The post that’s not about Michael Jackson

Yes, he’s dead. Yes, it’s very, very tragic. Yes, he did make a major difference to the music scene and make people rethink what they viewed pop music as (and showed us all that money doesn’t always buy a good plastic surgeon).

But c’mon guys, let’s get some perspective on this. I’d like the radio/MTV to be playing something other than his top 50 greatest hits and I really don’t care that much what B-list celebs think about his death (’tragic’ and ‘will be missed’ are seriously overused terms). Death comes to us all, and sure it’s a shock when a public figure pops his cork, (especially if you’ve shelled out for expensive tickets) but why this mass hysteria? Read more…

Tags: cult, hysteria, jade goody, michael jackson

5 reasons I’m sad to leave Shiny Media

Life provides a never ending cycle of new experiences; and the time has come for me to plunge into its heady current once more, and make the move from my much loved role as editor of Shiny Shiny and Kiss and Makeup at Shiny Media. Yes, no longer will I be known for awkward video reviews in front of that flocked wallpaper, or be seen on the sites, testing everything from mobile handsets to laser guns. Moving forward is a natural state of affairs, but there are many things I will miss about working at Shiny Towers.

1. The People

I can’t stress enough what a great team I work with, and despite the recent departures of Lucy, Duncan, Gemma, Stuart and Susi, there remain a core group of staff members that I feel honoured to call my friends. It’s not often you find a working situation so congenial that the people actually play a major part in your life- such as on weekends!- but the delightful Dan, Abi, Isabelle and Kelly really make the morning a pleasure, rather than a grumpy sleep deprived experience (and it does help they make me coffee regularly). Many years ago Katie, Chris and Ashley hired me into the fold, and I’ll always owe them a debt of gratitude for embracing me into the shiny family, and will find it odd going somewhere where the names ‘Zazzles’ , ‘Zsa Zsa’ and ‘Sugar coated streamtrain’ won’t automatically be my nom de plume.

2. The Variety

I’ve been fortunate to have worked over a wide variety of sites in my time here, and have experienced a wide range of topics,  from fashion to accessories, celebrity, beauty and technology. This has allowed me to hone my skills and learn what areas I’m really suited for, and which I’m not (my D-list celebrity radar is notoriously awful). Read more…

Tags: job, shiny media, spotify

Toys R’Us have a ‘Pink’ category: But where’s blue for boys?

I’ve long since stop being surprised at the vast array of paraphernalia on offer for the pink obsessed woman/girl/ confused boy, but when a store such as Toys’R'Us actually starts to categorize their gadgets by colour, well that’s whole new level of incredulity- even for me.

After all, it’s not like they have made a category for ‘pink’ Barbie dolls, or associated toys, but instead they have a whole pinks section for games that don’t need to be pink. Why does Twister or Jenga need a blushing makeover? It’s simply not right. And then you notice they have a pink ouija board in that category as well- so not only are they preying on those that buy into the whole ‘pink’ trend, but they’re also subjecting them to supernatural mumbo jumbo.
Read more…

Tags: Disney, gadgets, pink, pink gadgets, Toys'r'us

The top Six reasons I’m not writing my novel right now

There are three books I’d like to write, and they’ve been battling with each-other in my head for a while now. The first one would be a entertaining yarn of a girl meets world; a twenty something battling the frustrating world of men, work and familial strife (wonder where that comes from?), but in a witty, humorous and unique way a la Kinsella and Marian Keyes. OK, Slightly predictable I know.

Next up is the sci fi epic I’d love to write, a combination of fantasy warring with science in a  dazzling landscape full of costumed characters with magical powers, where epic adventures await someone… And finally, there’s the beautiful lyrical novel, where nothing much happens but the prose is so elaborate and detailed you want to cry with joy just by reading the overly elaborate descriptions of someone buttering toast.

But having three simultaneous ideas is tricky and I don’t know where to begin- so I’ll write about it instead. Right now I have an evening free where I could easily start one of these; and yet I don’t. But why is that? I have a couple of ideas…

1: It’s a Friday. Surely starting a life changing novel shouldn’t be done on a night associated with bitching about work and consuming copious amounts of booze? Read more…

OMG! Miss California has a pageant funded boob job

Since when did being a blue state equate to Double D’s?

There’s no denying the lady on the left is an extremely pretty girl. The skin looks flawless, the eyes are sparkling, oh, and the boobs look every so perky and inviting…

Um. Yeah. The FAKE boobs. I don’t have anything against using surgery to aid and enhance you natural assets but the case of Carrie Prejean is verry disturbing. Take a girl pretty enough to get into the Miss California pageant, add a dash of St Tropez and a low level eating disorder, and you have your standard ‘I want world peace’ stylee contestant’.

So what happened? I guess Carrie was feeling a little insecure about the skimpy attire she had to wear, and went to the pageants helpful aides to see if they could give her some support. I’m hoping she was requesting chicken fillets not silicon surgery, but hey, these things are easy to get confused. Read more…

Internet Addiction: It’s ruining my life

Has the World Wide Web made you a World Wide Wreck?

I can’t sleep, I can’t breathe properly, my eyes are sore and red rimmed and yet there remain twenty tabs open that I have yet to read. My biggest fear is the browser will have a meltdown and my painstakingly opened tabs will somehow disappear leaving me with an empty hole that only a couple of hours searching through my history pages will fill.

I wake in the morning with a slightly clawed hand and a blurry haze around my retinas from staring a an LCD screen for so many hours; then I go on to repeat these actions at work during the day and then continue long  into the night.

Yes, hands up, I admit it, I’m addicted to the internet. But surely you can understand my dilemma. It is after all the world wide web and contains more useless information at my fingertips than Ill ever have time to search through, so you can see why I panic when away from my computer for too long- what if something happens and I’m not there to ’see it?’ Will life stop being experienced the minute I turn off the screen? And I must see the latest funny YouTube video before everyone laughs at it and I’m out the loop…

People have actually started to my question my internet habit and it’s got so bad that I find myself lying about time spent on the net. I was recently sent a quiz to take that monitored various levels of internet usage, and was shocked when it revealed my score was 85, and that I placed web-time over social activities and exercise. Read more…

Tags: addict, computer, geek, Internet, web

Dot Com Doom: Is it all over for Internet startups?

Once people couldn’t get enough of Internet start-ups. Companies  moved from cynical to seriously obsessed and it seemed every day a hot new site was starting with investors ready to splash the cash to get a piece of the digital pie. But recently we’ve seen a turn for the worst, and it’s not just the falling economy that’s led to the downward spiral of success of the once salutated sites.

Earlier this year Gawker media, a SF startup that spearheaded the dot come boom abandoned many of their flagship titles, fired staff,  and reluctantly joined the gradual disintegration of the online market. It seems the dot com business is no longer as profitable as it was, nor is it attracting the investors/advertising revenue so it has fallen into a catch 22 trap.

But why has this happened? When sites flourish in terms of traffic you’d automatically assume these figures would be followed by cold hard cash, but that’s not the case? Is it the fault of the bedroom blogger- the whimsical at home writer whose words devalue those that are paid for? Or could it be that though the model looks positive, making money off free content is harder than previously thought? Read more…

Tags: Bonnie Ruberg, dot com, jobs, startup, Twitter