43 Things

I have been reading a lot about 'digital communities' recently (and, alas, how to get market to them... thus is the nature of my job) including this book by Larry Weber. It's very American in its focus but hey, we're in a global economy and it has opened up a whole new world of websites I may never have heard of to waste my time on.

One of them is 43things.com, where you can make 'life lists' of up to (you guessed it) 43 things you want to achieve. These range from the inane ("get a haircut"), the ludicrous ("be a pimp"), obscure ("laugh along with my wife"), sensible ("set realistic goals") and the sheer brilliant ("milk a cow"), right through to those ongoing epic struggles ("sort my whole bloody life out").

It just so happens that I do love making lists. In fact, I probably spend more time making lists than I do actually doing the things on them. Procrastination to the max. So here for your delectation - in no particular order - are my 43 things "to do".

1. Start a magazine
2. Work for myself
3. Write a novel
4. Do a Masters degree
5. Learn to speak Italian
6. Learn to drive (or more aptly, stick with lessons long enough to pass my test!)
7. Read all the books on my reading list
8. Learn PHP programming
9. Take up yoga and pilates again
10. Spend more time outdoors
11. Live in a foreign country
12. Own a Dansette record player
13. Make my own clothes (I have the sewing machine... which is surely half way there, right?)
14. Go interrailing
15. Learn how to bind books
16. Learn how to screenprint
17. Take creative writing classes (starting in September)
18. Remember how to play the guitar (uh, restring my guitar)
19. Take riding lessons
20. Run a 5k race for charity
21. Interview one of my heroes (one that is still alive, of course)
22. Find somewhere I feel settled and stay there
23. Volunteer
24. Go rock climbing
25. Visit Amy in Japan
26. Go walking every day
27. Be more sociable
28. Visit Amsterdam (again)
29. Finish building my own website (as opposed to building other people's)
30. Live in Manchester (I'm getting nearer...)
31. Plant a tree and watch it grow
32. Visit the Outer Hebrides (should hopefully be doing this next spring)
33. Live a simpler life (chuck out pretty much everything)
34. Climb Snowdon
35. Have my writing published (in Bust or some other equally cool magazine...)
36. Record a podcast
37. Make my own zine
38. Get another cat (keeping the one I currently have, of course)
39. Sing live with a band
40. Find an old school gameboy that still works
41. Exhibit my work
42. Visit New York and San Francisco (I don't care about the rest of the US)
43. Get my own studio space

And then I'll be happy and fulfilled... or something like that.

Best Hand Job In The North

Long the stuff of Manchester legend and comedy postcards (up there with "Manchester: we're all gay here"), I finally got to realise my life-long dream and experience the city's First Five Minute Hand Job yesterday.

It took longer than five minutes but what it lacks in efficiency, it more than makes up for in double entendres and giggles.

The New Feminism?

I made a promise to myself that I would never write about the Daily Mail again, but much to my delight - among the usual articles about feminism castrating men, betraying women and generally making the whole world unhappy, I found a truly sensible article by the wonderful Hilary Hazard of super-duper-rollicking-good-read of a magazine KnockBack (subtitle "This is the magazine we made because we didn't like the magazines they made for us").

The statement she makes about enjoying being female is particularly salient. At long last someone has made the point (to Mail readers of all people!) that feminists - or the ones that I know (and in that I include myself) - DON'T hate men. We don't have a sneaking hidden desire to want to BE men. We just want to celebrate what being female means to us individually (which, let's face it, is never really going to be satisfied by a mass media, is it?) and get a bit angsty when we have ridiculous here's-what-you-should-like-now-please-shut-up bull shoved down our throats.

The thing that Ms. Hazard's magazine does so well, and what sets it apart from any other womens or feminist magazine out there, is its irreverance. It's sheer don't-give-a-damn. It laughs at itself, at the situation and at just about anybody who happens to cross the editorial team's path by the looks of it. But what is even better... you can laugh at it to! You can feel good rather than guilty, and couldn't we all do with a little more of that?

It also doesn't hurt that KnockBack is helped along by some nifty design and high production values, all of which make her message to "sort out your websites... get a public profile that women want to be a part of" one that should really be listened to. These ladies know what they're doing, and what's more - with articles in national newspapers and appearances on the BBC - theirs is an approach that appears to be working!

Tiny Things

I have finally got around to putting some of my new necklaces online. I have a bit of an obsession with very small cameos and charms, flowers and insects right now so there are plenty of them there. Take a look, maybe buy one if you're feeling flush (I certainly am not... and rest assured that any proceeds will go towards the Lucy holiday pint fund! Go on, you know you want to...)

Said holiday is one week in a cottage in North Wales where I intend to relax (if I remember how to), walk up Snowdon and go 'crabbing'. To make things really cosy, we're even taking the cat! Baz on holiday, he really is spoilt to the max. I also intend to make all the cool things I daydream about making when I'm chained to my desk.

I'm currently working on an amigurumi bear, which is quite a tall order seen as I have only just taught myself to crochet (after someone told me it was easier than knitting. I have now come to the conclusion that they were lying!) Things started off badly when what I thought was the head turned out to be the body and it sort of resembles a knitted prophylactic, but it is gradually getting better. I am a big believer in perceverance. And fortunately a big fan of charmingly mutated handmade toys.