►Jeni Wren

+ My first week at Google

Jeni — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:09:00 +0000

Thousands of miles from home, I’ve finally started my first week as a “Noogler”, a new hire at Google! The Mountain View campus is quite something, comprising of dozens of buildings, and what’s great is that the company provides a free, regular wi-fi enabled shuttle service from San Francisco. I’m currently staying at Hotel Union [...]

+ My Very Own Flat

Jeni — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:43:01 +0000

I’ll be moving into my very own flat on July, and I’ve already gone into overdrive in my hunt for some top-notch finds to adorn my new abode. I have so many ideas for what I want to do to make the place feel like home, so below I’ll share some of my ideas and [...]

+ Reading Ulysses

Jeni — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:03:14 +0000

I started reading Ulysses in July 2011, and after various sincere attempts to get into a routine of fitting this book around my daily life, I lost my enthusiasm halfway in. However, I have carried it on my commute more often than not, and finally made it to the end of the book.That doesn’t mean [...]

+ 2011… What a Year You Were!

Jeni — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:42:58 +0000

2011, more than any other year, was a year of contradictions for me. This was the year I turned a quarter of a century, and when I was younger I assumed all 25-year-olds know everything and have their lives sorted… How wrong I was! When I’ll look back at this year, my memories at first [...]

+ Destiny’s Kisses and Dope-Slaps

Jeni — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:50:46 +0000

The most life-changing events in our lives are not really down to us. I read a quote the other day from David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest, which beautifully elaborates on the seemingly serendipitous nature of life: “Both destiny’s kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person’s basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events [...]

+ Addicted to Facebook… Or Yourself?

Jeni — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:03:17 +0000

Facebook is so much more than a tool for communicating with friends. It’s inevitably also used to project an image of ourselves to best friends, childhood acquaintances, exes and of course the people we’re so want to impress. Online personalities are one-sided, highly edited and, for me, they can be symptomatic of a worrying trend [...]

+ My Recent London Discoveries

Jeni — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:53:09 +0000

One of the best (and worst) things about London is that there’s so much out there just waiting to be discovered. However many places you visit in the evenings and at the weekends, it just isn’t possible to fit in everything I would into a week’s 168 hours! I’m trying to visit new places every [...]

+ The Fabulous Stains

Jeni — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:04:33 +0000

I wish I’d discovered The Fabulous Stains as a teenager. The film itself is pretty entertaining considering the fact that it’s low-budget, features inexperienced actors and took over a year to edit with the ending changed several times! It’s 90% angsty, passionate girl power, 5% cringe and 5% “WTF?” in equal measure. Diane Lane’s portrayal [...]

+ The London Riots

Jeni — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:13:01 +0000

Since when has been trashing your own community and throwing missiles at your community’s police force been an acceptable expression of dissatisfication with the lack of opportunities in society? It has not and will not be an effective impetus for social change. Anyone who thinks looting, burning cars and setting fire to wheelie bins is [...]

+ A Tribute to Amy Winehouse

Jeni — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:06:33 +0000

Amy Winehouse singing live at Cardiff Student Union I clearly remember the first time I listened to Amy Winehouse’s album Frank. More than any other album in my life, the songs and the clarity of her lyrics had a massive impact on me. That’s what her legacy should be – the ability to move millions [...]

+ Goodreads: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Jeni — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:22:19 +0000

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov My rating: 5 of 5 stars Vladimir Nabokov fascinates me. He had synesthesia, and literary synesthesia is defined as “a writer’s use of a metaphor of the senses”. It gave him a unique perspective to weigh up the world around him, which I think manifests itself beautifully in the prose of [...]

+ Exploring with Google Maps

Jeni — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:17:32 +0000

There’s so many apps/websites utilising Google Maps in inventive ways. One example is Red Bull Street Art View, which describes itself as a “collaborative collection of Google’s Street View locations showcasing Street Art all over the globe.” I love the fact that technology makes it so easy for us to zoom in on a pavement [...]

+ A Beautiful Weekend in London

Jeni — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:08:26 +0000

For much of the year I view London as a chaotic, jumbling hive of activity; cold, impersonal and anonymous. But there are times when the the rain ceases, the clouds evaporate and it reveals itself to be a pretty damn beautiful place. I’m always thinking about where I want to move to next, but on [...]

+ What Is Your Ikigai?

Jeni — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:07:12 +0000

Dan Buettnor’s TED talk How To Live To Be 100+ explains some of the common dominators in the world’s ‘Blue Zones’, areas where people are living to age 100 at rates up to 10 times greater than Americans are and where the life expectancy is an extra dozen years. Below is a diagram of what [...]

+ The Modern Dilemma

Jeni — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:10:38 +0000

At a house party last night a few of us got chatting about how much has changed since our parents’ generation in terms of opportunities. It’s now almost a given that after A-levels you work your way through university, get a career and focus on making money, and lots of it. People married younger, mortgages [...]

+ The Killing of Osama Bin Laden

Jeni — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:32:19 +0000

Photo via This Is Bossi @ Flickr When I woke up this morning and read dozens of headlines announcing Osama bin Laden’s killing and President Obama’s assertion that “justice had been done”, I found it hard not to feel uneasiness at celebrating death, regardless of whether it’s from a man who faciliated the deaths of [...]

+ A Long Weekend in Berlin

Jeni — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:25:57 +0000

What can I say that could possibly sum up my time in Berlin? I fell in love with the city, got bitten by the travel bug and am now more determined than ever to visit all of the major European cities. Despite the fact that the best nightclubs have some kind of unspoken anti-tourist policy, [...]

+ Obsessing Over Black Swan

Jeni — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:48:35 +0000

We all know the story. Virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped in the body of a swan. She desires freedom but only true love can break the spell. Her wish is nearly granted in the form of a prince, but before he can declare his love her lustful twin, the black swan, tricks and seduces [...]

+ What Women Want

Jeni — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:24:01 +0000

Women’s increased participation in the workplace is seen as evidence that with every passing day, women draw closer to fulfilling their potential. Yet the cheering and applause drown out the reality: this is not what women want. Most women don’t aspire to the kind of lives that their supposed champions are busily engineering for them. [...]

+ The Hedonistic Harry and Caresse Crosby

Jeni — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 20:04:14 +0000

He had gifts that would have made him an explorer, a soldier of fortune, a revolutionist: they were qualities fatal to a poet. –Malcolm Cowley’s summary of Harry Crosby Having studied the works of the likes of Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce at university, I was really surprised that I hadn’t heard of [...]

+ Hitchcock’s Rope and Rear Window

Jeni — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:29:01 +0000

Thanks to my lovely Hitchcock Box Set, I now have a chance to make my way through some of the many Hitchcock masterpieces still on my must-see list. I don’t have much time to blog but I wanted to say a word or two about the two films I’ve watched recently. Rope Rope stars James [...]

+ Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho

Jeni — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:44:15 +0000

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis My rating: 4 of 5 stars I don’t need to write up a summary of what this novel is about, as it’s been written about to death. But what I have to say is that after reading this Bret Easton Ellis has become one of my new favourite authors [...]

+ The Marketing of Cigarettes

Jeni — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:53:21 +0000

The UK government is considering introducing plain packaging to tobacco packs, in an effort to deglamourise smoking to children. According to health secretary Andrew Lansley, “The evidence is clear that packaging helps to recruit smokers, so it makes sense to consider having less attractive packaging”. It’s all a far cry from tobacco’s consumerist heyday in [...]

+ BOOK REVIEW – Nick Hornby’s How to Be Good

Jeni — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:14:59 +0000

How to Be Good by Nick Hornby My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book made me realise how important it is to read a book’s customer reviews before committing to read it. There’s so many novels I want to read, and just not enough time to read all of them! If I’d done my [...]

+ The Large Hadron Collider

Jeni — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:12:46 +0000

This image of a lead-ion collision (found via GOOD) left me speechless! I have to admit I’m not all that clued up on the world of physics, but the Hadron Collider experiment is something that’s inspiring to read up a bit more on the subject. I thought I’d post some links to videos/blogs that shed [...]

+ Philip Larkin’s Letters to Monica

Jeni — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:32:15 +0000

Although many years have passed since I was first introduced to Philip Larkin’s fantastically down-to-earth and relatable poems at high school, BBC Radio 4′s readings of Letters to Monica instantly sparked my interest. I found this (fairly long) passage from Telegraph.co.uk, which really captures the intensity of his admiration for D.H. Lawrence: I get the [...]

+ The First Post in a While

Jeni — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:56:24 +0000

I’m so ashamed at my lack of posting anything for so long! When I was unemployed I had all the time in the world to write and to post whatever came into my mind, but as soon as I started full-time work I kind of let it all drop. Here’s a round-up of some great [...]

+ Raymond Peynet

Jeni — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:25:59 +0000

I used to work a few shifts at the gift shop in The National Museum of Wales during my time in Cardiff at university, and I remember finding some of Raymond Peynet’s lovely illustrations one day. Due to my bad memory, I completely forgot his name and after fruitless searches online I never thought I’d [...]

+ I miss China!

Jeni — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:04:49 +0000

I haven’t been to China since I left there in November 2008, and I’d love to go back and visit soon to see what massive changes have gone on there since I was last in Shanghai. Here are some of my photos taken from when I lived there in 2008: Me at Tianmen Square This [...]

+ I’ve Never…

Jeni — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:40:51 +0000

I’ve discovered a radio show, I’ve Never Seen Star Wars that asks a well-known celebrity or public figure to try five new cultural experiences and rate them. Examples include: + A bikini wax + Colonic irrigation + Eat some odd seafood + Place a race-horsing bet + Having your eyebrows threaded + Changing a baby’s [...]