My name is...

Anonymity. It's quite important to me. Not because I think anything I write is particularly controversial, or that anyone would be interested in stalking me, but because I don't like the idea of instantly linked with what I've blogged.

What I write is truly what I think. But its not always appropriate to voice your opinions loudly regardless of the situation or company you're in. For example, I probably wouldn't launch into a rant about American politics, or cotton wool culture to everyone I met. I wouldn't talk about sex education with someone I didn't know very well. Nor would I be likely to discuss my religious views at work. Or death.

So having a barrier between the real 'me' and the Mylissa who blogs is important. I can (and do) tell my friends where to find my blog. But I don't include the link in the countless job applications that I'm sending out. you get my point.

So the recent ruling regarding the 'outing' of the award-winning Night Jack blogger has come as a bit of a shock. Of course, his situation is rather different. Blogging identifiable details about ongoing police cases was unjustifiably stupid. But the whole thing does beg the question, how easy would it be for someone to track down who I really am? (And no, that's not a challenge...)

Good service and unemployment

Well so much for having internet connection.  A certain British telecommunications company (I name no names), having connected our phone line, decided (in their great wisdom) to cut us off.  They apologised, admitted it was their fault and then told us it would be 3 weeks before we could be reconnected...

Customer service?  You must be joking...

We are, in fact, due to be reconnected on Wednesday. O2, our internet provider, have been very helpful and hopefully the internet will connect as soon as the phone line does. 

It really shouldn't be this difficult, although I must say it has been Llyando who has done a lot of the phoning, rather than me.  As you know, I'm not very good at being assertive.

In other news, I'm now unemployed.  My contract came to an end and the organisation I was working for couldn't keep me on.  So, I'm spending my time searching for a job.  Any job.  Really any job.  So if anyone out there wishes to employ me, please let me know!

Otherwise I'll have to be a kept woman while continuing my bid for world domination through blogging...

Back for good...

And I'm back. for good this time! We do, finally, have internet! (queue more frequent posts).

In celebration of this momentous occasion, I would like to direct you to the fantastic website http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/
It is amazing, particularly Aleksandr's tv adverts and blooper reel.

Genius bit of advertising really and very funny.


Now I'm off to try and remember how to write proper blog posts....

Love is all around us.

In anticipation of a lack of internet at home over the weekend (the assigned installer of a certain well-known British provider of digital, satellite television and broadband apparently failed to turn up today. Again. We're switching to a different provider.), I would like to wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day. I hope you all manage to avoid its hideous over-commercialness and are able to enjoy the day with a loved one.

If not, happy Anti-Valentines Day. Go clubbing, drink and party like there's no tomorrow. Or curl up in front of a good film with some wine and chocolate. Whichever is your preference. Besides, apparently there's no hope for the weekend: sexual desire is entering a recession.

If desperate, you could always check out the anti-Valentines event arranged by anarchy activists Class War. There will be 'anarcho-speed-dating'. How could you possibly resist?!

Or you could test your romance levels with this Love Quiz. I scored 15/18 - 'You are a hopeless romantic. You're a dreamer, who believes that love conquers all.' *tries not to be sick*

Enjoy!

George 'Zombie' Bush

Congratulations to the South African TV station ETV whose news program fallaciously announced a report of George Bush's death. While testing a moving banner headline stating 'George Bush is dead', a technician accidently pressed the 'broadcast for live transmission' button. He is, in fact, still alive. I think. How do you tell?

Further congratulations are in order, however, for their stunning response to the Afrikaans language newspaper Beeld and the media group's website News24.com who broke the story:

"Its unfortunate, because we never comment on their mistakes," said [ETV News spokesperson] Vasili Vass.

BBC News

Somebody give that man a pay rise.

In a state of utter confusion...

Just occasionally in life, you come across something that not only causes you to stop and think, but something that totally challenges everything.

This happened to me today.

Now, I’m not trying to be immodest here, but I’ve had a pretty good education. I’ve been very lucky. I went to a public boarding school (that’s private school to most of the world) from the age of 8-18 and while I didn’t enjoy it, I’ve got to say that they did their best to educate me to within an inch of both my life and my sanity. I went to a very good university and although I possibly didn’t leave with the best degree (for a variety of reasons), life at uni continued my education in not just an academic sphere but also in a general ‘this is how to live’ kind of way.
I enjoy reading. I read widely and have an interest in politics and current affairs. I like to debate topics with friends and family.
I am, admittedly, very bad at maths and not so great at science.

It is this last fact that should have alerted me that what I was about to read was going to cause problems.

Having read this post on the wonderful Dilbert blog I clicked on the link to the article: Our world may be a giant hologram (New Scientist website)

Interesting, I thought.

I understood about one word in ten. And it isn’t so much the words themselves, but the way they’ve been put together. They made things that look like sentences, but don’t make any sense:

“If GEO600 really has discovered holographic noise from quantum convulsions of space-time, then it presents a double-edged sword for gravitational wave researchers.”

Even the bits where theories were ‘explained’ make distressingly little sense to me:

“According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into "grains", just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. "It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time," says Hogan.”

Concepts, theories… I just can’t get my head around it and this really upsets me! Its like a nightmare and I can't escape.

Most things, if I don’t understand the details, I can look up some background information somewhere and end up with at least something approaching understanding of the topic. With this, I have no hope. None. I just don’t get it. And I really hate that I can’t understand it. I am now in a state of nervous tension with an image of a me, stuck to a giant hologram, floating in front of my eyes. I can’t think about anything else and its freaking me out…

This state of mind is the thing that has really got to me. In a way, the contents of the article are neither here nor there. But it is this feeling of utter bewilderment. Complete confusion. The only time I've felt like this was in Poland where (despite speaking Russian) I understood virtually nothing of what was being said. It is a horrible feeling and now its back. I'm in hell.

So, in order to restore my sanity, if anyone can explain the concepts in the article to me using not just words of one syllable, but also explaining the theories behind it in a way that even an Iron Age woman might understand, then please, please help!

I would like to be... in Sweden.

I would like to be in Sweden. Becuase London is grey. And Basingstoke is grey. And even if Sweden is grey, it can't be any worse!
Besides, home is lonely right now as a certain person is on a business trip to Sweden. Lucky sod. Certainly more interesting than being stuck in an office surrounded by technology that is moving so slowly I'm contemplating attacking it with my tea cup. So..... slow....
So. Sweden. I'd like to be in Sweden please. Now.