Nannies gone wild?

One of the more interesting things I read today was about a nanny who was fired because of things her employer read in her blog. Said employer is a journalist for the New York Times, and published an article about how horrified she was at her nanny's "secret life". Looking at things from the nanny's point of view, however, it seems to me that this journalist was completely over-reacting and needs to understand that her nanny can have a life and that this life needn't affect her job performance (which I don't think it was, to be honest). The nanny's blog is here, and she has written a response to the NYT article.

I've read all of this with a combined feeling of intrigue and horror. It causes me to wonder, how do people view me based on what I've written in this silly little blog? And how does that view change between people who know me in the flesh versus people who "know" me solely based on this blog? I don't think that my blog contains any startling revelations about who I am or what I do. I think the overall picture is that I'm a wannabe artist who has bad luck with burglars. Other than that, not too much excitement here. But one never can tell how other people will interpret one's writing. I certainly hope that my employers wouldn't think me a bad influence on their children based on something stupid and trivial like a blog. Though ultimately, I think that would just make them look stupid in the long run. But hey, you never know.

Blogging is a dangerous business these days. There are always the stories of people being fired for blogging at work or giving away company secrets, but this takes it to a whole new level. An even sadder level. It reminds me of high school, when everyone had online diaries in which they gossiped about everyone else. When this gossip hit the halls of school, it was an absolute nightmare. The he-said-she-said was ruthless and destructive. I'm glad that I'm beyond that phase; I'm just hoping it doesn't make a recurrence.

In the meantime, this cheered me up significantly, as it's completely ridiculous. Try to resist watching it more that once, I dare you.

Same shit, different day.

Last night, I woke to noises at about 1:30. Heard people going up and down the stairs. Heard them upstairs.

No one lives upstairs right now. The people renting the place have some stuff there but aren't living there themselves til the school year.

Telling myself that last week's incident must have been a fluke, I eventually fell asleep again.

This morning, there were two police cars in the parking lot. Then a detective with a camera. A flury of action. Up the stairs, down the stairs. Knocking on doors.

When they finally got to mine, I gave them a piece of my mind (in a polite, respecting authority kind of way, of course). Had they actually done something last weekend, maybe the place upstairs wouldn't have been broken into and robbed. I don't know. I guess that's what happens when one lives in the student slums.

It's just that this has never happened to me before. Generally speaking, things have been pretty safe here. Now, I don't know. I don't know what to do or what to think. Should I buy a dog? A shotgun? A few more deadbolts? Maybe, maybe. I could deal without all this stress! I could deal without waking up to CSI on my lawn.

Hey you kids, off my lawn!

If anyone is having an angry streak and needs to beat someone up, you can start with the guys that tried to break into my apartment this morning.





<----They broke my screen door.

The cure for boredom!

Or possibly the death of productivity. Either way, my latest discovery on the old internets is StumbleUpon. It's a Firefox extension that allows you to flip through really interesting websites on topics of your own choosing. It also allows you to rate and review sites.

Some of the cool things I've "stumbled upon" just this afternoon:

• PostSecret- On this site, people mail in homemade postcards with a secret on it. It's pretty interesting to see what people are hiding. Also, a lot of the postcards are quite artistic.
  
• one word.- They give you a word and sixty seconds to write about it. A good cure for writer's block.
  
• The Zoomquilt- Amazing. Not much to describe other than that.
  

And that's just a little bit of it. I'm hooked.

Rinse. Repeat.

So other than painting, drawing, painting, drawing, painting drawing, paintingdrawing, I haven't really been doing much lately. Occasionally I eat or sleep or watch tv. Oh, I went to yoga on Tuesday with Nicole, which was super. The instructor is a complete hippy. I often wonder if she ever gets angry or even the slightest bit irked at things. I can't see it happening. In any case, the latest news from her is that she is taking a pilgrimage soon. I didn't find out where she's off to, but I would assume India (again).

Other than that, well, I lead a boring life. But that's ok. Maybe it's better that way.

Waterfall (unfinished). Watercolor.

Three more.

Shells. Watercolor.

2:37 am. Pen and ink.