This is the 17th essay in the #26essays2017 challenge that I’ve set for myself this year. I’m doing this because I’m the first to admit I’ve become a lazy writer: allowing guest posts and series and cross-posting to make up the bulk of content on The Diane Lee Project across 2016. The brave, fearless writing that readers admired and respected me for has all but disappeared. This year—2017—will be different. I’m reclaiming my voice—my write like a motherfucker voice! Saturday, July 22, 2017 will henceforth be known as the day I could have died, but didn’t. I could have died from a head injury
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This post was originally posted on WFA.Life. The Freedom Road series documents my transition to a more freelance, less corporate working life. After a tumultuous few months (year, actually) where I have been through the wringer at my workplace, and ended up finding an oasis, my journey to freedom has been on hold for a while, waiting for the dust to settle. Breathing, and feeling a sense of both contentment and achievement that I haven’t felt for a long time. To cut a long story short, after bouncing back to my department (after being out for three years) and bouncing
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This post was originally posted on WFA.Life. The Freedom Road series documents my transition to a more freelance, less corporate working life. When I first agreed to write for WFA.Life, I was very excited. I was chuffed to be asked by Andy to document my journey and share it with y’all. After all, what better way to be accountable than to be public in my declarations of moving forward? If I said it here, in this space, in this forum, I had to do it, right? I admit that I’m a little bit stuck. In my last post, I berated
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I was at my work’s social club Christmas drinks on Friday evening just gone. It’s a fun occasion, and one that I had been looking forward to for some time, not least because of the free flow of alcohol and food: for a nominal cost, of course. It’s also an occasion to catch up with work colleagues who’ve moved to other jobs and locations during the year, and to meet new people; people who work for my department, but whom I wouldn’t cross paths with in the normal course of doing business. We are relieved that we still have jobs,
Continue reading...I was sitting in a writer’s seminar on the weekend, bored out of my brain, wishing the presenter would up the pace and that my fellow participants* would just shut the fuck up. I had paid $60 for the privilege and I expected a lot more for my money than what was dished up. Actually, I wasted $120, because I attended another seminar on the same day (they were run as a tandem) which was only marginally better. I vowed never ever to attend seminars offered by this particular group ever again. Ever. I was over wasting my time and money**.
Continue reading...I have been on Twitter for a little over 2 years. In that time, I have amassed over 45 000 tweets and more than 1 300 followers (not many in comparison to some twitterers, though). I have seen it at its best and worst, and given my recent two year anniversary, this post is about what I love and hate about Twitter – from my perspective. 1. People I have met some fabulous people on Twitter, both locally and across the globe. Locally, people I met first on Twitter (who I would never have had the opportunity to cross paths
Continue reading...There is a line out of the movie He’s Just Not That Into You that resonated with me. It went something along the lines of that you have to keep checking a whole lot of different portals just to get rejected and it’s exhausting! While I’m not getting rejected, I do think keeping up with all the social media is quite an effort. Here’s an inventory of all my online stuff that I’ve got to keep checking and updating on a regular basis – some more than others: Blogs – three of them Websites -two of them Facebook – one
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