Sold TV yesterday* = Morrocan cake baked, pisto soup done and freezed (in my TINY freezer), chicken stock done, hair shampooed, people in the house clothed and smelling good, plans made for tonight and it’s only 3 in the afternoon. Uh, who knew?

* for 25 pounds to a local guy who then forgot to take the remote control.  Pwned.

I have insane blog crushes. They most often than not come and go, and those which are here to stay are cataloguednin my blogroll. Sometimes my love for journals runs so deep that I have to read every.single.entry ever published by the athor, which makes it diffiult if their personal and sex-ed writing has existed online for a decade or so, or if the blog contains too many recipes, and too little time. Last month I have developped two gigantic blog loves, and while one (Lagusta’s blog) if completely understandable because its content runs very much in parallel of my politics, the other (Nie’s dialogues) does not. Not one bit, not one iota.

I found nienie’s blog via Soule Mama, in an entry in which she elegantly and discreetly hinted at the tragedy the Nie family was going through. I feel ashamed to say that it is the trauma she is currently going through which brought me to her writing (same thing seemed to have applied to many readers who took on following her blog). I was quickly won over by her examplary life, her wit and her joie de vivre. I sincerely wish her as much courage she will need to get through this horrible episod of her life - and I dont doubt that she will do great, because her force and will to live radiates through her writing.

Much like Dooce, Nei manages to set aside and make time for small moments to be recognized and appreciated, which is a form of blogging I have come to appreciate an awful lot in the past few years. And so there I was; entranced in her blogging world and in awe of her prettiness, until I realised a little link which said ’spiritual enlightenment here’. As a quick click led me to the mormon.org site, my heart sank. And as I scrolled down further and noticed posts in which she cheered for Mitt Romney, my heart sank further. When I finally read an entry in which she called all democrats crazy, I not only felt belittled, but also sad. Why? I rarely, if ever, give myself permission to like someone who is vehemently republican, evangelical and pro-life for to boot.

Somehow, I kept on reading. Every single entry she ever wrote. And I came to the very uneasy conclusion that even though I have nothing but contempt for her politics, her life still should be inspiring to countless of her readers, for she seems to be a great person leading a joyful, optimist, caring life.

For me, this is key. If religious people ever wanted me to convert, they would be so much more successful at it by impressing me with discreet happiness and simplicity (for I might come to the conclusion that their serenity steams from their religion, be impressed and look it up) rather than with evangelical ploys and judgmental rants which for the most part are falling on deaf ears.

As for lagusta’s blog, well, she is Nei’s polar opposite. She’s ace, and the kind of woman I would love to be friends with, mainly because her unapologetic line of feminism (minus her take on transgenderism) really appeals to me. I found myself reading her entire blog a couple of weeks ago (lusting after her truffles too) with a mix of astonishment (’dude, you can’t really say that about women who have kids!’) and admiration (a cycling washing machine? Sister puts her money and effort where her mouth is. It is both refreshing and flippin’ inspiring).

And while she is way closer to my beliefs than Nie, some of her lefty principles go too far for me. No, I can’t consider going vegan, even though I really, really understand people who do. But my culture, my family’s food heritage and recipes, as well as practicality/price go in the way. And I have a bit of a hard time being told that I am just stupid or heartless for consuming eggs. This is something that constantly amazes me, how wrong evangelical vegans and animal-rights NGO such as PETA can be: you don’t recruit people by calling them heartless and stupid polluters committing murder. At best, you’re preaching to the converted and generating negative publicity which will have ‘outsiders’ looking down on you. At worst, the masses will call all vegans batshit insane and will catalogue them under ‘not even worth arguing with annoying hippies’.

I find it sad. Primarily because I love food, do care for animal welfare and the environment, and yet I would like to have a discussion about eating ethically but within my own standards, which might mean eating organic meat once a week, having sustainable fish dishes occasionally, and using free-range eggs in my cooking. But this conversation won’t ever take please, since hardcore vegans see me as a deranged psychopath. And I in turn think their outlook is so entrenched in an ideology which doesn’t take into account personal experiences and circumstances that I lose patience.

I end up thinking that both religious peeps and vegans definitely have something interesting to say, and their outlook can be inspiring. But because their discourse is framed with intolerance and the inability to listen and empathise, they end up losing potential followers (not that I would ever in a million years adhere to Mormonism, a religion in which no woman could ever conduct a meeting with older men. But I often consider vegetarianism and veganism as something that could work for me and what I stand for).

What Ernie said. 100%. It’s not just as fun as it was in 2001.

I was telling one of my boss at work this morning that I was really surprised to learn that Enid Blyton was not a man. Whoa, she exclaimed, you have to write about it. So I did.

I forgot to add: here’s my latest blog for Comment is free. There was a lot of arguing but I loved every second of it. Resident troll even said I looked like Jar Jar Binks - whom I had to Google. I replied with something similar and my ass got deleted by the moderator… which was well deserved but I mean, Jar Jar?

“As many readers have pointed out, it was misleading of Laura Agustín to imply that Faiza Silmi was not granted French citizenship solely on the account of her wearing the niqab. [read the rest here]”

I e-mailed 20th Fox Century’s press office, entered every competition I could think of, even added pictures of my kitten to my e-mails as proof that I am a dedicated fan and prayed - atheist style- for a ticket to the official screening this Wednesday but nothing, no premiere for Jess. And all this after Mark told me that he thought I was England’s most deserving girl when it comes to being invited to see the movie.

I mean, who are those cold hearted people resisiting pictures of kittens, anyway? Jeez, I would have blog positively about the movie for free! Even if it is a disaster!* Ah, PR people are stupid.

Well, at least some people’s genius are cheering me up. I really need that embroidery pattern.

* My friend Matt says the movie is “potentially the most tarnishing crack at a legacy ever”.

I have a new blog entry up on Comment is Free re: Jezebel. A bit late to the game but whaddyaknow, still trying to make a point.

Here’s a recipe for a good blogosphere scandal: take two sassy, trendsetter bloggers writing for one of Gawker Media’s most popular sites. Invite them to a comedy show that will be broadcast online and have them interviewed by a ruthless and nosy host eager to discuss their sex lives. Add a lot of free alcohol to the mix, and you have the perfect ingredients for the viral equivalent of a car crash. [read the rest here]

Strangely accurate, according to my delicious tags:

Less accurate, according to my blogs keywords, but how much do I love the massive PASTRY  tag?

Last week I received an e-mail from a nice researcher working for The Listening Post, a tv show broadcasted on Al-Jazeera english. She had read my blog entry about Sarkozy and the media and wanted to know if I was interested in talking for a few minutes about his influence on the French media. I said I was of course interested in principle, but when she phoned back the next day and had me spend 10 minutes blabbering away about my hate for the president, I thought she’d never call back. Too often, I am an embarrassment to no one but myself (see also: Bicycle Mark’s podcast).

But I was asked back today and said I would spare the team the commuting pain and pay them a visit in person. As it happens, the show shares a building with CBC Canada (droll), and I was welcome by a lovely and very interesting intern and a very funny cameraman/producer, who was in panic because he forgot his pregnant’s wife wedding anniversary. We chatted for a few minutes and they told me to speak for a couple of minutes, in front of the camera, about my opinions. And how do I put this? I am horrible at being interviewed for podcasts, and even worse on camera. I was thinking about the poor editor who would have to work on the footage, deleting my ‘errrs’ and my awkward pauses, and I ) blushed 2) wanted to stab myself in the eye. I profusely apologized but they both said it was absolutely fine and what they were looking for.

As I left, she said she’ll let me know when the footage is online. I thought, fuck me, I hope I’m so bad it never airs.

Lesson learned: stick to blogging.

Friends - I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch via Facebook because the site never really did it for me, but I (surprisingly) like Twitter more and more. You can find me here. Wanna join?