never, ever write that you will be back somewhere ’shortly’, because inevitably you will be completely unable to log onto your blog for over a week if you do.

i transferred from my old desktop to my laptop full-time, but lost a lot of settings and the ability to log on in the process. it was dark, dark times. but i’m baaaaaaack!

i have nothing to talk about, mind you, but at least i made it.

see you all when i DO have something more to say, which i am definitely not saying will be shortly.

today i have mostly been yelling “unnngh!” in frustration, being put on hold with talktalk and messing around with PCs. so tomorrow i’ll actually have to do some of that… oh, what’s it called? oh yes: WORK.

but! after that i plan to see to emails and catch up with friends and maybe even live to blog again. no promises, though…

when i was in australia, i was a reading machine. i felt like reading, i did lots of reading, i had fun with reading. i was all about reading and it was all good (except for the eye-popping expense of books over there, that is).

but in the last month, i’ve read just two teeny books and tried to read a further nine — all of which now have sad little bookmarks hanging out of them somewhere between pages 10 and 93, like flattened, depressed dogs. i just don’t seem to have any reading mojo. i can’t concentrate, my mind is racing too much. tv is better, less demanding and easier to engage with, and my new addiction is buying box sets. maybe this is the start of my TV years… shame about that english degree i registered for, huh?

but regardless of my ability to read books, i still seem able to write about them (ha, you knew a plug was coming, didn’t you?) and so have done so. again.

i’m promoting the burning of books (ooh!) on the guardian blog today (big thanks to keris and helen for the background info on this — ha ha — hot topic) and i’m also recommending some thrillers and offbeat reads for handbag (which was such fun, i have to say), but the whole books special is well worth a look, even the bits i didn’t write!

take a look… and read one for me, would you? thanks.

i had great fun blogging for the guardian about book covers last week — it’s a topic that really seemed to engage people (including the telegraph and my good friend keris). [UPDATE: i got pwned by galleycat and — are you ready for this? — jezebel (jezebel!!) not only discussed my piece but called me “The Guardian’s Diane Shipley”. Ha. And…Salon’s wonderful blog for women, Broadsheet, also talked about me, i mean, about what i wrote. even though both places mentioned pink, i actually wasn’t getting at pink: just homogenisation, which is more often, in the UK at least, cream with swirly writing. anyhoo, as a serious journalist i’m not a bit excited by all this publicity. yeah right: i’ve never been so famous! (or so tired btw, man i need a nap).]

so! i’m blogging for the graun again today, this time about teens, sex and TV: no sex, please, they’re teenagers. does this make me a sex blogger? (ahahahahha)

what else? oh yes, my words blog bossy is no more, at least for now: there’s a lot of great language-related stuff to say, but i think i’m going to wait until nearer the start of my english degree to say it.

i’m not cutting down on blogs though: i’m currently working on a suuuper secret, suuuper special pet project that is going to be so.much.fun. (for me at least). and i bought a domain name and got an official email and everything.

it’s a good job i’m passionate about online content, as next year i’m going to be doing this. it’s okay if i start hyperventilating planning now, right?

sorry for the lack of a proper post. this one will probably be most of interest to my fans relatives.

a couple of guardian blogs i wrote recently:

the great chick lit cover up

and

the talented ms lipman (since it was published, the book and movie release dates have both been pushed back… ah well, i tried!)

i’m also still popgadget-ing away (and loving it).

i have some more articles to link to, but haven’t uploaded them yet… soon. and expect a blog post in flowing sentences… also soon. perhaps.

no disrespect to ms sarpong, but that’s not a sentence i thought i’d be writing this week.

today i’ve been researching her pet project, politics and the city, for something i’m writing for popgadget (coming soon!) and i came across her blog.

i was gratified by what june had written about knife crime, which is the most sensible and real thing i’ve read of all the many (many!) things i’ve read and heard on the subject recently.

she says:

“When I hear both David Cameron and Gordon Brown talk about tougher sentencing for knife crimes, I can’t help but wonder why neither of them are focusing sufficiently on what we can do to ensure these young people don’t carry knives and, more importantly, don’t use them.

It seems to me there is an erosion of the moral compass of these knife-wielding youngsters which, at it’s core, stems from an immense lack of self-esteem. This has desensitised them from caring about their own lives and therefore they do not value the lives of others.

We live in a society of instant gratification, which teaches its young to act on impulse. It’s imperative that we create a framework where disenfranchised youth realise that crime and violence are not the only options and that there are serious consequences to harming or indeed taking another life.

We need a much more effective state education system which not only demands excellence from its pupils but also focuses on their emotional wellbeing. This is a problem that we must tackle together as a nation - irrespective of race, class or region.”

update: in case you were wondering, this is the info you need. i can’t make sense of it all (yet) but i will… i’m so stubborn that not being competent in the behind-the-scenes side of blogging is killing me: i want to do it aaaaall! (from design to coding, to writing seriously: i’m a control freak).

i want a bit of a newer, fresher, easier-to-update look for this blog — and i also want to learn more HTML, some CSS and get more up to date with wordpress.

all of which is my excuse for the fact that this blog may go through a funny-looking, awkward stage (or two). bear with me - i’ll keep on blogging, and things should get good-looking again one day.

and if not, well - change keeps life interesting, doesn’t it?!

some unrelated ways you can maybe help me (well, it *is* my blog…):

1. i’m doing a project kinda thing (you know you love it when i get specific!) about women, men, gender, technology and the internet. if you have any relevant info or see any sites i should know about relating to any/all of the above, please email me a link. i’m collating everything here, so you can see what i have so far.

2. i’m putting together another secret project to do with blogging, and i also need help with that: i need you to recommend great blog posts (specific posts if possible, rather than just great blogs - and they can be your own posts!) one proviso: they need to be relatively clean. i haven’t set up a place to collate these yet, but i will in due course. (don’t you love the saying “in due course”? it sounds official yet could mean anything. i use it to mean “soon… probably”.)

3. and in non-tech related news… on my way back from america last year, i had a fantastic meal on the plane (i know!) of chicken and sweet potatoes in a chipotle sauce. which was serendipitous as i’d just watched rachel ray cook with chipotles… but i can’t find them in the UK. do we have a different name for them, or are they just not available? i have the recipe, i just need the chipotles… help!

*hey, that’s my second beatles-lyric title this week. will i make it three?

no, i will not.

no one has asked me how i’m going.

no shop assistant has asked me how my day has been, if i collect fly-bys, or if that’ll be credit or savings.

when i place my order in a restaurant, the waiter/waitress doesn’t say ”easy as”, “no worries” or “not a problem”.

gordon ramsay and law and order:svu aren’t on tv every second of the day.

it’s damp. and small, and kind of dark, even in the day.

people don’t wear coats when it’s 20 degrees C.

a white cat in a pink t-shirt isn’t howling for my attention. i don’t have to feed some very demanding crows before breakfast.

it doesn’t get dark at 6pm. people stay up past 10 o’ clock at night.

there are no drive-through “bottle shops”.

there’s no train down the middle of the highway.

speed cameras are big and yellow, and called speed cameras, not multinovas.

people say pepper instead of capsicum. and documentary, salvation army and journalist instead of doco, salvos and journo.

no national news presenter would say “good on ya” during a broadcast (nor call the sports guy “tommo”).

police don’t wear baseball caps… or guns.

there’s no gloria jean’s. no-one knows what a flat white is. i can’t go to dome for lunch.

but i can go to starbucks.

and i can catch a bus at the end of my street (and be in town in less than half an hour)

but i can’t see my dad.