this blog was the answer to a profound statement

so, as i mentioned once before, I put this stat counter on the blog to see if anyone had looked at it without leaving a comment (as if... ahem).

Below is a list of things people typed into Google and followed to get to this blog.

Now, to the untrained eye these might all look odd, but I'm curious about the woman (presumably) who was looking for.... well, something on 05/05/07

time well spent?

well I've spent the best part of an hour (longer??) tagging all my 140-odd posts.
Tags on the right - travel and.... other.

Although the numbers of postings per tag aren't exposed here (yet or ever - depends on how hard to do), from the admin interface I can see a rough guide as to what it is I go on about.

mainly travel, women, Arsenal, and bloggy/ webby stuff.

But I forgot to tag anything 'serious'.

or "posted while drunk".

And that would be a useful tag.

tense.... or a Marquee?

I've always been dubious of online "communities" (ok ok I've worked on pitches and products for these over for the last few years so maybe I'm jaded).

However, I actually contributed to and - heck - felt a part of one (the PM blog) since it began last year (comment 64 on the First Day which should've put me in mind of the Beatles, now i think of it)

Anyway, the technology or management behind the site has basically fallen apart. Which has left the regulars a bit floundered (especially as its referred to as a pond...)

Its a shame as it almost reached the point of a maturing community where the "old guard" was going through changes (contributor power) and new members. But this was still a few months away. Instead all this has potentially been lost and the thing has ground to a halt with new posters (as well as those who know that the site is going through a shit spell) been unable to post.

A real shame and a opportunity possibly lost. Certainly a lot of 'regulars' have given up and will wait to see what happens.

Me? well.... I love to talk and listen and the people there are great but I can't be arsed with the delays, non-delivered posts etc etc.

The thing about the web and 'real' venues is that there are other places to meet, but its the venue itself that is the defining point here...

I hope this won't be like the Marquee club where people say "oh yeah, I was there on Day One... yeah I see the groupies at other clubs and such but obviously it isn't the same..."

oh - I already have...

ooohhhh.............. participation

right.
I don't feel like blogging, yet I'm bored and want to talk about something....

so, what do you want me to talk about? I've got an opinion on loads of things - mainly stuff I know sod all about.
What would you like me to go on about? Art? Music? football? Design? designing websites?? Politics?

whatever. Now, if I was strong I'd say I ain't gonna blog again until someone asks me something to talk about.
But I ain't that strong and I'll merely not blog for a week or two or three and then I'll probably just say something..!

though ask me about my housemates and I'll bore you to tears about their... ugh only if you ask....

Blog-u-like

Right. The last post mentioned two thngs I should've done. One was to suggest some blogs that I like.

so, some blogs that I like:
The Radio 4 PM blog, full of interesting thoughts from people. about stuff. Like the hanging of Saddam, heroin, Afghanistan, the importance of punctuation, recipes.... oh, and cats. Seems everyone has a cat.
Interestingly(?) a fair few have blogs of their own... think I'll do a sepearate posting of those.

The musings of my mate (like me, getting back into blogging and some of his earlier postings were, well.... he was having fun abroad. Now he's Re-Patted. but hopefully that doesn't mean the fun stuff has ended.

And my daily dose of a very well written footy blog. Well written, with links to news stories but importantly a strong editorial voice. He does swear quite a bit, but.... well.... it is about footy and the ref was a [ahem]... Arseblog
pretty obvious who I support huh? actually see hi posting after the win over Liverpool. Very even handed and criticised one of our own players rather than just sitting there smugly...)

This one I've only just come across a day or two ago and in fact almost did have an acident as this stuff really does get my juices going. Data visualisation, design etc etc etc.
Yummy.

And Badscience is the writings of Dr. Ben Goldacre who writes in the Guardian on a Saturday. Especially useful if you're into nutritionism. He really really really hates Gillian McKeith. I mean, even more than I hate people on telly (and that's saying something).
Though tellingly, he actually has reasons for disliking people, which I would never sink to.

I'll stop now as growabrain is a site that links to new interesting stuff on the interwub. If you're looking for something not to do over lunch then this might provide the links to it.
and its where I'll be looking for new blogs...

so this is blogging, and what have we done...?

[this is a copy of wot-i-just-rote on the PM blog]
Inspired by a contributer to the PM blog, I've just re-read my own blog from the beginning of the year. Interesting (if only for me) as I had little flashbacks of my time travelling.

As dear reader you'll know, in November 2005 I 'left work', sat on me bottom and travelled a bit. By the end of the first quarter of 2006 I'd made it to Spain and Guatamala (as anyone who peeked at my pics will know). Not massive travels I grant you, but still. Nice memories. And interesting to be able to access them for the first time after writing them down all those months ago!!!

Randomly clicking through the blog "Archives" on the right, I realise that my ramblings mainly concern:
a) Women (and lack thereof)
b) Not being able to speak Spanish
c) Arsenal
d) hangovers

actually d) is ironically rarer as I tend to blog at night when [ahem] drink has been taken, but before its morning awfulness has wreaked its merry way through my tummy and head. And alcohol (as any good Doctor here will attest) is not cool, or likely to help getting thoughts down coherently. I have not come to praise Beer, but to bury it....

Oddly enough (or perhaps not), as soon as I started work again, I kinda let the blogging slip.

So, after the somewhat pleasant diary-like reminders of what-i-did-on-my-holidays, I think I may start blogging again this year (don't all cheer at once). Not a "resolution", but I'm getting more into the habit of typing my thoughts (even though I'm still sooooo slow) and inspired by my posting on the PM blog.

[After poking at 2 posts from the archives, I can now also provide a short version of my blog: Seville is beautiful; if you can't speak the language you'll eat odd combinations of food; I'm rubbish with women; I worry too much about Arsenal; I get fascinated by stuff]

sumfing wot i posted on PM blog

The question was:
we're coming to the end of another year and hurtling towards the end of the first decade of a new century, so... "What do the noughties mean to you?".....


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

noughties huh?
reckon Jason's onto a good thing by mentioning the iPod (which isn't even the best tool in terms of functionality... but ooooohhhh just feel the surface....)

Mainly though this decade is a follow-through from the 80's "Me" generation. Now I get to have my environment with me at all times (either in a big car or with earphones). I don't have to interact if I choose not to.

And choice is about me not you. And choice is soooo important nowadays. Not bothered what's on the menu, as long as I have a choice of options (I'd rather 35 channels of cr*p than 15 channels of cr*p... 3 healthcare options rather than a single appropriate one...)

Also I get to be famous - me, me meeeeee. While people gawp on and think "it could be meee there...." and go and have yet more alcohol, splitting them from others to an even greater extent... the social oil that we all slip along on.

and blogs are all about meeeeeeeeeeeeee.

or so I thought.

All that's very simplistic.

Blogs for a start are a medium, and for every hundred rubbish, adolescent gurning cries of "hello world" and "pick me" there's one that you can connect with and grow from.

And choice is a fallacy - choice is based on knowledge, difficult complex knowledge like "which surgeon had fewer fatalities?" leading to fewer surgeons cutting open 'high risk' cases leading to... and as any designer will tell you, choice inhibits action. And whats the point of a choice between things I'm gonna ignore anyway....?

And 'my' environment is now balanced by a concern for our environment...

so, the noughties? Not so naughty, but maybe a bit more growed up?

how many lurkers...?

... does it take to change a blog?

Well, any lurker out there (erm, actually i only know of one) should put their hand up. Even anonymously.

then I'll know if i can be arsed to get back into blogging.

and then we'll know exactly how many lurkers it takes to change a blog.

ta!

(i do mean this by the way - if you're reading this, please comment, even with an anonymous "hi", as I have no way of counting 'hits' or anything...)

wha? where'sitallgone??

ok - that's appropriate for anyone who may have gone to the 'old' site and been directed here, but I just didn't want my name associated with all this rubbish anymore!

"Whisht" is good enough.

maybe i should take the advice that word constantly gives.....?

fill 'er up

yep a new thang added to my already overburdened "and also" column (on the right)

Now you can see what I've been listening to (or am listening to right now in some spooky eavesdropping stylee)

I dislike the formatting, but not sure how to change.... do it some other time... another of my mantras....
If the songs tend to lack lyrics that's cos I can't type and listen to words at the same time (nor can i pat my belly and rub my head or whatever)

I don't believe that makes me any less of a man.

a shame and a possible encouragement..

***NOT ABOUT GUATEMALA***
which will be a fucking relief.

My mate J** (using his new code) says that he won't be blogging anymore! yeah i and all of you know that this is tragic.

Without knowing he'd blogged this (I've been away - did i mention? It was to Central America. Guatamala in fact! yeah, let me tell... oh hold on) I sent him a link to another blog I sometimes read (yeah - I ain't faithful). This is an Arsenal blog which today was celebrating its 4th year. And it gets updated daily! it really does. So I thought I'd send my mate J*e a link to today's entry which goes on about how his bloglife has changed, how and why he's kept it up and so on. except I can't link to a specific entry so just look at the long one for 27th

maybe it'll keep J** blogging as his is funnier.

move away; there is nothing to see. move away from the blog...

Howdy.
Haven't blogged in a while - mainly been pissing off friends by being an aresehole and getting pissed. But not necessarily in that order.
Honestly, I have nothing to report. Saw "Jarhead" - disappointing (superficial. Not that I want a searing indictment but I would like some characterisation. is that too much?). Got offers of work starting around end of Feb (if they come off) so better buy that ticket to Guatemala tomorrow. Am going to Aus in June/ July to be best man for a mate out there (it would be someone else but he can't make it). Got pissed with a mate, and ended up chatting to/ up two girls in a bar in Brick lane. They haven't got back in touch...

as i said, nothing to report. I'll invent something juicy. bear with me...

some blogs

Ok, here's a coupla things I found recently.
Let this not fool you. I found loads of stuff, but most of it wasn't worth mentioning. However:

• "Arseblog" is a must for all Arsenal fans. As they proudly say, "its fucking excellent". And updated daily (does the guy not work??!)
  
• "Plasticbag" is by someone in the web-world which made me think of returning to the industry after my sojourn
  
• "Last.fm" is something I've just signed up to - a community site (don't all yawn) based on music you listen to (it gets a feed from your iTunes or other mediaplayer). Interestingly it says it needs about 300 tunes to get any sense of your listening preferences. Either this'll be good, or its sucking over 4000 choons off my computer....
  
• "daidala" is a blog for typographers. It made me laugh with real joy and recognition. Start on the link on the right, but if you want the particular entry that made me laugh then here it is. enjoy
  
• "Museum of Online Museums" is a wonderful resource of very good design related sites and resources, as well as museums catering to a... wider audience. I mean, who else would have a link to the Museum of Temporary Art?

anyway, enjoy.

contains mild peril - pah!

Ok, this is a little odd for those wishing their blog posts in chronological order but just gotta say that this blog is boring in comparison to me mate's.

if you want a first hand account of robbery Columbian-stylie, then read this.

he's alive, though poorer, so this isn't rubber-necking. honest.

and me and joe have never "necked".

exactly what I was thinking

I was looking at 43places and all the places people want to go to, want to do and came across this guy. I gotta get in touch because, although he doesn't want to go anywhere, he's wondering about exactly the same things as me - an example:

"Watch a Chicken kill an Otter
Chickens have sharp noses but they also have sharp claws. Otters are fast and have sharp teeth and can swim in the water as well as the land. It would be cool, just once, to see a chicken come out on top. Maybe if it was a real big chicken and a small otter it could happen. I'm going to pray to God for this one."

As one does with rude words in dictionaries, I looked up Stevenage and amazingly someone had been there. she said it was a "shithole".
Difficult to argue with that, especially as that was all she said....

a site you can't argue with

or shouldn't argue with.

Followed a link on Shaky Kaiser's blog to this gem of a site.

how can you not love a site with the imortal words:
"It was time to get out the rifle."

blog spamming?

ok, here's the deal,

you're working for peanuts, its just a job, maybe you're a student and never had a job yet. Maybe you're on benefit and they pay cash in hand. or whatever.

if i find anyone and i mean anyone who's helped in sending spam out, i will hurt them.

that is not a threat, but a promise - i have better shit to do than remove your auto links.

and believe me, when i say hurt, i mean it.

not that your program can figure that out, but tough shit if i ever get close

hmmmm finishing Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa has left me in a stinky mood.

don't spam me.

no idea what this will be

well, no idea what i'm gonna write.

I guess that's how everyone starts. Perhaps a bit of research (as in actually reading some blogs) would help, but I've just read my mate joe's and I reckon I'd do it too.

and its free.

got a date with a finnish girl so gotta go.

hopefully this will be more than just me saying "going on a date" or else I'll only ever put on 2 posts a year....