Be careful what you wish for*

Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the lyrics to the Pussy Cat Dolls song "When I grow up" were not:

When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have boobies

but were in fact

When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have groupies

*or you just might get it

Time to focus

The tv broke last night. It's been warped for almost as long as we've had it, the screen squeezed in the centre, like an hourglass. Last night one side decided to slide back out again, and the image went with it, followed by white noise, a burning smell and some disconcerting beeping.

Hopefully the death of the tv will make me more productive. I have a 'to do' list a mile long - just for home working jobs, one of the downsides to running a 'business' outside of working hours. None of them are remotely fun; accounting, processing wholesale orders, sorting spreadsheets out. As you can imagine, this will bring me a level of joy hardly experienced before. It's no small wonder I've decided to tidy the front bedroom, and write a blog post.

I was reading Colouring outside the lines #2 earlier, a zine I picked up at Manchester zine fest last Saturday. It's a great issue full of interviews with amazing (female) artists, including some comic creators who's work is super inspiring and is reigniting my love of graphic novels. Check out the Colouring outside the lines myspace for more info.

An interview with Cristy Road about communicating about punk and alternative culture struck a chord with me - she talks about sharing her punk roots because her experiences there made her who she is today. I guess this was relevant to me because I've drifted so far from the punk aesthetic that I used to be so into.

I want to reclaim this as, punk is still fundamental to my belief system - through punk I got into feminism, vegetarianism, environmentalism and anti-animal testing. Plus despite my forays into folk, pop and dance it's still punk music that makes my heart beat faster.

When I was in my teens I looked at the old folks at gigs and thought they were drab, boring and no fun at all. When I was moshing, getting a busted lip, they would stand around at the back - arms folded listening without much get up or go. It's all to easy to let that happen, let the pressures and the stifling roles assumed of adulthood push our bright, wild, creative selves into submission so we can fit in at the office. I guess punk is about rejecting the conformity encouraged of us all, the conformity we're goaded into if we're going to achieve what society tells us is success.

But success is about how close you get to the things in life that make you truly happy - it can't be measured in monetary terms or by the number of possessions someone has. 'Wealth' and 'stuff' do not a happy chappy make, don't believe everything capitalism tells you.

Embracing the dumb things that make you happy is a much better measure of success, imho. Dye your hair a stupid colour your boss will hate, listen to music so loud your neighbours will be able to hear the words and then give them all flowers for putting up with you. Pursue a dream you have, and if you get jaded because of the pursuit it's ok to take time out, isn't it. Ultimately the only person you have to satisfy is yourself.

Making good my escape

I'll be away from the computer for a few days - but I'm sure you'll cope without me.
I've scheduled some photos to post on weather-station if you're looking for something distracting and pretty.

Let me eat that cake

You know when you've found your perfect man when he brings chocolate cake, made by his own fair hands containing courgettes from his garden, into the office and it is perfectly gooey and supremly delicious.

Tis a shame then that he is about 10 years too old, married and into cricket.

Get thyself in line Gurinad

Normally I quite like the schizophrenic editorial lines of the Guardian, voicing conflicting arguments and encouraging discussion are good things. Read the paper one day and someone's reporting on surveys that show the public's attitude to working women is turning sour, the next day someone else is slagging off said research as ho-bunkem. But today's cheap-chic autumn wardrobe feature is a step too far into the hypocritical.

After just recently launching their new online ethical clothing finder, today's number 1 'life and style' feature is about getting your hands on fleeting catwalk trends while struggling under the hefty weight of the 'credit crunch'. Primark and Matalan, holders of the coveted award for worst child labour practices on the highstreet, are among their list.

Encouraging debate is one thing, but encouraging conspicuous consumption of useless tat that's been directly linked to the exploitation of workers - that's not something anyone, never mind a liberal paper should be doing.

More reasons

I keep finding ever more reasons to go completely vegan (I don't have milk or yoghurt but have recently started eating eggs, and icecream again - as wll as chocolate and cheese*).

After eating an egg salad sarnie for lunch I came back into the office to read this Guardian article about activists saving 'spent' egg producing chickens from the chopping block when the 72 weeks of their useful egg laying life come to an end.

The free range chickens mentioned in the article start producing eggs, which are gathered up for human consumption, at just 18-22 weeks. The chickens are killed around a year later because they are no longer economically viable.

An egg laying chicken's 'useful life' amounts to about an year and a half. A living thing classified as uneconomic. That really turns my stomach, the lingering taste of egg in my mouth is turning really sour.

If that wasn't enough to put you off animal products, a friend recently told me that something like 25% of a carton of milk is puss. That sounds pretty implausible, right? But some amount of puss, coming from infected udders of over milked cows, that's a whole lot more plausible.

This 'fact' has stayed with me, and today I decided to verify its accuracy. Google Answers to the rescue. In summary - milk has a measured amount of puss in it, some puss, but too much and it's not saleable.

The worst thing about this is the thought that cows can (and are) overmilked to the point of infections in their udders. I kind of feel that if you could still sell infected milk some dairy farmers would, and the cow would have to suffer for it.

Ultimately, selling live animals, flesh or animal products must exploit animals - by the very nature of the relationship. I've heard this described as speciesism, or the hierarchy of powerful over vulnerable. It's the type of power relationship that underpins capitalism and is replicated across human behaviour too; rich:poor, male:female, young:old.

* I buy organic says the little voice that feels bad about eating animals products. Is that the liberal curse? If you can't make yourself do it, at least make yourself feel bad about it instead.

Study tells us nothing about the way things actually work

Articles like Cambridge survey shows new doubts over working mothers in today's Guardian just serve to reinforce the misconceptions they claim to be observing.

More people will start to think family life will suffer if women work if you keep telling them more people think family life will suffer if women work.

If you mis read it even slightly - you could actually come away with the impression research has discovered family life does suffer. And we all know how easy it is to misread things - I do it all the time and I'm a copywriter. People who have lower levels of literacy would probably struggle with this even than me.

Feminism is still not dead, it keeps clawing its way back to life out of the necessity of women and men everywhere to avoid this frickin nonsense.

Phew!

Issue 6 of Subtext is out now - hoo-frickin-ray that took a while!

The latest newsletter's on the blog, and you can get it online, or subscribe at the website.


I plan to have a little sleep now.

Lunchtime

I ususally eat my lunch by the Trent. Swans, geese and ducks all like to come by and check if there are crumbs on offer. There never are.

To do list

Ikea Hacks is a great little site about reworking Ikea products for different uses.

A recent hack was to turn a Not lamp into a globe lamp, which I love and want to do for my house. We were bought a Not lamp as a gift, and it resides on our landing covered in dust. The lampshade on the ceiling lamp on the landing is a globe, so it would be the best accompaniment - especailly if I can find one with terrain/geological rather than political boundaries.