London (Day 3)

Well… Today… I once again didn’t do much… I’m sorry people, I’m on holidays, can you blame me???

I woke up late and got hooked on a certain website on the net called LinkedIn… Essentially it’s a Professional Facebook, where you put your job history on it and it becomes a kind of online resume/job sharing and finding service. Find below, an extract of what i wrote for the union, as a kind of review for it…

“We have all heard of online communities such as MySpace, and Facebook and MSN Spaces etc etc etc , and there are more popping up each day. The Internet is becoming a hub of information sharing and community. It all really began with chat rooms, which are less prominent these days due to the large number of predators, stalkers and general weirdos online. All the chatting has moved to Blogs, and Friend networks. There are literally thousands of sites where people can upload information about themselves, their friends,, and their interests and hates. Now i have embraced this sharing and loved finding old classmates online on such communities as MySpace and Facebook, people I wouldn’t really seek out to communicate with, but people who i enjoy an occasional, “What are you up to?” with. I can admit that I have many accounts with many online communities and web sites (MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Blogger, YouTube etc.) but i have come across an interesting one out of the many.

The site is named “LinkedIn” and is the MySpace of the business world. It doesn’t feature blond scantly clad girls or Arnie style half naked men trying to message you and get you to view their pictures. This online community is built around professional networking, jobs and recommendations. Okay, here is how it works…

You sign up on their website (www.linkedin.com) and enter your main information, contact details and such. You then enter your experience, current job, interests, education and ambitions. You then add your colleagues, who can comment on your jobs, recommend you and be one of your “connections”. You choose an industry you want to be included in and give yourself a profession. You can then search for people you have worked with, old classmates, and network with others in your industry. There is a job listings section, and you are able to chat to people about their work and their company.

I joined this site two days ago and have been busy adding my past jobs and filling up my profile with information. I am liking it so far, and have found a few people who i have worked with or know, for example a lecturer from VCA, and a classmate from Drama School. I am still figuring out the buttons and the main concept. I will report back with my findings as i go along, and i encourage people to join me in this weird and wacky experience. I am wondering though, could this be the new way that we find jobs in our industry (Arts)?”

After writing that and also replying to some emails and such (i’m just trying to make it sound like i did something), Elle woke up and the plan was that she was going to show me around, do Buckingham Palace and such… But, she didn’t have enough time before work, so we went to the local coffee shop and chatted about what she wanted to do with her life and ended up getting all excited about how she could make Photography into a career, but, she needs more skills and needs to buckle down and get cracking. I explained what i knew about tax and ABNs and such, and she really lit up to it. We were there for a while and eventually she had to get her eyebrows plucked… Thank god i ain’t a woman, because that looked very painful! I then walked her to work, via home, so she could “change her shirt” which turned into a 35 minute stop over, resulting in her being late to work… (She does take over an hour in the bathroom! She is worse than me…)

I had a Jack Daniels and coke, which was very nice after all this beer i have been drinking. Elle then convinced me to have a half pint of Guinness, which I have never tried before… It tasted exactly like she said it would (Drinkers of Guinness advised to not read past here…) Beer, with a Soy Sauce aftertaste… If she hadn’t told me about the aftertaste, I probably would have enjoyed it, but with every sip came the thought and it tasted quite foul! I ended up having dinner at the pub, because the food is nice. I had Fish and Chips, something I faintly remember being credited to the English, so maybe it was another Authentic Meal???

I left Elle at work and walked home. I watched some TV and then collected her from the street corner after her shift. Tomorrow we are being tourist like and seeing the sights, i also hope to see a show, and maybe convince Elle to take a day off work!