live update from baldwin's gardens

i have just submitted my outline of events in afghanistan from 2000-present for the third time. if my editor asks for more edits, i am going to personally go to kabul and punch her in the nose. i have acquired un-acquire-able details, i have scavanged the furthest reaches of the internet, i have toiled, i have sweated. all over this stupid timeline that i have to get done so i can write my features.

i have rewarded myself for my efforts with a cranberry brownie. be jealous.

vanessa, who is the cutest girl in the world, runs the staff meetings at IWPR and is tony's (head leader/inventor/troublemaker of IWPR) assistant. today is our weekly staff meeting and she is very excited because we can now Skype our foreign offices. woo hoo for foreign election coverage in crazy falling apart countries. the phone call is quite static ridden and really, we can only understand about 70% of what is happening in kurdistan. IWPR is big on small victories therefore, i fit right in. they are also big on training journalists in crisis areas so they can produce their own journalism and hold their governments accountable. it's exciting to be (a small) part of.

everyone is currently debating the amount of entries for the contest for heroic journalism that IWPR puts up every year. having never produced a piece of heroic journalism in my life, i am not eligible. it's like guessing for knobel, but without the luftwaffe (bummer). i guessed 77. i feel as though this may be too high, but we have a facebook fan page, so maybe our reach has grown.

it is finally getting warm here in london. i'm not wearing tights (woohoo rebel!) and i think it is supposed to be in the upper 70's this weekend. i am going to call it 80 in my head so i feel better about it. i am going to sunbathe in hyde park and drink lots of wine. it's no ComFest, but it'll have to do.

and now, for round 2 of googling madness: security issues in afghanistan....

apparently, according to one miss ana bennett "all of der brau knows you are going to italy," so here, official announcement: i am going to italy. details will follow soon.