Like It Is

It seems though the UK’s Commission for Equality and Human Rights is completely poised to call for the government to promote more “family-friendly polices” so that parents can choose when to work.

Reason? A report that will suggest that a mother with a child aged under 11 is 45% less likely to be employed than a man. (The report doesn’t go into the reasons that mothers are discriminated against, but the fact they have young children is telling). Interestingly, pregnant women don’t appear to be as discriminated against as the women with young children. At least they aren’t mentioned, thus far. Read the rest of this entry »

So which blogging tools do I use?

Simply…

My Moleskine – In my opinion the most wonderful offline tool there is. I have several and I always have one with me. I use it to jot down my ideas as soon as I get them… particularly when I’m travelling. I may be in the middle of writing a business case or brief at work and suddenly get a whisper of an idea. I immediately jot it down in my Moleskine. I find if I don’t do that the idea can be gone in a flash, and I’d never remember it. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Moleskine

One of my readers sent me this link a while ago. Called Prejudices are difficult to kill by Gabriella Coslovich in The Age it’s yet another example proving that, unless you are busy breeding – oops – reproducing your view really doesn’t count one whit. Parents views, however certainly do. Many have tried to convince me that parents have such a hard time of it, have needs that we as childfree persons haven’t a clue about, and are entitled to whatever they want/need to make their lives (when having and raising kids) easier. Read the rest of this entry »

This is very simple. My biggest blogging challenge is time. Finding time to blog.

O.K. What’s my next biggest? Time.

That may sound a little strange seeing that I post fairly frequently. However, blogging when you have a full time job is far from easy. Particularly when you’re an early starter, like I am.

I’m usually at work by 7.30 am and generally leave around 5pm. Yes, it’s a long day, and I’m busy from the time I get in to the time I leave. Complaints about my job – none.

I don’t blog at work and don’t read blogs at work, Read the rest of this entry »

I’m totally chuffed. In the week I’m blogging about… er why I blog, I get quoted on Slate Magazine on my article about the recently jailed Egyptian blogger. What a surprise! Of course I had to share the news . Scroll down the Today’s blogs page to see the article quote.

Blogging is so cool… you simply never know who might find what you’ve written. And I’ve now found another very interesting site.

Slate Magazine is owned by the Washington Post.

Today’s blogs on Slate

This was the other big blogging story in the news today. A blogger sent to jail for criticising Egypt’s top university, (apparently taken, by the way, as a criticism of Islam) and the Egyptian president. As someone has said, how come Muslim countries want to enjoy the freedom of speech in the West to demonstrate against cartoons, and other grievances (perceived or otherwise) yet prosecute and lock up a person who dares to criticise their leader or a university??

The university apparently expelled Abdel Kareem Soliman in 2006 and then pressed prosecutors to put him on trial.

Which they did. Read the rest of this entry »

Or, Blogger beware! There were two big stories about bloggers and blogs today. Here’s the first.

Blogger Sued Over Topless Aniston

This reminded me that, even though we can “do what we like and say what we like” on our blogs… there are certain boundaries. Step beyond them and someone could be after your livelihood big time. Sometimes just because they can. And before you know it, you have a “donate here” button on your blog to help pay for the court case.

Mr Lavandeira’s lawyer says his client has “done nothing wrong” while the legal action claims Mr Lavandeira “posted all or parts of the stolen footage” from the film “The Break-Up”. My English translation is (which, since I’m no liar lawyer may be flawed) that he probably infringed copyright. The studio wants an injunction and a jury trial (bit over the top, that one) but clearly they are trying to make a point make an example of this blogger.

Moreover, his lawyer claims that: Read the rest of this entry »

First and foremost because I enjoy it.

Because I’ve something to say on a variety of topics – and I enjoy sharing my perspective, and my thoughts about issues. I blog because I enjoy writing – it’s very different to the stuff I write at work (reports, news messages, business cases, briefs etc). Because I like thinking through and putting together an argument… and seeing the end results. And I love the posts that almost write themselves… And for the discussion, the reader interaction, comments and insights from my readers.

When I started Like It Is, I wasn’t sure what I wanted it to be about. The general advice from the “how to blog” and the “how not to blog” groups seemed to be find a niche and stay within it (i.e. only write about X), but I felt that was a little to restrictive than I wanted. So I decided to ignore general advice and write about whatever most appealed to me. I decided to let it evolve and then take a decision on where I wanted to go with it later. And that was – life from my unique perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

I’d love to say that I was suddenly overcome by a fervent feeling to shout my story from the rooftops,and a blog was the only way to do it, but no. Nothing as exciting as that. I wasn’t even sure that I had a “story.” How I got started was as roundabout a reason as any.

After much persuasion, roughly a year ago today in fact, I accepted the invitation to be a team blogger on a blog called Purple Women (a blog about Childfree living) which was just getting underway. At that point I had absolutely no intention of starting my own blog, it was probably the furthest thing from my mind. I was too busy for one thing. And I thought “blogging (as in having my own blog) ain’t for me.” Read the rest of this entry »

I started my blog Like it Is on May 7, 2006 so that makes it 10 months. (Have I really been doing it that long?!) I’d reviewed several blogging platforms (had used Blogger and didn’t like how buggy it was) and decided on Wordpress.

Initially, I thought of setting up my own hosted version of Wordpress, but hastily decided against it because I thought it was too complicated (too technical) for a completely new to blogging person such as myself. I was very attracted to the control I would have with the hosted version of Wordpress, but thought it better to learn to walk before I run…I didn’t even know if this “blogging bug” was going anywhere other than the land of experimentation. Read the rest of this entry »