Today I finally took in my laptop to PC World. It's been wonky for months, with the space-bar giving up the ghost a few months ago and I've got by with a spare keyboard attached. With my parentals going away, I'm now using theirs until I get mine back. The guy at PC World says it could be several weeks... and it would have been quicker if I'd just let someone come and pick it up rather than bringing it in. *sigh*
However mum managed to see some discount christmas gifts (URL Santas that drum various tunes on demand... honestly, cuter and more impressive than you'd think). She even got a discount and is convinced that she was probably charged less than they should have been, even on offer. In her own words as we skidadled out of the store 'I think we're ahead by one snowman!' Which is nice.
Went over to Impact to check all running okay. Things are running as okay as they ever do, but I'm ahead in work for next issue which is good.
On the way back noticed that the shelves are more and more full of shitty magazines that scream non-important headlines from garish covers. 'You hurt me!' screams one pop-popppet (Cheryl - Girls Aloud?) to her cheating boyfriend, obviously oblivious that to this nifty new invention called the f'ing telephone which would save her time and stop my eyes bleeding at the merest glance. I'm not sure what pisses me off more: the fact that people think this would ever be the type of entertainment journalism I'd want to be part of, that non-entities spew their souls and minor life road-bumps for huge profit, that magazines give them huge payouts to do that spewing or that record amounts of people keep the circle of strife going by buying it in large numbers. Shameful.
Off to watch the US's Sooper-Dooper Tuesday where they're stuck between Barack and a Hard Case. Now THIS is voyeuristic fun....
I will admit to having bought a number of trashy mags in my time. In the name of research obviously. When I worked on the Breakfast Show we had to be up to date with heavy issues such as Gwyneth Paltrow's post-baby girdle and Posh's 'one strand of spaghetti a day and a glass of water as a treat' diet. I experienced severe withdrawal symtoms as I gradually gave them up which I did (I am proud to admit) without the help of Amy Winehouse style rehab. I have not read a Closer, Now, New or similar for over 6 weeks although I did buy a TV Quick the other day but only cos the newsagent had sold out of Radio Times, honest.
More worryingly I once aspired to work in this type of journalism but knowing folk who do, have decided it's definitely not for me. I'm not that good a liar and as for celebs making profits for 'their' stories, half the time they're unaware a story's even being written. When the words 'source' or 'a close friend' are mentioned you can be pretty sure the so-called buddy is a fictional character living in the writer's brain. I had trouble pretending a pre-recorded radio interview was live so think a career in tabloid/celeb mag journalism was never realistically on the cards.
So however much you now doubt my creditibilty as a journo and human being I can still stand tall and proudly say I have never bought a singing/dancing snowman.... Although I do have a fibre optic Winnie the Pooh for which I'm now receiving treatment....
And it's Cheryl's husband by the way, not boyfriend....apparantly. It was a sad moment for journalism everywhere when the news of his cheating was the 4th story on News at Ten. But then, as I no longer buy the relevent magazines, I would never have known otherwise and I'm sure my life would have suffered for that lack of knowledge......
Watched Super Tuesday on Sky till midnight then dozed off...catching up now.