Writer's block sucks. Writer's blank is even worse. Despite doing very well, thank you very much, with several of my other 'year of adventure' resolutions, I have abjectly stumbled right here in my notebook.
Bugger.
Waiting for divine inspiration clearly hasn't worked, so instead I'm going to steal a topic from the classic blog cannon. It's something. And something, as they say, is better than nothing.
5 things I learned this week
1. Writing 8,000 words of marketing copy on the subject of website security in a single week is possible, but I never want to do it again
The muscles in my brain physically hurt this weekend. At the end of work on Friday, at 6pm, I crawled into bed and fell asleep. Just for a cat nap, but still. That's insane.
This was, in part, a classic case of overestimating what's possible in a certain timeframe and, in another part, a learning curve about the complexities of project planning, which I'm still relatively new to.
I get that sometimes you have to put in the extra hours to get done what needs doing. But when it's something that uses that much mental energy, it's just straight up bad for you.
Better planning and boundaries in future.
2. We all need a bit of dumb sometimes
At the beginning of this week I came across Mackelmore's new single and in the words of horsenpony, a commenter on Jezebel, 'You know..the kind of week its been...especially yesterday, I’m okay with this. No snark. Its dumb but I needed dumb today.'
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGhoLcsr8GA]
I mean that video is just insane. I love it.
3. James Blake's 'Overgrown' sounds amazing on vinyl
I have been wanting to buy this record for months. I love every second of this album; it's one of the few albums that I could happily just sit and listen to, beginning to end, no distractions. And probably more than once in a sitting.
And this week, I caved and I ordered it. It came. And it is beautiful.
4. I like enchiladas
I had never had enchiladas before. Then this week my lovely man made minced beef ones, with a little pepper, onion and jalapeños. They were gorgeous and a nice alternative to fajitas (which I already very much enjoy).
If you haven't tried them, then do. If you have, and you liked them, then have them again.
5. The history of Italy
Ok, I didn't learn the entire history of Italy, obviously. But I listened to the first part of a Radio 4 series called, 'The Invention of Italy', which talked all about the history of the various independent city states, duchies and kingdoms that filled the area we now know as Italy.
Turns out, the guy in charge of the mercenaries who sacked Rome in the 1500's - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor - was Catherine of Aragon's nephew. And since this event basically meant he had the Pope under house arrest, there was no way our Henry VIII was going to get his divorce. The Pope wasn't about to offend his captor after all.
So in a way, the battle over Rome and the battle for power that was played out in Italy's various regions, ultimately led to the creation of the Church of England. And that, I never knew.