| Yes, I KNOW IT'S OCTOBER KTHX :D |
[12 Oct 2011|10:42pm] |
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If you'd like a Christmas card from me this year, please comment below with your address! (Comments screened.) Thank you! xxx
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[31 Dec 2010|10:59pm] |
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Happy New Year to everyone! And thanks to the anonymous well-wisher who sent me virtual balloons :)
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[16 Dec 2010|11:30pm] |
Blake Edwards - Julie Andrews's husband - has died. Prayers please.
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| Sometimes a news story just grabs me! |
[14 Dec 2010|02:00pm] |
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Please donate to help Rudy, a stray dog whose bose was frozen off in a snowstorm. If you were planning to buy me a Christmas present this will totally do. :)
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[19 Aug 2010|03:03pm] |
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Someone at work is collecting used tents to help Pakistan flood victims - anyone looking to get rid of a tent??
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| Passing this on! |
[16 Aug 2010|12:30pm] |
My friend ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) plunderpuss, is raising money NOT to pay for his one-year-old pit bull puppy's surgery, but so that he will be able to eat something other than rice, rice and rice, having already spent quite a lot of his money on fixing Hanzo's luxating patella.
He happens to be a rather good artist, and so you should all check out his PlunderZOO, where for a minimum 10 USD donation you can become the owner of a lovely original 3"x5" art card depicting one of the rare specimens from what he calls his "special zoo"...
Pass it on, if you feel so inclined...
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| Welfare |
[31 Jul 2010|07:48pm] |
This is important and well worth a read. Want to improve our welfare system? Here's how. The tips below come from someone who's worked on the other side of consultations, i.e. they know what they're talking about and how to make the Government listen:
If you care about the future of the UK benefits system (as I know lots of you do), you may well want to respond to a consultation document published today: 21st Century Welfare.
The document sets out Iain Duncan's Smith's plan for reforming benefits, and on page 40 has a series of questions about it (and about the benefits system in general. You can respond to them by post or email any time before 1 October
This page gives you the address to write or email to, plus links to the document in Welsh and other related info. You can order copies in audio, large print or braille by writing to the same address.
If you're not an expert on the subject, you may also want to refer to the easy read version for clarification about the gist of what they mean. It's intended for people with learning disabilities, but personally I think they can be useful for anyone.
I have worked on analysing consultation responses before, and have a few tips for making a positive impact
1) You don't have to respond to every question if you don't want to.
2) Succinct responses tend to have most impact...
3) ...but don't let that make you refrain from saying things you think are important.
4) Think: "If someone were summarising my response to the whole thing in a single sentence, what would that sentence be", and then put that sentence somewhere appropriate (either at the beginning, or if there's a suitably wide question at the end). If you're writing a particularly long answer to a question, you can do something similar at the question level too.
5) Quantity of responses is more important than having beautifully worded and beautifully thought out ones. Put your efforts into persuading more people who agree with you to respond rather than in writing the most perfect consultation response ever.
6) The Government pays more attention to responses from groups (which they call 'partners' and which the Labour Government called 'stakeholders') than to responses from individuals. So persuade any relevant groups you're part of to respond, and consider forming something like an online campaign group and responding collectively, so the response will be grouped with that of other 'partners'.
7) If you have the time and energy, do your research. And make sure you're doing the right research, which in this case means reading the documents which the ministers and civil servants who will read your response have written or read. For example, Dynamic Benefits: from welfare to work was produced by Iain Duncan Smith's think tank in September 2009 (you need to scroll down to get to it).
8) Be genuinely open to considering what the consultation is suggesting. Leave your preconceptions at the door. If there's anything in it you like, say so: don't make it look as though you would disagree with *anything* that a Tory Government could produce.
9) Realistically, suggesting changes to the system proposed to make it better is likely to more change of succeeding than telling IDS that the whole thing is rubbish. But if enough people do the latter, it will be hard for them to ignore entirely...
10) If lots and lots of people write saying the same thing (and it's not the case that more people have written to say the opposite), the Government *will* pay attention and it *will* be reflected in policy. Maybe not as much as it should be, but at least to some extent. Consultation responses tend to be better heeded than letters, protests or petitions.
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| Writer's Block: Instant wish |
[09 Jun 2010|12:38am] |
If I've only got 5 minutes to think about it, I'll have to grab this wish from the Metta Sutra:
In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Would be nice, huh?!
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| Writer's Block: TMI |
[03 Jun 2010|12:03pm] |
Ack! Unless they wanted me to know all their TMI, there's no way I'd take it - never mind the possibility of me getting hurt, what about the absolute certainty of them getting hurt!
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[25 Dec 2009|01:07pm] |
lots of love
Eve xxxxxx
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| niceness opportunity! |
[29 Oct 2009|08:10pm] |
Because ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) aiwendel to my shame actually pimped this before I did, despite the fact that I, y'know, WORK THERE.
(Although I did get them to put collecting boxes in the coffee selling places at Sky :) I'm really pleased about that! They were doing 2 coffees for the price of 1 on the basis that you then donate the price of the free coffee to Rainforest Rescue, but they hadn't actually put boxes there for people to do that... !)
http://rainforestrescue.sky.com/
Every £10 donated helps to save 500 trees. To kickstart the project, Sky will match donations pound for pound, up to a joint target of £4 million.
(Yep, you read that right!)
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[16 Sep 2009|12:03pm] |
I still can't get over how awesome you were at I, Camp! And I don't just mean the acting, though that too :)
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| Do a good thing! |
[04 Sep 2009|09:46am] |
I’m sure a lot of you know about this because there’s been massive press coverage, celebrities signing up (including the entire Cabinet), etc, but this:
http://1010uk.org
is a site where people and organisations are pledging to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. It also acts as a massive petition to UK politicians and the wider world.
They’ve got 10,000 people already, and are now asking everyone who’s signed up to recruit 10 people today - and then ask those people to recruit another 10, which would make a million, by the end of the weekend.
If you’re interested, please:
1 – Sign up at the link above
2 – Tell me, so I know how many of my 10 I’ve got :)
3 – Go forth and recruit another 10
Thank you!
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| Free food |
[15 Apr 2009|12:46pm] |
Free fruit and nuts by post if you go to https://www.graze.com/ and enter this code: GWB4H8C
It's an upmarket healthy snack enterprise which is giving out freebies - someone at work gets it and I can confirm that the food looks delicious!
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| scorpuppy rescue |
[20 Feb 2009|09:47pm] |
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Would anyone be kind enough to offer crashspace or at least workspace in/near London to the lovely lonescorpion while he sorts some stuff out?
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