LeanneBennett.com

I am so tired. I need to invent a new word that's worse than tired.

I set up a server today. It was day 2 of the build, and I should have finished, but some things went wrong, as does happen with computers ( :-o ) sometimes. So I pushed my brain all day, sat without moving a whole lot for far too long, (for the second day in a row) and now I'm just so beyond tired that tired is a dot in my rear-view mirror.

And I get to do more of it tomorrow.

But I had my moment today. A lady at the school where I was working said to a technician sitting with me, "How does she do that? I couldn't ever get my head anywhere near that."

Yeah, okay, sometimes I don't acknowledge that what I do takes a lot of skill. When you just do it day to day, you start to feel like it's nothing special. But hey, it is!

And even though the server isn't quite finished, and I still have more to do tomorrow, I did a good (LONG) job today. So I'll take that. :-)

I've just started playing Words with Friends. I don't think I'm ready for the Hall of Fame, but I can hold my own with a lot of players.

However, I have found that many of the best players play really quickly and often, and thus you find yourself getting through games much faster against these folks. There's a clear downside to this that I hadn't realised however; these are the players I'm more likely to lose against, and yet I'm playing them more often than other players. As a result, my first three *completed* games were losses, and my scoreboard read:

(thisplayer) beat you!
(thatplayer) beat you! 
(thisplayer) beat you!

Hmrph!

Never mind, it's only 3 games, and every time I play them I'm learning more. And this game I'm giving these players a real run for their money. My day will come!

* And if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I'm happy to start a new game - just give me the nod!

A few things I wonder about...

Why do we buy these little rugs with cutouts to fit around our toilets?

Toilets have grim things in them. (Not to mention all those germs just dying to escape!) But if you have boys in your family, you will know that the things that come out of boys don't always end up IN the toilet. So why would we want to decorate that with carpet?  Eesh.

Why do people use ridiculously overblown adjectives for very common daily practices and activities?

Is it really "awesome" if someone agrees to do what you ask them to?  Can "fantastic" really apply to getting a report finished on time? Is it "amazing" if someone can rearrange a meeting for you? Are normal things ever really "awesome" or "fantastic" or "amazing"? Probably not. A beautiful sunrise is "awesome". The birth of a child is "fantastic". A holiday abroad can be "amazing". Does it make people feel better about the mundaneness of everyday life to include effusive words that don't really fit with the situation? Who knows?

Why does listening to music make it easier to concentrate?

I work in an office, built like the floor of a warehouse, with about 50 - 60 people always talking, on the phone, eating, etc. In other words, noisy. Nearly impossible to concentrate. So what helps? Listening to music, of course. Why does it help? I don't know. In reality it's just more noise. But maybe it's specific enough noise to let your brain focus. Anyway, I'm not the only one who's realised it -- you can find lots of ear buds in use all around my work area.

And one last one...

Why can't my daughter remember to bring home her spelling words from school when she can remember the name of every Moshi Monster???

*Sigh*.  There's no real answer to that one.

But still, I wonder...

Today was an awful day. I didn't get to sleep early enough, so even though I slept well, my overall sleep tally was still lacking.

Then the traffic was stacked up 'for no apparent reason' the radio said. (except to annoy me apparently!)

Then I got to work and everything I'd planned had to be side-lined because cover was desperately needed in another area. And then, after a dreadful day trying to keep all 'the plates spinning', so to speak, I find out I'm going to get to do exactly the same tomorrow.

And I have an onsite project looming on Wednesday/Thursday that I can't postpone and I don't have time to prepare for because of the other work I have to do. Thankfully I've done this sort of thing numerous times before, so I know I can pull it off, but it won't be easy or fun.

And, on top of everything else, I really didn't feel very well today.

Man there are days when you think, "Why didn't I just acknowledge how bad I felt and call in sick?"

I don't have an answer really, just needed to moan a bit.

Did anybody else have a bad day today, too?

Yesterday I finally saw Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds from 2009.  I must admit I approached the film with some trepidation, having seen a number of other Tarantino films.  I was expecting a blood and gore fest, and in some ways the film had quite a bit of both, but the story was so good that I honestly didn’t really notice.  Everything just fit.

This was definitely a film worth watching.  In typical Quentin Tarantino style, it played on colour and dialogue and quirky weird characters that would stick out in any storyline.  Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine was almost loveable in his weird, over-the-top shocking behaviour, and Christopher Waltz was an amazing Col. Hans Landa. (He definitely deserved every award he got!) Charming and menacing in the same breath, Landa lit up the screen and dominated so much of the story.  I also loved Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna, with her uncrushable spirit and grit and determination.

And, of course, in true Tarantino style the storyline was mesmerising with its share of odd developments and twists.  The story grips you right from the first scene and never lets you go from then on.  And the ending was perfect in my mind, very fitting for the characters and their journey.

Just in case you’ve waited three years to see it as well, I won’t spoil any of it for you.  I’ll just say that I truly loved it and couldn’t stop thinking and talking about it afterwards.

If you haven’t seen Inglorious Basterds definitely put it on your list of must-see-films.  It is truly a film worth watching, especially if you’re a fan of Tarantino’s very visual, dynamic and quirky method of film-making. Watch it – I believe you won’t regret it!

I am very good in a crisis. The very difficult things come, and I kick into action. I generally find it easy to deal with tough situations. It’s afterwards that my knees turn to jelly.

But day to day life, I find harder. It’s hard to do things on a regular basis, especially things that are mundane or repetitive. (I suppose that may be true for most people.) But, even so, I am trying.

My most recent focus is on finding the discipline to work on the things, daily, that could get me where I want to be in the future. But, finding the discipline to do that is not innate to me.

So I am trying to 'begin as you mean to continue'. I’ve set myself an assignment of working an hour a day on moving toward my goals, with practical tasks that can help me achieve them. Here’s where it begins.

In my mind, discipline is doing what you have to, or need to, even when you don’t want to. So here’s my commitment to my own discipline – beginning my daily routine.

I’ll let you know how it turns out. ;-)

1. Be careful when choosing a username.

You could have to live with it for a very long time.

2. Protect your Facebook page.

It definitely does matter who can see those pictures of your last night big night out.

3. If you don't know how to protect your Facebook page, find out!

If you just Google it, there is sure to be someone out there who can explain the process in a way you will understand it.

4. Be careful what you do in view of other people's cameras.

They are probably not may not be protecting their Facebook pages either or their photos of you.

5. Think log and hard about what you confess on the Internet.

Those messages are out there and searchable forever.

6. Never post under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

It won't be funny tomorrow and you will regret doing it!

7. Don't ask people on the Internet how to do something without Googling it first yourself.

Most people will be very rude when they answer, and even the nice ones are likely to use something insulting like letmegooglethatforyou.com.

8. Ignore the the trolls.

Don't rise to the bait. They're just itching for fresh blood to take them on. And you probably won't come out of it well.

9. Avoid engaging in online arguments (maybe it should stop there) about religion, politics, etc.

Just like in real life, nobody wins.

10. If you find a good domain name that's available, get it!

Even if you can't do something with it straightaway, trust me, buy it. If you leave it, someone else will beat you to it and then most likely just sit on it for years. And then you'll spend the next few years waiting for it become available, only to watch them renew it and probably do nothing with it.

The BBC is reporting today on the subject of potential three-person IVF.  They make the clear point that no DNA-determing-factors would come from the third donor – the point is to correct genetic defects that a mother’s egg would carry.  To do this, they would remove the nucleus from a donor egg (removing the part of the egg that makes it essentially from that person) and replace it with the nucleus from the mother’s egg, thus making her traits the ones passed to the child.  The BBC article likens it to ‘replacing a battery’.

Of course developments like this always cause public controversy. Dolly the cloned sheep upset some people terribly. There were people who felt embryo screening was wrong in the very early days. Many people even now avoid genetically modified foods. So how would the general public feel about three-person IVF?

I can remember discussions of the first test tube baby. Can you believe that Louise Brown, that very baby, was over 30 years ago? Some people were opposed to the process because of religious reasons. And at the time, there were questions about whether these test tube babies would, themselves, be able to reproduce once they were grown up. But, in fact both Louise and her sister, also an IVF baby, have children of their own, conceived without IVF.

And today, IVF is such a ‘normal’ part of our world that no one questions it, beyond having the money to pay for it.

The reality is that, on the front end, we often can’t know what the outcomes will be, or how wonderful or disastrous the results. We have to decide based on the information given us and our best (hopefully educated) guess as to whether the outcome warrants continuing.

With three-person IVF, would we be creating a miracle for mothers who don’t want to pass on incurable diseases? Or would we be ‘playing god’ and creating a legal maelstrom as well? Would we have donor mothers suing for rights to baby they claim as theirs? (Remember the Baby M case?) And what kind of medical issues could we see related to the procedure that scientists can’t now predict?

Science sometimes appears to move light-years ahead of the ethics involved in these issues. So will we see a three-person IVF? Science develops the procedures, but the responsibility for deciding whether or not to proceed lies with the rest of us.

Due to their strong feelings against the SOPA and PIPA bills being discussed in the US Congress, both Wikipedia and reddit, as well as many other sites, are participating in a 24 hour blackout.  Both bills are aimed at copyright infringement, but many people believe the bills will cause more harm than good. You can read about the details on a very good synopsis page – one of the few pages Wiki has up today – here.

Having read about these bills and considered the possible outcomes of them, I agree with the stance against both of these bills and truly hope they will never become US law.

The shadow cast by the blackout, especially of Wikipedia has been very long indeed. All day long I’ve seen and heard comments about the blackout on the Internet, from colleagues at work and even from the DJ on the radio. It seems to be one of the most popular topics of conversation today, and that’s easily understandable.

I must admit, I’m a newcomer to reddit. I should have been reading this site for years, I readily confess, but I didn’t ‘get it’ in the beginning. Since then my son has introduced me to Alien Blue on my iPhone, and I’m now a happy reddit camper! (when they’re not participating in a blackout, of course)

But Wikipedia, for me, has been a really, really longterm friend. I remember Wikipedia in the very early days.  You know, back before they had to lock down so many pages due to abuse and nonsensical information that some bright sparks would put up just to have a laugh. Wikipedia has really grown into an amazing entity with information on just about everything. And given just how much information there is on Wiki, it’s usually my first port of call when I need to understand, well, almost anything!

My day without Wiki has been extremely quiet. And several times today I couldn’t find information elsewhere or had to look several places to find what would normally be in the first place I’d look: Wikipedia.

My hat’s off to you, Wiki. You really couldn’t have drawn more attention to your cause in any other way. And I heartily support your decision to oppose SAPO and PIPA in such a public way.

But hurry back tomorrow. I miss you!

When I was 20, I wore very little makeup at all. I was blessed with long eyelashes, but they bleached in the sun when I was a child. So I always had to wear mascara if I wanted my eyelashes to show, which was most of the time. If I were dressing up to go out or to a party, I'd put on eyeshadow. And as I grew in confidence (practicing makeup with friends and such) I would dare eyeliner are times, but that was it.

No foundation. No concealer. (What was there to conceal?) Definitely no blush. (I'm already pink enough, thanks.) I'm not sure I even wore moisturiser most of the time. The most I wanted to do was bring out my eyes a bit for special occasions.

Cut to three kids and a few (several?) some years later, and it's a whole other ballgame.

But now, things are different. I do buy more (my husband would probably say "A LOT OF", or else that's how much money he'd speculate I spend on it) makeup these days, and I'm careful where I buy it.

Unlike years ago, and even in some more recent years, if I'm honest, I don't just buy the first thing I see or whatever appears on an advert. That used to be me, and you could tell by all the discarded tubes and boxes in my medicine cabinet.

Not anymore.

Now I'm reading reviews online, watching YouTube videos to see the products (sort of) up close, testing makeup samples in the stores and having makeovers done by the cosmetic counter technicians. I want to know my products and how they perform before I spend my money on them.

And when in doubt, I go back to my safety position.

My cosmetic of choice is generally Bobbi Brown. These products are really, really good. Developed by a makeup artist, this stuff works. It doesn't produce miracles, but it does make you look good. The range, the makeup and moisturisers for specific skin types, the way the products work together, it's all good. I use their moisturiser, foundation, concealer, powder, almost everything. I do buy other cosmetics (especially things like eyeshadow, bronzer, mascara -- items that I can either use a cheaper version with little impact, or else other products that have fantastic reviews elsewhere) where appropriate, but if I'm not sure where to get something, or if I want to try something new, my default stop is definitely Bobbi Brown.

And I love visiting the Bobbi Brown counter at a department store. (Although for me, this means to trip to Fenwick in Tunbridge Wells. It's a bit of a drive for me, but worth it to see and try all the products firsthand. Plus all the technicians on the counter are well trained, good at matching colours to skin tone and very knowledgeable about the products they sell. Always worth the trip!

And once I know what colours and products I need, I can order online. Plus the website has a Talk To An Artist link that's just great. When I can't get to a store, I can ask questions about products (even about colours that will work with the cosmetics I'm already using) from a live Bobbi Brown representative online. And my results with this option have been really good -- they always recommend products that work well with my current makeup regime.

So I'm a die-hard Bobbi Brown fan now. And hopefully you can see why. My face isn't 20 years old anymore, but hopefully it doesn't look too (terribly) much older. And I'm careful to try to keep it that way. :-)