreic tipped me off about this amazing-looking book that seems to have been pulled from the inside of my head without knowing: Religion For Atheists by Alain de Botton. It comes out today (hurrah!) - I foolishly ordered it off Amazon when obviously I could have just bought it from a shop today and had it RIGHTNOW.

Yesterday when I was searching for bad fiction about the Wars of the Roses on Amazon to get my Histories fix, I found this self-published gem: RED & WHITE Interwining, which is amazing so far. Richard of York goes to help pick up Margaret of Anjou from France, and they FALL IN LOVE, or at least so far have spent like 50 pages awkwardly swooning at each other while Margaret speaks in a "French accent" that is strangely Germanic (keep all comments about last weekend's Constable of Bavaria Sweden France to yourselves, peanut gallery). IT IS GREAT. I bet they do it and then she breaks his heart and then Richard decides to become king just to spite her.

(It has also brought back my Thoughts about how the internet's Shakespeare fandom writes fic that is as good if not more so than the profic you see, and I would totally have purchased every fic on for a similar price, and how many Shakespeare fic writers are academics and I'm sure could use the extra income, and although there are clearly Issues with monetizing fanworks in general, slapping Shakespeare fanfiction up somewhere people can pay a nominal sum for it is something loads of people are doing already so why not get in on it, but maybe everyone else has already thought about this and decided against it so it's a moot point anyway.)

Poll #9248
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

Hello! What are you having for lunch?

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Veg boxes: AMAZING, yes? I'm so excited about (cooking and) eating the:

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broccoli
4 (66.7%)

cabbage
3 (50.0%)

carrots
4 (66.7%)

cherry tomatoes
4 (66.7%)

eggplant (or aubergine if you must)
1 (16.7%)

Jerusalem artichoke
0 (0.0%)

leeks
2 (33.3%)

rutabaga (or swede, ditto)
1 (16.7%)

potatoes
5 (83.3%)

apples
6 (100.0%)

avocados
3 (50.0%)

blood oranges
1 (16.7%)

mangos
4 (66.7%)

locally-sourced seasonal one that we will start using as soon as the Waitrose box runs out
1 (16.7%)

Poll #9249
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 1

Tell me a secret!