the art of letter writing
I love writing a letter and there is nothing more special than receiving a handwritten letter in the post. Unfortunately, this is an artform
Read More...The kindest corner of the interweb
I love writing a letter and there is nothing more special than receiving a handwritten letter in the post. Unfortunately, this is an artform
Read More...It all came crashing down
That Friday afternoon
When everyone began to panic
Thinking that the worst was coming
Social media was finally ending
The bubble burst
As all our lives begin to fade
Into the world away from webs
A place were people live in peace
No need to share our meals each day
For acquaintances who have no say.
I don’t really know what is going on with Twitter, aside from the fact that lots of people have been laid off. But scanning social media, I have seen people sharing all of their other details so that they don’t lose their Twitter friends ‘should the worst happen’.
I had to smile reading the Tweets, and seeing them a little like messages being put into a bottle and cast out to see. They are saying that the world is ending but I’m still here, don’t forget me.
Can you imagine if this is the end of the world as we know it? I won’t know what Karen from two doors down did at Crossfit this evening? I won’t know what Tim from work ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner? How will we all survive?
I do feel terrible for the people who have lost their job with no warning; and in this economic climate, it can’t be happening at a worse time. I really hope things start looking up soon.
<uch Love
Rachel xx
A ten minute window into your life
Through double glazing with the sound turned on,
You show me what you think, you do for work,
And then I scroll and see another life
All sealed up within the shiny phone screen
Safely distanced from the world
But also showing in your bedroom space,
I love this oversharing craze.
So, I’m absolutely hooked on TikTok live at the moment. There is something so mesmerising about just scrolling and randomly landing on each Live and being able to look into their world.
And if I don’t like what they are offering, I just continue scrolling until I find something interesting.
Yesterday, I was scrolling and I fell upon some guy who was dressed as a vampire. He had blood all round his mouth and he was speaking in a Eastern European accent, saying that he was craving more blood.
I then continued on and watched a mum from Louisiana selling some jewellery and asking people to join her MLM team.
I also watched somebody doing prank calls, somebody who suffered with tourettes and somebody doing readings using divining sticks. I mean, how can any TV station live up to that variety?
I have always had a strange addiction to anything that falls into the reality TV category and so TikTok Live right up my street. I believe that the draw is that I get to see how weird other people are and so I can compare my own quirks with these people.
I’m also extremely nosy, so looking into people’s bedrooms and living rooms and gardens is one of my favourite things in life.
Once I get back to work, I’m going to have to stop and probably go cold turkey because I just won’t have time to watch a fifteen year old Goth apply her make up for thirty minutes.
Expect serious withdrawal symptoms!
Much Love
Rachel xx
That blue banner that spans
The top of my computer screen,
It’s such a calming colour
And yet it should be fiery red
For all the crap I read
That makes my stomach acid rise,
I wish it came with warnings that say,
‘Read below with caution,
It could well ruin your day.’
I hate social media, and yet I can’t help myself. I just about squeeze into the millenial category, so I’m allowed to be a little bit addicted to some of these things. I can quite happily leave my phone at home for days at a time, so I am still a bit of a technological rarity.
The reason that I love social media, is that it gives you access to everyone’s life and what they are doing. The reason I hate it is that it gives you access to everyone’s life and some of the idiotic things that rattle around their brains.
I need to step back from it because I can sometimes get so angry about some of the things people write, and it seems so at odds with the calming blues that characterize these sites.
Today, I made the mistake of flicking through Facebook and clicking on a post the had a ‘see more…’ at the end of it. You know these posts are going to be long and rambling so I always try to steer away from these, but I got sucked in.
This person had written a post about how unfair it was that naughty pupils were excluded from prom and how that meant that teachers were cruel and not trying to be inclusive. They went on to say how lovely their son was and how the rough ride he has had should excuse his behaviour.
I know that this is a personal belief and there are probably people reading this and fuming at my views, but is school not for learning and for appreciating that there are boundaries? If you constantly push those boundaries, waste the time of teachers and cost your classmates valuable learning time, shouldn’t that be punishable?
The comments made my blood boil even more, with people just bashing this one school and the teachers there. And almost every one started with ‘my son came home and said that he did nothing, the teacher just has it out for him…’
Believe it or not, teachers don’t go into a class and pick out kids that they just don’t like the look of. And the point of my post is that everyone I know in the profession wants to help kids, and that involves teaching them the behaviours and values that will later make them good citizens and human beings.
Help us to help your kids and stop telling them they can do what they want!
With Stern Love
Miss R (Teacher of English) xx
I have trouble with these sweeping statements,
Where if you do not meet the bar
You’re bad, or evil
Or just a little bit thick.
Aren’t we supposed to love each other
In all our technicolour glory?
Regardless of our strengths and flaws
Our talents or our GCSE scores.
I’ve always been a hater of those sweeping statements that always appear in Facebook posts surrounded by rainbows and flowers. They often say things like ‘true friends will always make time for you’ or ‘everyone has had a difficult time over the past two years’.
I don’t think many of these quotes are meant to be horrible but I think that sometimes people need to understand that not everyone as the same.
I commented on a social media post saying that not all people hated lockdown. I just showed my support and said that actually lockdown had been luxurious for me because I love being alone and in my own home.
Immediately afterwards, I got a reply saying that I was evil and that loads of people died and I should be ashamed of saying it was a good time. It just showed me that we really live in a world that is tailored to extroverts and if you like to curl up at home, you are deemed to be a bad friend or an evil human.
I think it would be nice to see everyone being a bit more inclusive and not saying that if you don’t act as they do, then you’re somehow a less acceptable human. Be thoughtful.
Happy Easter
Rachel xx