A new post

Work has been slow. Typically I spend six hours of my day in front of the computer screen, one hour in front of a television screen, hovering over my lunch, and about one hour in total shuttling between the kitchen, the toilet and the fire escape, where I stare at planes coming and going from Heathrow airport.

Recently I've spent a good portion of the computer time looking at friends' blogs. It breaks up the day, it stops me from clock-watching and also planning dinner for the eleven-thousandth time. Unless of course I'm looking at a recipe on a friend's blog, in which case I catch myself thinking about dinner again. And it's interesting keeping up with old friends' news that way, reading posts, old posts (especially old posts), those recipes, travel tips and diaries, hobby notes, reflections and all kinds of unique experiences. Friends from Japan in particular are scattered far and wide. Two went back to America and married. Another two went back and had a baby. One from Tokyo is preparing to join another in California, to begin art school. Another couple are in New Zealand, having come through teacher training. Another friend has been writing flash fiction, one piece every day for the whole of 2010.

I've admired a friend's digital space for a while too. It has his own domain name, large and beautiful images and a clear, user-friendly format. It's not a run-of-the-mill blogger or tumblr. I am enormously envious, but sadly for all my time in front of a computer I am unable to fully harness the power contained in that black, oblong tower down by my feet and design my own. Google has been my go-to point for any question I've had since about 2007, but for designing my own blog I itch to join a class or take a course or grab a geek and chain him to my desk til he teaches me everything he knows.

So as a next-best, I jazzed up this blog a bit. I added some widgets and shifted the other things (whatever you call them) about. Then I deleted the widgets and shifted the other things back. Like you might spend an afternoon shifting heavy furniture around, just to see what it looks like the other way round in your room, before shifting it all back again and rewarding yourself with a beer for all the hard work. Hm. Maybe I'll have a beer with dinner tonight. Dinner..