Run 5: a pictoral account

For something a bit different, I thought you'd like to see today's run in pictures. The sun is finally shining and it's much nicer to run without rain blasting into your eyes. What a great way to start the day...

The Last Thakur on DVD!

It's out! It's out! The Last Thakur, the film I co-wrote the script for, has now been released on DVD. If you missed seeing it in the cinema, you can pop into your local HMV and there it will be. Well at least the Oxford street shop has it. It's very surreal that it even exists. You can buy it online on Play.com or amazon.co.uk.

And here's a little bit about it:

This intense contemporary Western takes place in a remote village of Bangladesh and features breathtaking locations, and leading Bangladeshi theatre actors in a story of passion, jealousy and revenge.

The rhythm of the drum beats as dawn rises over the marshland. The celebrations are beginning, it is independence day... A mysterious man dressed as a private guard and armed with a rifle arrives in the town of Doulthapur. This stranger, Kala, soon finds himself caught up in the midst of a bitter and feuding community.

The Chairman, seductive, venal and ruthless putports to represent and defend his people - but one man stands in his way - Thakur, the local Hindu landlord, driven by his own manic obsession to commerate his family by reclaiming all land on which loans are unpaid. Kala and his gun become a vital asset that each side must have. Broke and hungry, Kala begins to bargain with them. He'll take their money but what he wants is information. He has his own mission that brought him here, to find his father, the man who raped his mother, and take revenge.

Run 4: what’s with the weather?

On Friday, my friend made an observation. Starting to run in November is not an easy task nor is it something most people do. This morning, not only did I have to contend with it being Monday, but it was was raining sideways. Now I'm not intending to make all of my talk of running be also all about the weather (though it makes me feel rather British) but I'm rather proud that I got up and did it despite the weather.

As the start of the second week, my running time has increased so it's now 1 minute running and 2 minutes walking. You do it 6 times, so 18 minutes total. I did a bit more running then in the plan - I found running in that weather much better then walking in it.

Going through Clapham Common I had an entire extended family of geese settling on the path in front of me. Like a little goose crossing. They scattered and didn't fuss too much when I went by which was great - geese can be a bot snappy and tempermental.

Unfortunately once I was done I couldn't do my yoga - during my internal debate what I should do about the weather (while um...lounging in bed), I didn't leave myself enough time to do that and get to work. So off to work I went.

Run 3: sore legs in the rain

This is the third day of running and the rain was beating the window when I awoke. Too early and the rain is not making me want to put on my trainers and hoodie and go out there. So after procrastinating (ie pressing snooze), I got up and forced myself out the door. In some way, it was great that I waited because the rain stopped but it made me feel rushed for time. Legs were sore today which was a first this week so I thought more stretching was the perfect remedy.

I thought I'd try out the yoga feature on Wii Fitness training. I thought it may be a couple stretches after some cardio but it was all yoga. I didn't realize that (maybe I should read manuals in future or actually try out all the features.) It was a great way to finish off a run and I'll be doing it for the next one.

Run 2: a blustery morning

This morning I awoke to the wind rattling my windows and my body groggy with red wine memories of the night before. This wasn't going to be a fun run, I could feel it. Well more accurately walk/run as according to the plan, I actually doing more walking then running.

The wind hit me as soon as I crossed to the common. Happily it wasn't raining and most of Monday's puddles had cleared up. Today's No Doubt soundtrack brought me back to the 90s: all of the songs are upbeat and surprisingly motivational. I did my little loop of the park and instead of walking the last 3 minutes as outlined in my plan, I ran them. Woohoo! Run 2 complete.

Run 1: Running in the Rain

Of course it’s raining on the first day of my new running regime. All the other weeks I thought of running and then didn’t, this would have stopped me. Not today. On went the workout wear, the trainers and out I went.
Rain actually feels nice when running – if it’s not too cold or windy. Today was not too bad. One minute running. Slightly out of breath by the end of it. Embarrassing. Three minutes of walking I can do...then I round the corner to walk down a path cutting through Clapham Common and a woman collapses in the middle of it. Walking was cut short as I ran to help.

A man walking a dog beat me to her and was on the phone to the ambulance. She mumbled incoherently as she came to. By the time the man convinced the ambulance (yes, he had to convince them!) to come, the woman was trying to stand. She suddenly said she was fine and thanked us for the help but she had to go. We tried to convince her to wait but no dice.

Nothing more either of us could do, I continued running. I finished and felt not too bad even if the rain got heavier near the end. End of day one. We’ll see how my legs feel tomorrow!

Photo by mnomono

Giving a little to kids at Christmas

Though many advertisers may not agree, I think it’s a bit early to talk Christmas. But it’s never too early to talk giving. And this year, people around the UK are taking part in Christmas in a Shoebox. This charity gives to children that won’t have a little gift for Christmas and is run by Operation Christmas Child. Running for 19 years, this is the UK’s largest children’s Christmas appeal. Last year 1.2 million shoeboxes were collected packed full of gifts and goodies. These were then distributed to children in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

This charity is an easy way for everyone to give at Christmas. Yes...anyone can take part! That includes you. So if you’re interested, all you need to do is:

• Find a shoe box at home


• Wrap it nicely but leave it open


• Fill it with new items such as toys (nothing war related or homemade please!), educational supplies, hygiene items like toothbrushes or soap, or items like gloves, sunglasses, bangles or hats. Also make sure none of the items are fragile, liquid or dangerous.

When you’re done, all that’s left is to take the box to a drop off spot near you and a child somewhere will have a gift this Christmas. You can read more about Operation Christmas Child on their website where you can find out your nearest drop off spot.  The last day of collection is 18 November so get cracking!

Marathon bound…one run at a time

I’ve decided to give running another go. I’m great at making excuses but it actually feels good when you run on a regular basis. I got into it for a few months last year but then life got in the way.

Today I cracked open “Running Made Easy” which I think is a great book for all you beginner runners out there (me included). When you first begin, you start off very easy. Run 1 minute, walk 3 minutes and repeat that 4 times. 16 minutes. Sounds easy – and it will be when I get in shape again. But it’s a nice level to start off at – achievable and doesn’t want to make you quit immediately. I think my problem with all the other times I wanted to start running was that I tried to do too much too soon. Or I started running at ridiculous times (like the middle of January in the wilds of Canada!)

The first 10 weeks you work up towards a 5 km run. I can usually do one in 30 minutes and I want to get back up to that. But instead of jumping right in, I’m going back to the beginning. Once comfortable with 5 km then you can train 10 weeks for a 10 km. Then 11 weeks to a half marathon and 12 weeks to a marathon. I’m thinking a year at minimum to get me to marathon capability. Should I do it? 2012?

The book says have a goal in mind. Now that I have my visa and I’m mere days away from being able to apply for my British passport, I think it’s time for another non-work goal. My new Nikes are in the post. Marathon here I come!

Photo by corono

My Wii Fit gave me trouble

So I haven’t been on my Wii Fit for a long time – 2 months too long. My trousers were getting a bit snugger but I’ve been enjoying the take away and drinks and not willing to think about the consequences. It also hasn’t helped that I’ve been working in an office again so lunches have become more ready meal friendly then ever before. And there’s always bread and biscuits. Eek.

So today I decided I can’t carry on this way. And the Wii Fit agreed. After scolding me for not visiting it recently, it gracefully added on pounds to my sleek avatar to show I’ve gained weight. Thanks Wii Fit.

But it did have a point and I dug out my trainers and did 30 minutes of aerobics with my Wii Personal Trainer. She was more sympathetic and told me that she understood it’s hard to keep exercising. So she kept encouraging me through the 30 minutes as I realized my year long exercise hiatus has done more of a toll on my body than I thought. I hope I’m not in a horror movie situation any time soon. I don’t think I’d be able to run very far…

Photo by sajego

Easy Bake: Italian Bachelor Spaghetti

The phone rings. Your friend is a mess. She's been sacked/ dumped/demoted or all of the above. So you say "Casa mia, casa tua" and she's on the way with a bottle of red. The only problem is a) you're skint and b)there's nothing in the house but hard bread, spaghetti, olive oil and a slightly suspect head of garlic. Under these circumstances, times call for Italian Bachelor Spaghetti!

This recipe was passed down to me by a little Italian man in a tiny Italian flat...about 18 months ago in Vauxhall. Though it's simple, it's delicious. Even my little brother, who only diets on chicken fingers and fries, gobbled this up. So to begin:

1. Fill a large saucepan with enough water to cook your spaghetti in. Put it on to boil.
2. Once the water begins to bubble, put in about 165 g of pasta (approx. a 1/3 of a box) for the two of you.
3. Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan and heat on medium.
4. Peel a couple of garlic cloves and toss them into the oil to give it flavour. Once the garlic begins to brown, remove them from the oil.
5. Answer the door, hug your friend and open the wine she's been clutching. Generously pour two large glasses.
6. Put the dried bread into a large sandwich bag and pass your friend a rolling pin. Convince her to roll the bread into crumbs and not hit it.
7. Take a piece of pasta and throw it at the wall. If it sticks, it's done.
8. Drain the pasta then cool it quickly by rinsing it in cold water.
9. Refill your wine glasses.
10. Mix the bread crumbs, the garlic infused oil and the pasta together until the noodles are completely coated in crumbs. Add salt, pepper and serve.

This should be enough carbs to heal a broken heart for the night especially if it's accompanied with plenty of red wine. It's also good for an all weekend Godfather marathon or vegging out in front of your favorite omnibus. Buon appetito!

Photo by Ishikawa Takanori

FOUND POEM: A Sister’s Advice

from The Book of Answers by Carol Bolt

Do it early: Be more generous
A year from now it won't matter
Gentle persistance will pay off
Allow yourself to rest first
Startling events may occur as a result
That's out of your control
Listen more carefully; then you will know
Consider it an opportunity

Cardiff’s Chip Alley: Dorothy’s V Six Fingers

During a recent visit to Cardiff, I was told I wouldn't have truely had a Cardiff experience unless I ended my evening in Chip Alley. We hit the street at 2 am and Chip Alley was right. There was more than half a dozen shops with various chips on offer but which were the best? After a few disagreements from my Welsh hosts, it was decided that the two best shops for chips were Dorothy's and 6 Fingers (it's actually called Capital Takeaway but supposedly the owner/ a worker has 6 fingers on one hand, hence the nickname). In a little bout of midnight fun we called forth a chip off. The 1st annual Cardiff Chip Off had commenced with:

DOROTHY'S VS SIX FINGERS

So first up is Dorothy's. Dorothy's has doors on either side with two counters so that double the people can enjoy their chips on offer. One of our group got chips with cheese and mayo. As I can't eat cheese, I had to have one from the bottom of the pile. I found them to be quite soft and a bit mealy in texture on the inside. We all tried one without cheese and the verdict was: they're OK.

Dorothy's with cheese

or

Salt and vinegar variety from Six Fingers

Next up...Six Fingers. The chips were hot and crisp but not too hot so no tongues or mouth roofs were harmed in the conduction of this chip off. The insides were cooked to perfection and still had a fluffy inside. They did have a touch of salt and vinegar on them so there were comments that it would make them taste better. As I was more convinced by the texture than the taste, we delegated Jamie to have a chip from each with the addition of some cheese since Dorothy's was covered in the stuff. Jamie's verdict came back resoundingly in favour of Six Fingers.

Our true Dorothy's fan didn't want to admit it, but Six Fingers did make the superior chip. She is convinced that it was a one off but for my Cardiff experience, Six Fingers wins the 1st annual Cardiff Chip Off. Any other Cardiff chip eaters? What do you think?

To fake or not to fake

I'll admit it, I have a dirty secret. I'm a bitter. A nail bitter. Year in, year out I've tried to stop but it never sticks. Sometimes I succeed for a couple months but then I'm back at it. I even wrote an essay when I was 13 entitled “My Proudest Achievement" which outlined how I had overcome adversity to stop chewing my nails. That didn't last very long.

Three years ago, after firmly believing I was damned to be a nail biter for life, my friend recommended that I try fake nails. But didn't fake nails belong in the same category as orange tans and hair extensions? I swallowed my apprehension, put my prejudice aside and got the fakes for my birthday to see what they were like. Glue, file, paint, polish. An hour later and I had nails! Beautiful, natural looking, glorious nails. Suddenly I was a girl. My hair was swishy, my hips swayed, my mascara seemed to stay firmly attached to eyelashes. All because of these newly gotten gains.

The thing they don't tell you is that as your nails grow, the acrylics don't and they begin to peel at the edges. Acrylic also gets old and needs to come off on a regular basis so instead of chewing I was picking at them. And they're thick, so they aren't good for when you need to scratch your back or your nose. But at least, most of the time, they were pretty.

When the recession hit, my job went with it and suddenly rent became a luxury so the nails had to go. As I hadn't been biting for a few years, I thought I could hack it but I'm back to biting with a vengeance. Unintentionally, I'm curling my fingers inward and hiding non-existent nails and hangnails from sight. On top of that, I miss my old nails. I even miss the clickity clack they made on the keyboard.

So the question is...do I dive in again? Get the nails, keep them up or keep hiding my hands away? I should have more willpower, yes, but when an hour in a little beauty shop in Wandsworth yields such beautiful results, why should I?

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik

Taking my new TOMS shoes out for a spin

Taking a break from my mid-week lazing and to procrastinate further on the treatment I was supposed to write, I took my new red TOMS shoes out for a walk. This was the first day I had a chance to wear them since I bought them in Canada so I wasn't sure how comfortable they would be. Well I worried for nothing! My TOMS were not only comfortable but I got to see a nice deep red toe that poked out under my jeans wherever I walked.

Beyond the comfort they gave me, TOMS, more importantly, are made by a company that help children in need. TOMS shoes began after American Blake Mycoskie took a trip to Argentina in 2006. He became friends with the children there who, more often than not, had no shoes. As walking can be a primary form of transportation in developing countries, going barefoot means children can be at risk from cuts and sores from unsafe roads and contaminated soil. These cuts can lead to infections and is the leading cause of disease in developing countries. Also shoes can be a requirement to attend school, so without them, these children can't get an education.

Mycoskie created TOMS with the idea that still drives the company to this day. Buy a pair of shoes and a pair goes to a child who needs them. SO far over 150,000 pairs have been given away with the goal to give another 300,000 by the end of this year. It's just that easy to use your purchasing power for good.

If you want to find out more about TOMS and get yourself a pair of shoes, you can visit their website. Now that I've been on there, I want to buy the whole shop! Don't know if I can resist - comfortable, colourful, fun AND helps a good cause? Have to make some more room in my closet.

The unusual phishing email I got today

Yep - this is the first for this one so far. I normally get emails from supposed war veterns like this:

"This is John England, an American Soldier stationed in Iraq, please I need your help by keeping my two trunk boxes I discovered in Iraq containing USD $22.5Million. More details as soon as I hear from you."

Or people who need help getting money out of various countries and I'm the only one who can do it:

"When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $8.5 Million with a Bank in Cote D lvoire. Presently this money is still in the custody of the Bank in Cote D lvoire...Contact me on the this email addres and any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another good person."

Financial rewards of course can be mine if I give them all of my account details. But this one is a first and isn't even from a Russian woman looking to be your new bride!

"Hello,

I know its not reasonable to mail someone like this, but i dont have enough time to go and sign up on facebook or anything, basically im looking forward to hangout or have a relationship with a decent girl, maybe if you are single and interested email me back at this address

(NOTE: I'll withhold that so you're not tempted to click on it)

and im really very sorry if this emial bothers you, and if it does let me know knwo i will never sned you ant kind of email.

Thanks alot :))"

Hmmmmm.....anyone else get an email from Leonardo Blanchard? Or am I the only lucky one?

Social media in real time

Crowdsourcing? Retweet? Boos? This last year has brought a huge upswing in the use of social media by everyone from individuals to big brands. Even my mum is my facebook friend but what is the impact of using social media in a real time format?

Just what is social media?

For those who aren’t in the social media sphere, I thought a video breaking it down would be more fun and Common Craft have created one that does just that:



The advancement of real-time social media

Now real-time social media is a step beyond what original users of facebook or MySpace have come to know. When I first heard of twitter I scoffed at it but this popular form of real-time social media has been credited with breaking news around the world from the Mumbai terrorist attacks to the New York Hudson River plane crash. Just last week, Twitter has been credited for the wave of criticism over Jan Moir’s article on Stephen Gately in the Daily Mail that led to her apology over the article.

As news, everything you read on twitter does have to be taken with a grain of salt as it is opinion but it is great at spreading information globally by the microsecond. News sources and publications now use it to send out their headlines and I’ve seen those same sources call out for information and photos of news events as they happen. So with this type of power to hand, how do you use it to promote your ideas or in the case of small businesses, promote your product?

How Twitter gave me coffee

Recently, I was tweeting about coffee with a friend of mine and he mentioned a coffee company called Xpress Coffee. I sent out a few messages about them and Chris, who runs the business, offered me some coffee to try. It amazed me that a few messages in the social media sphere would get heard and give me some direct benefit. Now that I’ve received the coffee (and it was much more than I expected!), I feel excited to talk about their small business and promote it to others. I’ve even given some of the coffee away to friends who read my messages about the coffee I was drinking so others could also try the different types of coffee on offer. For a small business, this is invaluable and can grow your customer base exponentially.

Romantic Comedy Structure & Tropes: Part 3

A Comparison of Secretary and When Harry Met Sally

In all romantic comedies, there is what can be considered the “will they, won’t they moment.” This is the moment where the audience sees and feels the chemistry between the protagonists long before they admit it to each other. This creates a major turning point in the film. Being true to form, this moment occurs approximately 45 minutes or half way through both films in question. In When Harry Met Sally, the two are dancing cheek to cheek – he smells her hair, she presses in closer and they separate as if to kiss. They deny themselves this moment but as an audience we are able to understand they have fallen for each other. In Secretary, this moment occurs as Mr. Grey hears her sniff and he pauses, unsure if he should chastise her and she in turn waits for his rebuke. As an audience, we feel the heightened sexual tension that this creates which is then followed by Mr. Grey finally stepping over the line of employer/ employee to spank her for the first time which is how they show affection and love in their relationship.

In romantic comedies, “the heroes and heroines…often confront difficult moral dilemmas. ” These dilemmas can go against either their personal beliefs or those of society. In both films, these dilemmas lead to a falling-out between the protagonists that occurs at the beginning of the third act. In the case of When Harry Met Sally, Harry’s belief is that sex ruins friendships and that’s why men and women can’t be friends. Sally and Harry’s friendship springs up despite of this so after they sleep together, Harry wants to erase that moment and keep their relationship as it was. To Sally, it has changed and she is tired of being a consolation prize so there is a huge rift between them. In Secretary, Mr. Grey believes he should conform to society’s idea of male and female relationships even though it’s not what he needs. After masturbating on Lee, he finds a spot of semen on his trousers and the reality of what is happening between them becomes apparent. He immediately destroys all of her framed letters and fires Lee believing that by getting rid of her, he would rid himself his unusual sexual needs. This then spirals Lee into a search for a replacement for Mr. Grey and drives the potential couple further apart. In both films, these moments are the darkest for both protagonists.

This trope is typical of romantic comedies as it leads to a further trope of this genre where the protagonists “have to make some sort of personal sacrifice in order to prove themselves and finally win the one they love.” Alone on New Years Eve, Harry passes the place where Sally first dropped him off when they arrived in New York twelve years earlier. Remembering the moments between them, Harry realizes that he indeed loves Sally and his beliefs about the ideas of love and friendship shift. In Secretary, Mr. Grey, untrusting of Lee's love for him and having asked her to prove it by remaining at his desk with her hands firmly placed on top, reads about Lee in the paper when she becomes a local celebrity as she is still waiting for him after three days. This gives him the insight that her declaration of love is true and their type of relationship is what works between them. This being the case, Mr. Grey knows he must go against the societal norm to finally have true love. Both then have the “run to the airport moment” that occurs in lead up to the climax of most romantic comedies. Harry runs through the streets of New York in hopes to find Sally to declare his love to her while Mr. Grey drives to his office and from amongst reporters, community and family members, whisks Lee away.

To round off the comparison between these two films, the fairytale ending can not be overlooked. When Harry Met Sally shows the first kiss of the new lovers and then gives a final interview between the two as they talk about their marriage and their happiness together. Secretary gives us the moments of Mr. Grey lovingly taking care of Lee, their marriage and unorthodox honeymoon and finally their settle into suburban lifestyle where their sadomasochist relationship still occurs behind closed doors. Both films show that though the protagonists went through adversity and misunderstandings, love prevails for them and an audience can assume that these characters will live happily ever after which is one of the most recognizable romantic comedy troupes of all.

As shown, Secretary has all the elements of a romantic comedy as compared to When Harry Met Sally, a seminal film of this genre. Due to the unorthodox relationship that occurs between the protagonists, however, most people will be unable to see it as such. In this case, social politics overshadows what could be considered a standard love story. Only by looking beyond societal norms can an audience appreciate the humour, passion and tenderness of a film no less worthy of the title of romantic comedy.

Read Part 1 of Romantic Comedy Structure and Tropes

Read Part 2 of Romantic Comedy Structure and Tropes

Photo by Zack Sheppard

Romantic Comedy Structure & Tropes: Part 2

A Comparison of Secretary and When Harry Met Sally

Another similarity between the two films is the presence of the best friend. There are three reasons for the best friend in romantic comedies. They serve to add humour, to move the plot along and to give an insight to the protagonists’ inner thoughts in order to reveal their character as well as their insecurities and in some cases musings on the focus of their love. As a traditional romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally gives both Harry and Sally a friend, Jess and Marie respectively, which serve all three of the above purposes. Secretary also has a representative best friend. Melanie Halsall states in her article “The Best Friend in the Romantic Comedy” that “if the best friend is absent from the film, there has to be the addition of another device, such as a narration, to allow us an insight into the motivations of the characters. ” Secretary uses a combination of narration and Lee’s boyfriend, Peter, as best friend. Of course, he then plays a duel role in this case as not only does he provide insight into Lee and moves the plot forward but also serves to show that the relationship between Mr. Grey and Lee is real love compared to what she has with Peter.

This relationship leads to another romantic comedy trope which is found in the unsuitable relationship that the protagonists have apart from each other. This often serves as a catalyst for the progression of their relationship. It also serves to highlight how suitable the protagonists are for each other. In Secretary, Lee embarks on a liaison with her friend Peter as her attempt to have a normal relationship. Their first kiss, witnessed by Mr. Grey, sparks the beginning of Mr.Grey’s criticism of Lee which eventually leads to their sadomasochistic relationship that Lee comes to crave. Peter, on the other hand, can’t fulfil her sexual or emotional needs as he requires a conventional relationship. Near the end of the film, when Lee is being fitted into Peter’s mother’s wedding dress, she realizes that she loves Mr. Grey and runs to him to declare that fact. In comparison, When Harry Met Sally uses the ending of unsuitable relationships as a catalyst into their friendship, the one that Harry claimed could never exist in the first place. This moment occurs approximately 30 minutes into the film which is also when the same type of catalytic moment occurs in Secretary. Further to this, When Harry Met Sally uses the finding of new loves by the protagonists’ prospective exes to push Harry and Sally into new areas of their relationship. When Harry sees his ex-wife at the department store, it drives him to needle Sally about her inability to move on from Joe, her ex-fiancé, and how she is emotionless and Sally retorts that his way of dealing is no better as he seems to be sleeping with the entire female population of New York as a form of revenge. Though Harry then apologizes, this exchange turns their light friendship into something deeper. When Sally hears Joe’s, engagement, she falls into the arms of Harry which leads to them having sex, which inextricably changes their relationship forever.

Read Part 1 of Romantic Comedy Structure and Tropes

Read Part 3 of Romantic Comedy Structure and Tropes

Photo by peasap

Romantic Comedy Structure & Tropes: Part 1

A Comparison of Secretary and When Harry Met Sally

Throughout cinematic history, romantic comedies have been very popular with filmgoers, as demonstrated by the 53,444,481 tickets to romantic comedies sold in the USA in 2006 alone . Since the idea of love is the thing that is often cherished and sought after in society, it is no wonder we are drawn to these films that “tell us about ourselves as men and women, sexual desire, love, relationships, our longings and wishes, our fallibilities and fears. ” As the face of love is changing, so must our idea of romantic comedy. Though Steven Shainberg’s Secretary has been labelled a drama or even a black comedy, this film actually uses the basic structure and tropes attributed to romantic comedy to tell its sadomasochist love story. By comparing it to a well known romantic comedy of the 80s, When Harry Met Sally, we can see that Secretary, though dark at times, can still be considered a romantic comedy due to its structure and genre tropes.

According to Sally Potter in I Love You But…Romance, Comedy and the Movies, the basis of all romantic comedies confronts the same questions including: “What makes a good relationship? What makes us happy? What do men and women really want?” and in an article in July 2004’s Scriptwriter, she goes further to say “The essence of all romantic comedy lies in the formidable obstacles the lovers must overcome in order for their love to survive, if only for a short while. ” As an overall structure, these forms are true for both films in question but how do they hold up when dissected into genre tropes?

In most romantic comedies the viewer is faced with two protagonists who together would make an unlikely couple. Nothing more is true for both When Harry Met Sally and Secretary. In the beginning of both, it is clearly set out that the couples are unsuitable for each other. Harry is a slobby, angst-driven pessimistic as compared to Sally’s chirpy, overly-organized, eternal optimist. In the case of Secretary, Mr. Grey is Lee’s efficient, worldly employer, and she is merely his employee in her first job role. These conflicting personalities lead to personal and social obstacles between them that have to be overcome. This is key in romantic comedy as the conflict between what we want and what we need or believe is the core of most love stories. “Change is, in essence, what most of us seek in love-relationships – we want change, and love changes us.”

Read Part 2 of Romantic Comedy Structure and Tropes

Read Part 3 of Romantic Comedy Structure and Tropes

Photo by Bombardier

When the earth sleeps

Shorn fields are wrapped

like a bed-ready Grandma,

her head in curlers.

Photo by Kevin Dooley; Poetry by Heather Taylor

Protect yourself from fraud

UK National Identity Fraud Prevention Week is almost at its end but fraud prevention is something internet users should always be vigilant about. The site www.stop-idfraud.co.uk gives details on how you can protect your personal details and that of your business. There is also a new Get Safe Online campaign which gives a full range of tips on how to protect yourself online. But why is it so important to be aware of this?

Only last week more than 20,000 email account username and passwords as well as other credentials were leaked online from providers including Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo. Phishing was most likely to blame in the compilation of this list. What’s worrying is that people often use the same password for everything which means fraudsters could potential access someone’s online banking.

Following on the theme of fraud and being safe online, the One Show on BBC had a segment last night on auction website scams to look out for. You can read more about what they talked about on the BBC website where there is a summery of some of the most common scams including counterfeits, lost post and second chance offers.

He’s Fantastic and he’s a Fox!

A short 12 hours ago an email popped into my inbox. A spare ticket for a film was up for grabs. But not just any film. Tonight was the world premiere of Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as the opening night of the BFI 53rd London Film Festival. I fired back an immediate yes. Normally I'm always a couple seconds too late when free things are up for offer, but this time, I got the ticket (thanks Jim)! Fantastic Mr. Fox here I come.

Now anyone who knows me knows I try to fit too many things in a day, so it wasn't a big surprise that I was running late. I missed my train and I still had to go home and change (black tie all the way!) SO I jumped into a cab. On principle I dont' take cabs. They are like a magical wonder to me yes but I do hate to spend that much money to get somewhere, especially in London. Now being a couple minutes (or 10) behind wouldn't normally bother me but it was 6:20 and if I wasn't at the theatre by 7 pm. I wouldn't get in. No exceptions.

OK. The pressure is on. Rush hour. London. Black cab. My driver suggests Leicester Square may be busy - something about Clooney or something. "Yes, yes!" I exclaim. "That's where I'm going! I'm going to premiere of his film" With fire in his eyes, the driver looked back at me and said, "You will get there. I promise." With that his foot went to the floor, and we sped off through town. Well sped may be a bit much as we got cut off, hit traffic, and were blocked by road works. As we got closer and closer, he capped the cost of the ride saying the slow down was his fault (goodness, I've never got that before! Thank you my Canadian little black dress). When we got as close as possible, he gave me a thumbs up as I ran through Leicester Square. Ticket in hand, I crossed the red carpet and entered the cinema.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson's first animated film and what a film it was. Not only did it have a top British stop animation working on the look, it featured a star-studded cast of voices including George Clooney (he's so handsome in real life despite the fuzzy photo below - sigh), Meryl Streep (she wasn't there as she had the flu), Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Eric Anderson, Jarvis Cocker...the list goes on. To accomodate the popularity of the film, both the Empire and the Odeon showed the film at the same time so the cast and crew had to open the Odeon film and then rush over to the Empire (where I was).

Wes Anderson opened with a speech about the film and what it was like working on it in the UK. After a few words I didn't completely listen to due to Clooney standing a couple rows from where I was sitting but soon Anderson introduced the cast, crew and Roald Dahl's wife who was the last to come up to the stage.

For those who don't know the story of Fantastic Mr. Fox, it starts with Mr and Mrs Fox (Clooney and Streep) who live with their son Ash (Schwartzman) and a visiting cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson). 12 years before, Mr. Fox promised to stop stealing after hearing of his child's impending arrival but his animal instincts are kicking back in. Soon he's back to his old ways and his thievery untimately endangers his family and his entire community. Will Mr. Fox and friends be able to band together to save them from the 3 evil farmer's Mr. Fox has been stealing from, or are they doomed to die hiding underground?

The film was magical. I've been a fan of stop motion animation ever since I saw the California Raisins Christmas Special as a kid. Anderson used this form of animation in such a way that it paid homage to the original book without losing any of the drive one would expect from an animated film. Best of all, as the characters could go anywhere and do anything, the tiny details (every time someone swore they said "cuss" instead of the swear word) and sight gags added to the fun and humour of the film.

I've seen almost all of Wes Anderson's films and found this to be the most mature and linear of his pieces despite it being an animation. Though there was still a random meander to it that I find charming but relentless in his other films, here it all played back to poking fun at convention while still keeping on that same path. For instance, when there was a montage sequence, it played over the music of Petey (Jaris Cocker) and his rag tag band who were gathered elsewhere waiting for Mr. Fox and family to appear. This is all paraphrasing here, but as Petey sang away, his evil farmer boss, Mr. Bean, asked him what he was doing. "Just making stuff up as I go along" to which Bean said "That's not how you write a song." Petey shrugged and said "I guess not." Was this a gentle jibe at Jarvis or maybe Anderson himself?

I don't want to get in much more detail on how good this was because it is. And with so many good lines, as soon as one entered, it'd promptly leave my head to make room for the next. Maybe I could have saved myself all this time by just writing "IT WAS GREAT. GO SEE IT." Really...do go see it.

So I'll end with this. A line I think I'm getting right. Riley (with the departure of a baddie): "He just went bananas." Mr. Fox: "Yes. He went bananas."

Write a letter to the CRTC Secretary General to save small broadcasters

Today, I got this email from Kern, the Program Development Manager from Access. Basically there's been public debate between cable and satellite companies and Canada's broadcasters over revenue. I think it's an important issue to look at from all sides but I'll let you decide what you want to do. For myself, I'm going to send a letter. It's companies like Access that filmmakers (like me!) make the programming they're passionate about.

"I'm sure you've heard of the recent public debate between cable and satellite companies and Canada's broadcasters. Perhaps what you didn't know was the impact that this issue has on ACCESS.

For some years ACCESS has been funded by advertising revenue generated by our popular prime time programs. We use this revenue to offset the costs of non-commercial educational programming in the morning and afternoon, and we use this revenue to produce our daily provincial current affairs program, Alberta Primetime, and to support independent production.

The only reason we are able to continue our educational broadcasts and to support independent production is because we are part of the CTV conventional broadcast system. Without high profile popular programming to generate ad revenue and without the local CTV production infrastructure in Edmonton and Calgary, ACCESS cannot exist.

As an independent producer, you are aware of the importance of personal involvement in social and political issues. The survival of CTV conventional stations and therefore the survival of ACCESS has become a political issue.

The outcome of important public hearings set to be held in Ottawa this December will impact you directly. The importance and the breadth of this issue is exemplified by the partnership between companies that are ostensibly competitors - CTV, Global and the CBC - who are combining to shed light on this case. Please visit http://www.localtvmatters.com/ to get the facts about this issue.

With this email, we are asking you to send a letter to the CRTC indicating your support of our industry's efforts to simply seek the right to negotiate with cable and satellite companies to determine a fair market value for our local TV signals - fair compensation for our product. As it now stands, cable and satellite companies take our stations for free and sell them to the public. Local broadcasters receive nothing from this, and yet we're the ones who produce news and current affairs, license independent productions and help our communities grow and connect with the world around them.

You are likely aware that 2 local television stations have went dark since August - CKX in Brandon, MB and CKRD in Red Deer, AB. Over the next year or two, there are another 20 to 30 that will be closed unless the regulations that were developed in the middle of the last century are changed. The fate of ACCESS is inextricably linked with the fate of the conventional broadcast system. If you wish to appear in front of the commission, please indicate this in your letter.

This is the final time this issue will be discussed and ruled on.

Your letter must be either mailed or faxed and received by the CRTC by November 2nd- quote CRTC #2009-614

Secretary General
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N2
Submitted via fax (819) 994-0218
Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2009-614

Please email or fax me (Kern) a copy of your letter once finished. My fax number is 780-484-4426."

Twitter gave me the gift of coffee

I follow Nick Butler aka @loudmouthman after meeting him at Tuttle Club at the ICA. He mentioned the joys of xpress coffee and so I asked how he got their coffee. To my surprise, @xpresscoffee sent me a tweet and offered to send me some coffee so I could try it out.

A couple weeks later and instead of a couple small packs of beans, I've been given bushels of coffee! Of course I want to drink it all at once but that's a bit too greedy. Instead I'm going to share some of it with a couple regular joes so we can all taste test and compare notes on all this coffee. I'm merely an amateur but I do love the stuff so hopefully I can get a few others in on this journey.

Check back for reviews of Xpress Coffee from the tastebuds of regular coffee guzzlers. No more instant coffee for me ever again! Thank you twitter. I love you.

The effect of the Royal Mail staff strike for online businesses

Royal Mail staff have decided to strike and with thousands of eBay sellers using the Royal Mail service, there’s questions on how this will affect them

Though the effect of the strike is meant to be limited today, the fact is Royal Mail staff have decided a national postal strike is the best resolution to their outstanding issues even though it may drive users away from the service. With rumours of Amazon, British Gas and BT planning to move from Royal Mail due to this disruption, the future of the service appears bleak. Even the postal affairs minister, Tony Young, has stated that “a national postal strike is completely self defeating and will only serve to hurt consumers and businesses who rely on the post and drive even more people away from using mail.”

Parcelforce is supposed to remain unaffected by the strike even with its ties to Royal Mail and some businesses are looking to TNT or Citylink to send their parcels. There are a number of delivery services available throughout the UK, some of which are listed on the UK net guide, but it’s advised to research not only which parcel service is best for both you as a seller but if the services will deliver to your all of your buyers.

LINKS
Read Royal Mail’s statement on upcoming mail service interruptions

Video: PayPal opens up APIs for Charity Hack

Over the weekend of the 19th and 20th of September 2009, over 100 developers gathered at the PayPal offices in Richmond to take part in the first ever PayPal charity hack. Within 24 hours they had to use PayPal’s new adaptive payment APIs with brand new ones from MissionFish and JustGiving to create new ways for charities to promote their causes. On offer: a grand prize trip to Innovate 09 but what really motivated this group to give up their sleep and their time to hack for charity?

At the end of the 24 hours, the applications varied from mobile uses to online games. It was a glimpse into how these new applications could be used by developers to make payment and donation giving even easier for the consumer. The big winners were:

• Silliest hack – comparetheduck.com, by Alistair MacDonald and Michael Heap allowed you to compare rubber ducks and build your own top trumps cards. It was suggested that a charity could use the system with a more appropriate theme.


• Breast Cancer Campaign challenge – Pinkify. This facebook application allows you to select a friends photo and make them “wear it pink”. This ap has a huge potential to go viral as well getting the “wear it pink” message over to the facebook generation. The winners included Cristiano Betta and Melinda Seckington.


• Best Mobile hack – GetGiving was based on allowing you to make a spontaneous donation to charity on seeing a poster or paper/tube advert. This allowed you to either use an iphone ap/ text message or a mobile website.


• Best Social Media based hack- Sponsor Me. This facebook application allows you to set up a cause and donate the proceeds directly to a charity via Missionfish and PayPal. This app allows you to pick a charity and therefore has great potential on the world biggest social network. The winning team included Wakari founder, Mat Clayton.


• The winning hack was CharityFrag by a team of 5 including Tim Nash , Dom Hodgson , Kevin Prince , Leeky and Tom Morris. This amazing application connected an opensource first person shooter game up with PayPal’s adaptive payments. Judges picked this one not only as it used very innovative technologies, but it addressed the issue of engaging a younger generation in the donation process.

LINKS:
Find out about the history of hacking
Read more about Innovate 09 on PayPal’s developer network
Coverage of the event by Cambridge New Media Services

On Adam Sandler

My friend Josh works at the evening standard and sometimes asks me to write my opinion about topics that are in the news that day. Recently he asked me to send him 100 words on Adam Sandler - they didn't print it as they already had one with that point of view so I thought I'd print it here:

Saturday Night Live was the mainstay of my teenage years in Canada during the time Adam Sandler dominated the programme. Since then I think I've watched every one of his movies. The SNL alumni of those years seemed to breed the broad comedic acting Sandler is know for and that persona is hard to shake. Though I think of Billy Madison as a false start, Happy Gilmore really made Sandler into a main player and he has become an industry of his own as an actor, writer, singer and executive producer. But because of his comedic reputation, I believe his more serious turns are overlooked.

Though I enjoyed his films before, after watching his performance in Punch-Drunk Love, I saw Sandler in a different light. In amongst his teenage boy comedy or family fare, you'll find hidden gems like 50 First Dates or Spanglish, which I cited during my interview for my masters program. I now joke that an Adam Sandler film got me into higher education as his name is so often attributed to the type of American comedy Brits sneer at. But why? Look through his wide range of films and you'll find something for everyone. I think if his sweeter and more touching films were promoted more in the UK, he may be seen in a more serious light.

Who are your influencers?

Today I had to fill out an artist's profile and on it I had to list my influencers. I understood they meant writers and probably poets but my list looked something like this at the time:

Dave Eggers/ McSweeneys, Haruki Murakami, Raymond Carver, Wendy Cope, Bernardine Evaristo, Gerald Manley Hopkins, Wilfred Owen, Shel Silverstein, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rothko, Nora Ephron, Danny Boyle, Blake Snyder, Radiohead, Weakerthans, Postal Service, Ben Folds, Corb Lund, Johnny Cash

They are my influencers but really a lot of my influencers aren't people that someone can go "oh yeah. They influence me too." Some of my influencers aren't even people. So if I could have really put who my main influencers are I'd say (in no particular order):

My Mom: She told us to do whatever made us happy. It didn't matter if we were rich as long as we were happy (but not too poor as when you have to scrabble for money, you're usually not very happy). I think I also get my habit of taking in strays from her - if you don't have somewhere to go on a holiday or a night out and you're in Edmonton, my mom will make you feel at home. She also introduced me to indoor picnics, which are one of my favorite kind.

My Dad: He is one of the most generous people I know. If you are a sales clerk (or anyone who helps him really), he'll make sure to tell your manager there and then that you did a good job if you did. It's the thing most of us forget to do but he never does so I like to try to take that leaf out of his book.

Sarah (my sister): I can't describe all the ways she influences me. But we talk almost everyday. I have the phone bills to prove it.

Becky (my sister): Strong. Thoughtful. Rational. Hilarious. And knows more about politics in a logical, straight forward way then anyone I know. She also can bark like a dog in the most uncanny way.

Jonathan (my brother): He often reminds me that there's another way to look at life then the way I do. He's also hilarious. But in a different, goofy, teenage boy type way. I think we're clones.

Leah: Though I don't see her very often, she does remind me that sometimes straight talking is the only way to talk.

My auntie Cathy: There was something about her that made you think you could reach the stars. I'm still reaching and thank her for it everyday.

Alberta, Canada: As much as I think I try to get away from it, my home follows me. My writing, my dreams, my soul all have a touch of Alberta in it (whether I like it or not)

London: The buzz of the city. It's age. It's crowdedness. It's green. It's art, it's music, the Thames. The people who're in it (from pretentious to kind, from my friends to the people who I might never meet). It's hard to sum up London in a couple of words, what it means to me. But basically moving here changed my life.

I know there are lots more things that influence me and they shift and change on a regular basis but those people and things above are a constant for me. Family and home.

2-for-1 tickets to see comedy tonight!

Canadian Content presents:

CANUXPLOITATION!
A hilarious sketch comedy show from Canada, (God's America)
Time Out London says: 'Canadian Content are the best sketch and impro group to ever come out of Canada. Don't miss this rare chance to see them over here.' Special 2 for 1 deal for Tuesday August 18th ONLY! (Tickets are usually £15 each. This makes them a mere £7.50!!!) To confirm your 2 for 1 deal, please email dfrances39@gmail.com with your name, phone # and number of tickets no later than 3pm on Tuesday August 18th. There are only a set number of seats available at this price. Your name will be at the box office with the special price!

Canuxploitation doors @ 6:30
show @7pm (AND THERE'S A BAR IN THE THEATRE!!!)
Leicester Square Theatre 6-Leicester Square

They're great! They make you laugh so hard you cry. If you don't believe me, read the chortle review.

Men take over UK’s online high street

With the speed and convenience of online shopping, a new breed of shopper has been born.  In a recent Online Retail Report conducted by Experian, UK men have began to dominate the online high street, outspending women by an average of £672.  But why has there been this shift in spending?

Online shopping is quick and easily

For a majority of men (and some women), the thought of trolling through sale racks on a busy high street on a Saturday is akin to Dante’s forth circle of hell.  Online shopping is a great alternative and is an easy way to compare and research products before buying them. 

Currently 55% of online shoppers are men and their numbers are growing.  Since 2006, over 800,000 men started shopping online for the first time, twice the number of new women shoppers.  And according to the report, 4 in 10 men plan to shop for the majority of their purchases online in the future.  This shopping trend has already begun to shape the way we design and use websites.

Websites are returning to simple and functional designs

“Our impatience has helped drive a revolution in how websites are designed,” says Scheible. “Gone are the days of elaborate graphics that take an age to load – and drive customers away to better designed sites.

With British consumers fixed to double their online expenditures to £21.3 billion by end of 2011, it’s important as ever to look at how money is spent online and who is doing it.  As men spend more online on everything from travel to health and beauty, expect the face of online shopping to continue to change and grow to accommodate the needs of this new breed of shopper.

Small businesses without websites may be losing out

According to a report by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, the government has pledged to transform the UK into a leading digital world economy by 2012 but only 48% of businesses have a website. One of the main reasons for this shockingly low number of businesses lacking a web presence is the fear of initial start up costs. But a survey conducted by Opinion Matters shows an average 37% increase in turnover among small businesses with an online presence. This means that small businesses without a website may be missing out on as much as £52,000 turnover.

Websites aren’t as expensive as you think

Awarding-winning Mr.Site’s Takeaway Website packages start from as little as £19.99. They offer everything you need to get a professional website online in less than half an hour. All you have to do is choose a domain name and a pre-designed template that can be effortlessly customised to make your site unique. So for business owners who don’t have the time or the technical know-how, this is an ideal solution.

Using this website creation tool, you can easily have a web presence in no time. It’s definitely the way forward and bucking this trend could be detrimental to your business growth.

Watch PayPal’s Platform Preview

PayPal has just released the video of the platform preview that occurred at the PayPal head office in San Jose 23 July 2009. This announcement makes them the first global payment system to open to developers and the public beta will kick off simultaneously with their first conference, Innovate 2009, 3-4 November, 2009 in San Jose.

The hour long announcement included a brief introduction to how the payments system can be developed as well as introductions to a couple of developers who have been working with adaptive payments including:

• Twitpay: This can be used with Twitter as a reminder of what you owe someone and goes one step further as you can actually pay them back off Twitpay using PayPal.


• LiveOps: This helps companies push out work to communities of virtual workers. Companies don’t have to worry about compliance and security and multi-split payments can be made instantly.


• Windows Azure: Launching at the end of 2009, this cloud computing will allow users to pay for access not ownership, share computing power, go online quickly, only pay for what they need, and instantly scale-up and scale-down even on an hourly basis.This is really good for developers as there are a number of templates, programming tools and snippets of code that can be used to develop new applications. They can deploy it to test (locally or remotely) and then run it live in the cloud. They can then sell the application using PayPal as well as integrate it into the applications as a global payment solution.

I think the video is a great run down of the information and what developers and users have to look forward to when you actually get to that part of the video. I’m confused on why they took the first 6 minutes of it to show a global map of what I believe is an indication of traffic and location of those watching the live feed as the conference happened.

With no explanation of what it was, I almost clicked away and would have missed a very informative and interesting talk. You can watch the video here and you really should. If you aren’t excited by pretty pictures and ambient music that goes on for a bit, six minutes is enough time to make some tea and toast before the juicy stuff starts.

New video created to excite developers about PayPal

So I’m assuming this official PayPal video is meant to excite developers about the future of PayPal after PayPal announced that it’s opening its platform to third party developers. Despite it feeling like the spoof Veridian ads off the television series Better Off Ted (I hope that’s what they were going for but I’m not 100% sure), I like the idea behind it.

The thought that PayPal are interested in using feedback from developers and users reminds of Dell’s IdeaStorm, a site where you can post and vote on ideas to improve Dell products and services. Last I heard over 800 ideas have been implemented.

It will be interesting to see how PayPal uses input from developers to develop PayPal to work in new ways. Who will decide on which ideas are the best and how many of them will be implimented?  We’ll have to wait and see, especially as it doesn’t officially open up to developers until 3 November, 2009.  In the meantime, if you have an idea you can submit it via Twitter with the hashtag #changehowwepay and view responses at www.changehowwepay.com.

Upcoming events and fun things

::POETRY::

John Hegley's Elevenses
Saturday, 25 July, 2009 : 11 am
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London
£6/£5
Nearest Tube: Covent Garden

Saturday morning is the new friday night with John Hegley and guests. £6/5. Starts 11am. Bar open for breakfast.


::THEATRE::
A Shropshire Lad (as part of Grimeborn 2009)
Wednesday, 2 September, 2009 : 8 pm
Studio 1, Arcola Theatre, 27 Arcola Street
£10
Nearest Station: Dalston Kingsland

I'll be performing with Peter Shipman in this gentle and loving presentation that combines English art songs with love and war poetry to follow a country lad from his days of wooing in the village and at the fair, to an untimely death far from home and from those he loves. He is an allegory of the tragic and unprecedented loss of life, love and dreams in the Great War.


::IN OTHER NEWS::

SOCIAL NETWORKS PLUS
Myspace: I've set up a myspace page with a few clips of my poems and a podcast of my prose poetry sequence "Howdoes it feel to be loved?"Click here to have a listen and add me as your friend to keep up-to-date with my upcoming shows& events.

Twitter: Follow me on twitter on @heatherataylor.

YouTube: New videos up of me performing on the SouthBank and at BCB in Soho. Click here to see more.


::RECOMMENDATIONS::

CANUXPLOITATION

CANADIAN CONTENT is Vancouver Canada’s premier sketch and Improv comedy group. Winners of the Canadian Comedy Award “Best SketchGroup”, and featuring the top of Canada’s improv community including Canadian Comedy Award winner of “Best Male Improviser.”
Canuxploitation is a partially scripted, partially improvised comedy extravaganza from Canada, God’s America.

NOT SUITABLE FOR MINORS & THE UPTIGHT. MATURE LANGUAGE AND SUBJECT MATTER, but funny.

See them at the Leicester Square Theatre from 4 August - 30 August. Click here to find out more


MY PLACE OR YOURS
Apples and Snakes have a really cool virtual writers’ residency called My Place or Yours – www.myplaceoryours.org. Check it out and leave your comments online!

Let’s Talk PayPal goes live!

For the past 2 months I've been preparing for the launch of a new blog for PayPal called Let's Talk. It's a website dedicated to help UK online shoppers get to know PayPal and eCommerce better and I'll be running the site, blogging and answering questions about PayPal and related topics.

With access to the office and the people behind PayPal, I can help you get the right answers to your questions. So ask away! In addition to PayPal related topics, I'll regularly produce video interviews and podcasts with experts in finance, social media and web development, to help people use PayPal and the internet better. You'll find me in some of the videos so watch out for me popping up every now and then!

If there's anything you'd like to see or have an expert you think I should interview, let me know. It's great to get outside feedback for folks like you as I want to make this site an interesting and informative portal that people want to come back to again and again. So come visit me online on Let's Talk - https://www.paypal-talk.co.uk

Wild West Dream goes out to festivals

I've just completed my first short documentary with Michelle Tsen and Natalie Kardum through Red on Black Productions. Wild West Dream follows the only active UK rough stock competitor on the European Rodeo circuit, Cambridge firefighter Gareth Boyd. It’s the story of a man following his cowboy dreams as he tries to balance his life in the UK with competing in Rodeos in France and Germany on his own steam and with his own buck.

Wild West Dream is currently in consideration for a few festivals but in the meantime, find out more at www.wildwestdream.com. We're looking at expanding it into an hour long television documentary so if you're interested in getting more details, contact Red on Black Productions.

Online shopping: How to stay safe

According to the Office of Fair Trading, one in three internet users feel it’s unsafe to hand over credit card details for online shopping. Fears over personal security and a general mistrust of companies who provide online shopping are the main reasons for their insecurity. And, although there has been a 45% increase in internet spending since 2006, 72 per cent of e-shoppers still say they have concerns. So how do you make sure your details remain secure when online shopping?

First of all, only buy from sites that follow Distance Selling Regulations (pdf). Make sure you check that the information on the website is clear and includes details on:

• the address and contact details of the business
• the goods or services being sold through online shopping
• payment arrangements
• delivery arrangements
• cancellation rights

If you can’t find this information online, or the company won’t provide it, you should purchase from them with caution. Though Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to sites like eBay where online shopping is done through an auction, eBay do have their own protection procedures in place so you can still feel safe while online shopping.

Another way to make sure your personal details are protected is to check that the site you’re buying from is secured by an SSL certificate. This means your personal, bank and credit card details are encrypted during online transactions.

As long as you keep these tips in mind while online shopping, you should feel more confident about the security of your purchases. Happy shopping!

How I ended up on a Small Island – 5 podcasts now out!

This series highlights the strange andsometimes unexpectedexperiences of Heather Taylor's new home of England while interactingwith the localinhabitants; their strange customs and exoticarchitecture make Heather feel that she has stepped into adifferentworld. She gives us, the listener an insight into her thoughts fromthe New World to her experiencesof living in the old world ofShakespeare surrounded by millions of people.

Find out how she gothere and why she decided to stay...

Click here to listen to episode 1 (http://peopletalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=40437 )
Click here to listen to episode 2 (http://peopletalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=430487 )
Click here to listen to episode 3 (http://peopletalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=446841 )
Click here to listen to episode 4 (http://peopletalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=450855 )
Click here to listen to episode 5 (http://peopletalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=503681 )

The LAST EPISODE will be out over the next couple weeks or so so staytuned!

Session three with Bernardine

My third session with Bernardine was the first session we looked at actual poems. My first task was to write poems as one of my characters and I chose to follow John's story. At first I only knew that I would write about the dates he went on but then it became more so I have him ones about him at work, dates, and meeting my main character Kathy.

The feedback was good - they needed work as first drafts usually to need to have. The one thing I could do was write more description which I realized I cut back on because I was trying to write in a more condensed way. Of course description can live in one sentence and be specific so I need to go through the poems and put more in.

Bernardine suggested that I add more to his character and the desciption of the world around him (through his eyes) by watching the type of men I thought would most resemble him. I think I can be up to that task ;) I am also going into Selfridge's to find his cologne - what does it smell like, why did he pick it, etc. and also to go through the suit section - feel the make, the cut, how did his suit, clothes, bag, shoes, hair cut, style show more about him. I never thought of actually feeling/ experience those parts of a character.

SO this weekend it's a trip to the shop and some coffee drinking/ people watching. Well cute boy watching actually. Hee hee.

Keeping your details safe with encryption

As part of ensuring your payments and details are kept secure, websites use encryption. But what is encryption and how does it work?

When you enter your details on an unsecure site without encryption, it’s as if you are sending a letter in a transparent envelope. Anyone accessing it can see inside and use your details as they wish. So, to make sure your personal information doesn’t become available to one and all, it is encrypted. That means it is written in a special code and only the person receiving the information is given the cipher to decode it. It’s the way secret messages have been sent through the centuries but now encryption is all done electronically within seconds.

There are different levels of encryption, but the most secure sites have 128-bit encryption – the highest commercially available. At the current speeds computers work at, it would take a hacker a trillion years to break into a session encrypted in this way. And that’s only if they have the time and the tools to do so!

Not only is the information encrypted but it’s also sent through a private and secure channel, making it even harder to access. All of this is indicated by a SSL Certificate, which comes up as a green bar or a padlock in your browser bar. Look out for it next time and you’ll know your online purchases and details are safe.

Good bye my silver-gloved friend

I was at Gwyneth Herbert's CD launch (it's amazing by the way - you should buy it now on www.gwynethherbert.com), when someone came up to me and said "Michael Jackson's dead." I was too shocked to believe it could be true. We both said, we'll wait until it's confirmed. It must be a cruel joke.

But it wasn't.

It's not the man now that I mourn for, but the boy who sang a love song to his frog. As a 6-year old music video addict, I watched countless MJ videos. I had a stylish shirt with that man and his silver glove. I wanted a flat cap when he dueted with McCartney. I even had a Thriller slide for my view finder.

I feel like I lost a friend. A touch of my childhood. Goodbye Micheal Jackson. I hope your duet with Presley is as good as I think it would be.

Be in the know with top money facts

Money fact: we all use some form of currency every day but how much do we know about its origins? I’ve compiled some interesting money facts that will take you from its humble bartering beginnings, all the way to eCommerce. Maybe you’ll learn something new along the way – I did!

Money Fact 1: One of the earliest forms of currency was the Shekel, first used around 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. It represented a mass of barley, so was both a unit of weight and a unit of currency.

Money Fact 2: Paper money was first used during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) in China and was known as ‘jiaozi’ (which is also the name of a Chinese dumpling!)

Money Fact 3: Money used to be a commodity that had worth of its own. Some commodities that have been used as money include silver, gold, salt, rice, shells, peppercorns, cigarettes, alcohol and candy.

Money Fact 4: Spanish dollars, or ‘Pieces of Eight,’ were considered the first ever world-wide currency as its use spread from Spanish territories to the rest of the world in the 17th and 18th century.

Money Fact 5: In 1996, the US dollar accounted for around two-thirds of the foreign exchange reserves around the world and has been considered the principal world currency since the mid-1900s.

Money Fact 6: By law, the Government has to replace any damaged bills or coins of their issue as long as you can prove which part has been destroyed or can reconstruct at least half of the actual note.

Money Fact 7: 95% of all bank notes printed each year are used to replace ones that are damaged or taken out of circulation.

Money Fact 8: World renowned cryptographer Dr. David Chaum developed the method for conducting untraceable electronic transactions. Using a blind signature protocol, banks and merchants would be assured of the validity of the transaction while users would feel safe knowing their information would be safe. Without him, there’d be no internet banking, or online shopping!

Many names, one me

Today I found out via my friend Becky that Ling is another word for the Heather plant. She has then asserted that means I should now be known as Ling. So I was curious about what other names could be related to mine. First off the girl's name Heather \he(a)-ther\ is pronounced HEH-ther. It is of Middle English origin. Flower name: an evergreen flowering plant that thrives on peaty barren lands, as in Scotland. Has an upper-class aura. Actress Heather Locklear. Heather has 2 variant forms: Heath and Hether.

Now there are three other names that also mean Heather that I didn't know about. The girl's name Hadley \ha(d)-ley\, also used as boy's name Hadley, is pronounced HAD-lee. It is of Old English origin, and its meaning is "heather meadow". Name of Ernest Hemingway's first wife. Hadley has 8 variant forms: Hadlea, Hadleigh, Hadly, Hedlea, Hedleigh, Hedley, Hedlie and Hedly.

The girl's name Erica \e-ri-ca\ is pronounced AIR-a-ka. It is of Old Norse origin, and its meaning is "forever or alone, ruler". Feminine form of Eric. Scandinavian name revived in the 19th century. The Latin word "erica" means "the heather plant". Writer Erica Jong; singer Rickie Lee Jones; actresses Ricki Lake, Erika Christensen; singer Erykah Badu. Erica has 28 variant forms: Aerica, Aericka, Airica, Airicka, Airika, Arica, Arika, Enrica, Enrika, Eraca, Ericka, Erika, Erike, Erricka, Erikka, Eryca, Erycka, Eryka, Eyrica, Rickee, Ricki, Rickie, Ricky, Rikke, Rikki, Rikky, Sherica and Terica.

The girl's name Brier \b-rier\ is of French origin, and its meaning is "heather". Uncommon botanical name. The English word also describes a wild rose with small, prickly thorns. Brier has 1 variant form: Briar.

Hmmm. Brier, Erica, Hadley...maybe those will be the names of my children. Or my cats. I’m vain that way.