About this Blogspot blog

The blog has moved to: Little Stitches in a Tapestry. Please feel welcome to pop over.

A dying movement?

-- Edit: this entry was a bit too long so I've split it into three separate posts, sorry for any confusion --

According to a BBC News article Blogging is set to peak next year and 200 million people have already stopped updating their blogs.

"Those who loved blogging were committed to keeping it up, while others had become bored and moved on ..."

Perhaps then, we might soon be part of a dying movement of bored bloggers?

I must admit to finding blogging a challenge and that'll probably still be the case in 2007, but Little Stitches will still continue - even if I'm unsure where it's going to be hosted in the medium term.

Technocrati is still a puzzle - apparently it tracks more than 57 million blogs, although that doesn't include this one because I haven't listed it there yet. I have a conflict, you see, between liking the idea of increased exposure, but not wanting to be 'found' by a tiny minority of people I know personally. I'm hoping that one or two changes in circumstances might make this less of an issue next year.

On this blog's visual front, I have been wondering how many dial-up modem minutes it must take to load ten of my scribbled entries, together with background and sometimes post images. Displaying ten posts on the front page is quite useful for catching the eye of passing newcomers but I wonder if this visual paraphernalia is a headache when all you've got is a telephone line? Usually I try to provide alternate text for pictures so hopefully it should all load and still make sense for those who prefer to disable images in favour of faster downloads.

I also wonder whether anyone out there quietly smoulders about reading light text over a dark background, something I sometimes find difficulty with on other sites.

You would tell me, wouldn't you? I'll even share one of my dried dates (sorry, the larder is a bit bare today) if you tell me at least one thing that doesn't work or doesn't look right about this blog or is even downright annoying.

And no, no, that doesn't mean you can say the content is annoying, just the look ;-)

Okay, that's my blog ramble done for the day.

BluBlog

I've started to keep a personal diary in the form of a private blog. This won't mean any changes to my blogging here, in fact I'm hoping it will help me with posting.

Keeping a personal diary is a step in a new direction and feels very strange. When I started this blog, I said that I really wasn't able to maintain private diaries or journals so this sudden impulse has come as a bit of a surprise. What may have set it off was that I was having problems blogging recently and felt that I just wasn't writing often enough. After all, writing is a skill and skills have to be exercised or they get rusty, right?

So since then, I've managed to write something most days, even if it's just been gibberish. The process actually feels quite refreshing - which is an unexpected surprise - because I don't feel any pressure to post it, to spend the time needed to tidy it up and re-write it and because of that, it flows more easily. Unfortunately so far it really has all been complete nonsense but I'm hoping the activity will help my writing improve in the medium term.

But, but, but ... this may only be a temporary impulse, I'll have to see how well it goes.

I've called it my BluBlog because it started out with a blue theme, although now it's all greens and yellows. That fish is called Barry by the way and no, I've no idea what he's doing here either. I might occasionally post something from the BluBlog here. I wouldn't hold out any hopes of riveting reading material though, in fact just to prove that it's outright poppycock, here's an excerpt from probably the most coherent entry.

In a house opposite me someone has painted their bedroom wall a two tone colour. The bottom half is a very deep sky blue and the top is cream. If you're a painter, imagine Cobalt Blue perhaps with a tinge of Cerulean cut with Titanium White, and a pale but well saturated Naples Yellow. For some reason the colours make me think of a place but now my memory is in a spate of uncertainty. I can't decide whether the place is St Ives in Cornwall or Lerapetra in Crete.

But anyway, the colours are lovely. I only just noticed because the Sun has to be out and at a certain angle, and I have to be passing a certain window, and looking in a certain direction, and, well, a whole combination of factors have to take place really; in fact this opportunity occurs so infrequently that these pretty squiggles were invented to describe it.

Oh, and I can't paint although I absolutely, madly, deeply love colour. Especially the kind of colour you get from pigment suspended in oil.

Listening to: Chris Isaak, "Forever Blue"
Nibbling: an oatcake

Sabriel and Sweetcorn

Aren't search engines strange?

Earlier, I happened to notice that a Google search for "sweetcorn" and "forks" returned Little Stitches as the third most useful website in the world. It's nice of search engines to consider my blog a key global authority on the subject of eating sweetcorn, don't you think? Pity that expectant visitors will find no more than a pile of nonsense when they get here.

Of course by mentioning sweetcorn and forks again (twice now), your average unintelligent search bot might think this blog has even more to say on matters relating to the cob and is therefore worthy of being classified as the foremost worldwide resource on the subject. I wonder if this will get me a mention at the next global food conference?

So perhaps this will explain why I am adding internet search engines to my list of, "funny things that can't be explained by any useful rationale known to mankind."

I've now finished reading Sabriel by Garth Nix, whizzing through it so fast in fact, that there wasn't even time to update my sidebar reading list. It's a relaxing and lightweight semi-romantic fantasy with necromancers and warriors, oh and a strange kind of cat. It seems to be aimed at a teenage audience and I assume it's similar to the Harry Potter books although I can't be sure; you see I haven't read any of those. I did try once, with Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone but I do prefer my fantasies to be rooted in different ages or places, far from the monotony and insanity of modern life. Well otherwise how can they be fantasies? Anyway, it's a nice refreshing change from more serious fiction.

So I'm torn now over what to start next - either Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts or Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Ponder, ponder ... I'll probably leave Sarah Rayne's Roots of Evil for Christmas.

On the blog front, I've seen a dramatic reduction in comment spam this week - not a single link-ridden comment between the Friday before last and today. This did get me wondering whether 20Six had introduced some mysterious new anti-spam feature but that's probably wishful thinking. Much more likely is that Googles has reduced the ranking of some of my older pages, making them harder for spam bots to find. Unfortunately my moment of peace seems to be over - this morning the bots found one of my newer posts.

Listening to: Dead Can Dance, "Cantara"
Wondering: whether I'll now be the world's foremost authority on lightweight semi-romantic fantasies?

Platform27 seems to be full

I just had a look over at Platform27 and it seems they're full.

"New account sign-ups have been temporarily suspended, as we have reached our maximum user limit (250)."

I have two blogs over there but they haven't been used in some time so it doesn't seem fair really to keep them going. Tried to login to delete them both but it seems I must have used an odd password, because it won't let me in now. It doesn't seem to want to mail me my password either but it might be a problem with the email address.

Did leave a comment for them though, so hopefully they'll delete those blogs and free up space for two more people. You might have to be quick ...

Update: The password reminder came through so I've deleted these blogs myself now.

Aren't bye-bye's always so painful? Bye-bye Platform27 ... (waves)

Blog Frippery

I've added some minor frippery to the sidebar here at Little Holes in the form of a dictionary widget. You can even use it to look up the word "widget" if you like.

You should find it listed under "Dictionary", just after "Links" down on the right hand side somewhere. It has a textbox, a drop down list of resources and a Go button. To use it:

- Just type your own text where it says, "lookup any word"
- Choose Dictionary, Thesaurus, Reference (an encyclopedia) or on the Web (a Google search of sorts)
- Then hit Go

The result should open in a new window, or perhaps a new tab depending on how your browser is configured. It uses the dictionary, thesaurus and reference resources at the Dictionary.com website.

I put it there mainly to let me quickly look up definitions and synonyms, but it's available to all. It has proved tortuous to get the code and styling right for 20Six but was much easier to drop into this Blogspot template. Hopefully though it's simple enough to avoid common browser rendering bugs and it's been tested on both Firefox and IE6. If you're on a Mac, I'd really appreciate any feedback about wonky styling or behaviour.

As usual, I'm yawning incessantly now (number 26 is quite scary) but stuggling to get to sleep. I might try the Horlicks this time.

Listening to: Mike Oldfield, "Tubular Bells"
Member of: The Wide Awake Club

bloggy useless

What is a blog?

a message to someone
a personal diary
somewhere people can chit-chat to while away boredom
a collaborative shared interest site
a political platform
somewhere to share stories
a porn sex site
a creative sketchpad
somewhere to record a journey
a different way to communicate
somewhere for me to be me

What is a blog?

from Dictionary.com
"an online diary"
"a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page"
"a personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the user"

What is a blog?

As a word? Bloody useless!

Just a wee note on links

Just a wee note this one. You may or may not have noticed but I almost always title my links. If you already know what titled links are you can ignore this post.

If you don't, I'll explain.

Titles only work in some browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer for sure; maybe Opera and Safari? And it needs a mouse so I don't know if it will work for you.

If you hover ... no I don't mean go clean the living room carpet ... hover your mouse over this link (but don't click!) then you should see a message. It might appear similar to a long bubble or maybe something in your status bar. You could also try here and here.

These examples are a mite playful but I do always try to qualify links by adding titles. It's simply to give you more information if you're reading.

Sometimes I also do it with plain words and abbreviations like USA and ephemeral

That's it, I'll stop boring you :-)

Listening to: Lisa Gerrard, "Persian Love Song"
Wondering: whether anyone ever looks at my titles

an opinion of Blogger Beta

Note: *this* is a Blogger Beta blog

Just going to say this provisionally, in fact I can't believe I'm actually doing it.

I quite like the new Blogger beta!

It's not like me to like anything remotely related to Google. Why? Well not because I've got anything against Google as a run of the mill business, but because I don't like restricted marketplaces. In other words, monopolistic practises and markets which are run by huuuuge corporations.

If a particular market has no small to medium size players then I immediately distrust the services provided and I object to the aggregation of knowledge about the nitty gritty details of what's being provided to me.

Google is no worse than Yahoo, AOL or Microsoft in this regard, they're all pants!

So I don't want to, but I quite like the new Blogger beta! Well maybe, perhaps, conditionally ...

this is why:

• ad supported only if you want it to be
• almost completely customisable templates
• complete control over whether your blog gets 'Googled'
• comments can be disabled for specific posts if needed
• comment Preview so you get to edit your spelling blips before leaving your comment
• optional comment moderation (I don't care for this but it's here if you want it)
• categories, tags, labels or whatever you want to call them, they're here
• an audible version of the spam captcha code for those who can't read the letters (not sure if this actually works, but at least it's going in the right direction)
• integration with Flickr for one-stop photo hosting and posting
• I can use it without having JavaScript enabled (though it's more functional if you do)
• instead of the mush dished out on some other platforms, proper HTML or XHTML pages (your choice), irrelevant to most people but important to me
• feed control: if you hate 'em you can switch 'em off
• comment feeds (I don't hate them)
• unlimited numbers of blogs
• team blogs
• private blogs (restrict the ability to comment or even view if you want)
• oh and it's free
• and it's under active development

and ... and ... guess what ... their support helpdesk actually replies to emails. Admittedly not superfast but at least there's a voice there.

The old Blogger had one serious failing which has been resolved in the new beta, specifically:
the old static pages have gone, all that manual page refreshing is a thing of the past, everything is now updated in real time.

They have a new blog Layout system where you simply drag things around on a screen, no need for any HTML fiddling at all. This should make it easy for plain ordinary humans who just want to write a blog.
Funnily enough it makes it harder for HTML twiddlers like me because there's a whole new set of template tags and they're not trivial to understand, but hell I'm not complaining. Just means I have to twiddle more.

Trying to find a downside:

• You need a Google account to use it. These are free but I don't particularly like their terms and conditions. To be honest though, they're not significantly worse than any other humungous corporation.
• They did have a problem which intermittently broke commenting between Blogger and Blogger beta blogs but this has reportedly been resolved (I can't confirm that yet).
• I've seen it break a couple of times. This is less likely to be Blogger and much more likely to be me, down here in the engine room, fiddling, trying to take it apart and make it do exactly what I want - I'm getting close.
• There is a downside if like me, you come from 20Six. That's a part of the blogsphere where the local blogging community finds you. At Blogspot, you have to go out and find your own community so it's a different kind of place. I keep a version of this blog on 20Six - makes it easier to keep touch with other 20Sixers.
• Now I really don't like, 'liking' Blogger so I'm still looking for other bad stuff.

Blogger still doesn't beat the flexibility, control and design freedom you get from hosting your own Wordpress blog but for those who don't want the hassle or who need greater anonymity it provides an interesting alternative.

There are conditional bits to what I've said here: I've only used it with Mozilla Firefox, not Internet Explorer; it is still called beta which means it's still changing but what I see looks pretty finished; can't say how reliable it is because I've only been using it for a few weeks.

By the way, I'm picky and hard to please so I reserve the right to completely change my mind if it all goes poo!

Blogging Meme

This life has just had another small stitch: I've been tagged again. This time by The Goldfish. An interesting tag, this one so here goes.

Why do you blog?

Okay, I'll tell you exactly why I blog.

Because it's hard work. I've said before that my educational achievements with regards to the English language are, well, complete poo. I can't write and I certainly shouldn't be in charge of a blog. If any of these words make sense, it's because I've been learning from other blog writers.

I do have feelings and opinions, and having been around on this planet for a while now, I've seen some things. I'd like to write about them.

Okay, I'm squeaking now but converting the chaotic cloud of thoughts inside my head into written language is very hard for me. This is a foreign medium, it's like learning a new language. I'm quite dependent on my dictionary and thesaurus but much more so on the blogs of people who can write, for reference and inspiration.

I'm simply too embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to write this entry. I'm sitting here with 30 odd other draft posts, each of which contains bits of writing and bits of gobbledygook. I've also listed 23 other things that I want to talk about. if you're a telepathic editor who's prepared to work for free then mail me.

Of course there's more to it, but if I carry on down that route, you'll throw me in the doghouse as an out and out moaning git. Lets just say I have problems with thinking (IQ? what's that?) and memory recall. And I'm self critical to a degree that is debilitating. Oh and there is something else but I can't go into that right now.
But what's most gruelling is that I can't even gripe with any justification. It's not like I'm ill or have a physical disability.
Okay, okay, I'll stop.

So, look, this is a challenge for me. I really should drop it and go back to studying the curious patterns on my wallpaper, but I'm stubborn and I like to test myself.

I used to free climb pieces of rock. Why? because when you're hanging off an overhanging cliff, either 100 or 1000 feet off the ground, you learn some things about yourself like how you react when you take yourself to the edge, how far you can push yourself, how to manage fear, how to overcome obstacles.
For me, writing is equally challenging, but something inside me is hammering away telling me that it's essential I keep trying, so I will.

Okay, sorry that took a while, but the meme did ask.

How long have you been blogging?

Since June 2006. I'm a mere youth.

Self Portrait

circa mid-sixties

Why do readers read your blog?

I haven't the faintest idea, in fact it's quite a puzzle for me. It's very welcome and I really appreciate it when people pop by but I don't understand it.

What was the last search phrase someone used to find your site?

early black radio shows/actors

Which of your entries gets unjustly too little attention?

I haven't been measuring and I'm quite pig-headed so the knowledge probably wouldn't make very much difference to how I blog.

Your current favourite blog?

Diary of a Goldfish

I know this meme came from The Goldfish but that's not why her blog is listed here. Her diary is a wonderfully diverse collection of observations, thoughts and opinions. It's very witty, sometimes odd but never dull and it challenges me in many ways. Any blog that uses the phrase "a pile of poo" gets a spot on my Glorious list, but don't be fooled, this diary is written by a very intelligent fish.

Which blog did you read most recently?

Dagoth's Domain, looking for information about the new Blogger Beta. While I was there, I found he'd written some interesting things.

Which feeds do you subscribe to?

I recently trimmed my feeds down to 29 though that's likely to increase again. There's one for each link on my Blogroll (excepting Vincent, sadly) and five that seem to be defunct. Ignoring these, I have feeds for the following sites (in no particular order):
My coComment feed.
BBC News
the Erudite Baboon
A Word A Day
Random Acts Of Reality
Coin Operated Girl
Belle de Jour
Aberystwyth Mon Amour
Simplelsie
Balancing Act
Student Nurse
and 3 others. Two are feeds for my own blogs so I can check for feed errors and one is for a feminist oriented site whose author writes in a style I like.
I do also read a number of other 20Six blogs via the 20Six blogroll, but not as feeds

What four blogs are you tagging with this meme and why?

Sketches because she likes a challenge and she's got a super blog.

I'm going to be an awkward sausage now and reserve my other three tags because I'm still a young blogger and I haven't decided who to tag yet.

Listening to: Cat Stevens, "On The Road To Find Out"
Needing: a coffee, a biscuit and probably a good seeing to.

Cracking name for a blog

"Daddy! Take the banana! Tomorrow is Sunday!"

(that's not the name by the way, it's a lyric from something I'm listening to)

Less than a year old and my hard disk wobbled this morning. The poor thing had an identity crisis, thinking it was nothing more than a useless lump of metal. I unscrewed and gently dusted it, smiled and softly said that it was a nice hard disk, and I didn't really mind the humming and chattering and whining. 40 minutes later, it’s feeling better so I can blog.

Just thought of a cracking name for a blog. One of those simple names that jumps out and tells you something straight away. Versatile enough to be used for humour, intelligent writing or slightly off-the-wall stuff. Could probably spin a few pennies too.

And guess what, the www. name hasn't been taken yet and neither have the Blogger or Livejournal URL's

Of course anyone could use it in their blog title (maybe someone has?) but it's very tempting to grab the domain, and register the blogging accounts. I think I'm just being silly (you can see that I'm not a writer), and grabbing it would be like keeping it from someone who could do it justice. On reflection I think I'll just leave it to be 'discovered'. Shame though.

I feel such a tease for not saying.

I'm not heading to the Lakes until the end of the weekend. Better to work while the crowds are out on the hills. The Met Office report the weather being better Monday and Tuesday anyways.

Listening to: some of the most diverse, inventive and funny rock I know (but then I do have some very unusual tastes)
Feeling: in-between a hill and a boring place

A blip

-- warning: this entry contains introspective paranoid squeakings that I had to put here but which you can safely ignore, normal service resumes at this curious entry about dwarfs --

So what happened to cause this blip?

Well it might not seem like much if you're reading, a bit like a Spring shower in a teacup, but it was a storm to me.

Some bits of me live just under the surface and I don't choose to share them with all the people in my 'normal' life. Just some personal things, thoughts and reflections that I need to express somewhere. I mean, can you share your innermost thoughts with all those around you?

I know and have respect for a lot of good people, but not all of those friendships need to know exactly why I fell in love with someone and exactly what I think about in the middle of the night.

I didn't know what I was doing when I started this blog (and still don't).
Nevertheless, it has become quite important to me and although I've hardly used it yet and its full of nothings and nonsenses, it's gained a little life all of its own. So I don't want it to be killed off!

My reference in the blip to 'un-looked-for visibility' was when I was visiting family the other day. I found myself standing behind someone who was doing a (g)oo(g)gle search for something quite innocent. I was quite horrified and couldn't quite believe my eyes when, over his shoulder I saw "Little Stitches - Weblog @ 20six.co.uk" (my 20Six blog) sitting there on page one of his search results. He began opening the pages he found ... one by one ... then the coffee got spilt on his desk when I accidentally tripped, making sure I took the power cord out on the way down.

I made excuses and offered lots of apologies, and luckily it distracted him, this time. I rushed home, probably breaking some laws and in a furious panic, removed some particularly 'identifying' posts. I'm still feeling paranoid about the whole thing.

Sometimes people know other people and before long, everyone knows about your blog (I've seen this happen a few times). Of course it's just a blog and it's far too dreary to be of interest, but that's not the point.

"Well why don't you just start a new blog?", you might ask. Yes I could, but actually I've put a lot of effort into this one (I know it doesn't seem that way) and it means something to me now.

If certain people found it then, well, Bunnyman would be no more, and although I might try and rub it all out, it's very difficult to rub out blog entries that live on the Google cache and on multiple RSS Feed servers around the world. Yes, it's hard to believe but even my useless ramblings have gone around the globe a few times, It's a very strange feeling.

But we all have to move forward and this is starting to get on my wick now. I don't work well when I've backed myself, whimpering into a corner. So I'm just going to put some rude but bold words into this tiny space (  ) so that they don't offend anyone but at least I know I said them, and carry on. I'm putting the posts back on 20Six, unchanged, together with comments, although the dates are mucked up there (they're fine here on Blogger.com). If you're new, please don't go reading that blog or this (they're almost identical anyhow) thinking there was ever anything interesting to be found. You will be bored silly. It really will mean nothing to anyone but me.

I'll try to stop squeaking now and start blogging again.

Bloggers: Real Internet Diaries

Over the weekend I went to see Bloggers at the Edinburgh Fringe, a play by Oliver Mann which is based entirely on British blogs. This is only the second play I've ever seen, so what follows is just my own impression and not a 'review'.

Two actors and three actresses played out overlapping excerpts from (I thought it was ten, but it seems it was eleven) blogs, some quite well known, for just over an hour. It was very lively and interesting to watch, slow in parts and incredibly funny in others.

I think there were two ways to approach this play. If you see it without having read any of the blogs, you'll see a great show about some amusing, quirky, sometimes boisterous and sometimes vulnerable characters. If instead, you have read and certainly if you've commented on any of these blogs, then you may find you're a little biased and critical of the performances.

I went there with very high expectations and probably a little scepticism, so I found I had quite mixed feelings by the end, but I was also lucky enough to go with two less biased Bunny companions. I'll tell you what they thought in a minute.

Having read some of these blog entries myself, including some of the actual excerpts used in the script, I have to say that the casts' portrayal of the characters didn't quite reflect my own glimpsed insights. I've read a courageous mix of personal and lively experiences, written by intelligent and witty people.

The play shows actors choosing (and emphasising) quirky, eccentric, vulnerable and exuberant qualities, playing out what are sometimes very personal passages, sometimes unrestricted sexual exploits. Quite a lesson in just what artistic license can achieve. The material was reported to be unchanged from the original sources and I didn't hear anything to contradict this. But of course facial and body gestures and use of verbal emphasis can give quite differing interpretations.

The end result does mean that you feel a real connection with the characters (difficult not to given such penetrating performances). I'm not sure quite how I would have reacted had any of it been me.

I was sitting very close to the front and one actress caught me, chin in hand, with my critical-eye-look, peering intently at her, a large black and white notice scrawled across my forehead saying "now you and I both know it doesn't read that way ... hm!" (I'm new to this eye-to-eye audience-actress feedback thing). Oh dear, I'm laughing now but I do hope I didn't put her off.

My companions (an ex-bunnygirl and her step mother) surprisingly loved it. These women are very straight, family oriented Scots and neither have enjoyed theatre in the past. They think bloggers have green skin, six legs, and breathe noxious fumes and they truly can't believe why anyone would want to talk about themselves in public. They have absolutely no idea that I blog. They also have a quite traditional attitude to sex.

It was a relief for me. I half expected "ye flamin' pervert twit, ye took us tae see a play aboot porny sex!", but phew! they both genuinely liked it (as did the rest of the audience, place was packed). They thought it was interesting and funny and just a set of entertaining sketches about unusual people. Now they want to go see more plays.

The end result was I think, a very good play, but I am left feeling nothing but respect for those who agreed to having their blogs used as source material. I am also very relieved that my own blog is far too dreary to have any risk of ever being the target of theatre, but there again, dreary sometimes makes good material for satire and ridicule. OK, I'm kind of relieved but with a lingering sense of paranoia.

This is one thing I can check off my 43things, hooray!

Listening to: David Bowie, "Oh You Pretty Things"
Feeling: like a goldfish in a bowl ...

Have a blob

I'm sitting here with insomnia and a glass so nothing I say can be relied upon. Internet radio is steaming down the broadband, lots of strange French people singing and playing accordions from Radio Blagon in Bordeaux. It's varied, catchy, funny and quite wonderful. If you're curious, use Windows and have Winamp, I think you can just click the weblink and listen without further ado. If you have Linux, you probably already know what to do. Haven't got a clue how it works for a Mac, sorry.

For almost two months, I've blogged over at 20Six. I don't really know what I expected but in that time I've had the pleasure to speak with a floaty person and been visited by a speeding Time Lord. I hopped across the English channel and found that I could say hello in French with ink and paper. I've been greeted by a wiley bird and a green eyed cat, been influenced by shoe-less person under a monsoon and solaced by a journeying blue spirit. I've conversed with a Welsh birdy person, and chatted all manner of HTML naughtiness with a nurse (lots of others too, omissions are not intentional but simply a result of a faulty memory).

These exchanges have been invigorating and I'd just like to say a thank you to everyone who has left a comment there. This isn't a "I'm closing my blog, so goodbye and thank you" (you wish!) post. Tee-hee, health allowing I'm going to be annoying everyone for a while yet. It's just more of a credit to what is simply a friendly community over at 20Six.

Bouncy blob has been following me around for the past few of hours so I brought him/her/it along to say hello ...

Listening to: Paris Combo, "Living room"
Experiencing: a complete inability to sleep

HELP: Anyone have a remedy for insomnia? It's becoming annoying now. Especially as the rest of you are snoozing.

Snobs and ?

So it seems people are people no matter where you go. When I was a kiddie winkle and I left small town to go to the big smoke, I soon found that the city had the same types of people that small town had. Exactly the same. Only the numbers and proportions changed.

Now I find myself in blogspace and I'm passing expression snobs on the blogtube. Closely followed by those who feel they must instruct you on how you should blog.

Everyone has the right to express themselves, even dimwits and manics and those who can't write the Queen's piddling English (threw that one in so I can take sides although I qualify on all 3 counts).

I know there are snobs in the real world with brains the size of pimples, but if the intellectuals react by moving to blogspace and being snobbish about the ability to express themselves, it doesn't really fix anything except their own inflated egos.

Ok, that's it, I've burned up all my sugar, need a choccy biccy

Listening to: "The Old Castle", Mussorgsky from "Pictures at an Exhibition"
Who posted this: a het up bunny

I'll debase myself now, but at least give you a laugh. I had to go look up Google to see if that was how I should spell choccy biccy (sad, sad). While there, I found this biscuit review. Have a look at the second paragraph under "Full review". The things you stumble across (chuckle).

Dear Blog ...

--This post wasn't written about Blogger.com but I thought I'd add it here so you can see how frustrating some blog platforms can be.--

Ok, blog, this is it! I've had it up to here with you.

All I want you to do is to show these blog pages the right way, in all browsers. That means Firefox, Opera, Safari and yes, even Internet Explorer, cos that's what I have to use in Internet cafes.

I want the menu bits in the right place, not pushed out of the way whenever it suits you and I want the titles and text in the colours I choose, not some random combination from your watercoloury imagination.

Don't give me all that moany stuff about resolution, DPI and colour bit depth. It's bad enough that you only produce those quirky mode pages and that you use all these ugly tables. Hey, it's the 21st century here, we've all moved on. Well all except you anyway!

Look, blog, I don't mean to shout at you. I just want you to be an intelligent, shiny blog that does what he's told, when he's told.

Is it too much to ask?

It's a sad state of affairs when a man has to talk to his own blog, but when sweat and graft don't work, you have to try voodoo.

Currently playing: "The Bends", Radiohead
Mood: grrrrrrrrrrrr

Spring Clean

This blog has had a short and frustrating two week lifespan, not helped by a host of design annoyances. I can't live somewhere unless I can get my spray can out and at least get a bit of colour on the wall, but I've done about as much as I can for the time being.

So I stopped and had a look around to see what had crept in here. Amongst the ramblings, I found lots bits of bitterness, insincerity and general groaniness. Yuck.

I've now given the place a dust and a hoover, thrown some words out and given the rest a good scrubbing down. Hopefully the place will be slightly brighter now.

Reasons almost two

Reasons one and one and a half.

Then there's remembering

Memory is a fragile thing and somewhere along the line, mine broke. I forget things, like the milk, the name of the person I’m speaking to, my bus pass, how to be nice, good memories, bad times.

I mean, have you ever been in a conversation with a mate, just about to tell him how many pairs of shoes your girlfriend of 10 years bought yesterday, when suddenly ... you, eh, can't remember her name?

What!?

Runs and hides under a bush. It's a bit like the deja Vu scene in the Matrix. Chatting away automatically, then ... stumbling silence! ... someone comes along with brain tipex and just wipes it out. Like there was a hole where her name should've been. I mean, she hadn't even been nasty to me (until she found out that is).

How can such a thing happen???

And that was just the start. I find my self flitting around like a lost butterfly, can’t concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. It could be a sign of age, or the onset of some age related psychological disorders that I don't even want to begin to think about. Luckily I can't remember what they're called.

But there are some benefits. It means you can forget old pain, it means you can make the same mistakes over and over again. It means I can listen to Dark Side of the Moon, after years of gritting my teeth at the most overplayed album ever to plague the planet's airwaves.

Now, what was I saying?

Oh yes, so you see this journal is mainly for me, so that I can look back in the days ahead and remember what's supposed to be on my shopping list.

"Carrots." Eh? "On the shopping list, carrots please, lots of nice fresh ones." Oh.

Currently playing: Remember You're a Womble, by eh ... ?
Mood: frustrated

Reasons one and a half

Reasons one can be found here.

But why make it public?

Why don’t I simply keep a private diary and avoid the risk of polluting the minds of ordinary mortals?

Well, if I kept a private journal then, well, eh, I wouldn’t keep one, if you see what I mean. It would only ever be looked at briefly, years or decades later, at the point where it got thrown out (I’m really not materialistic and hate junk and old things stored in corners). So simply because it might become clutter, I won’t keep a written journal. The idea that this ephemeral electronic data is stored somewhere away from my immediate vicinity, no mess on my desk, feels really neat. At a click, it can all be deleted if I feel the need for a digital spring clean.

There’s also a sense of responsibility involved with publishing a journal online, even when the only audience will him in the mirror. Not responsibility for what the content might be. That's a choice for the reader, and what's unsuitable in one person's mind is acceptable in another's. I mean a responsibility to write here. The Internet is a place of anonymous passers by. It doesn't matter whether visitors stop and say hello, it's just the knowing they're there that gives me the poke in the curlies needed to get writing. I'd have no motivation otherwise.

And anyhow, I just like being Bunnyman, and that's something that's only possible here.

Currently playing: Sex Dwarf, Christian Death
Mood: mischievous, teasing

Reasons one

So, "Why blog"? Why keep an on-line journal?

Well, reason one is to write. This bunny has a complete lack of writing skill. The O-level ‘E’ grade certificate in English is so old, its crumbling. I can’t write to save myself.

There's stuff in my head that I need to prise out, but I haven't got a clue how to do it. Finding the word combinations to describe the subtle but worthless meanderings in my compost heap of a mind doesn't come easily.

If someone mentioned "Tennyson", I'd turn around thinking to see an old man offering me a racket and a furry ball. Give me soduko or jigsaws any day. Logic and visuals I can do, but scrabble? Hopeless!

Well when you get something you can't do, the only way to make any progress with it is to do it. So I've plonked a thesaurus and an Oxford English on my desk amongst the other paraphernalia, and I'm going to give it a go.

If anyone's passing by and feels they've been exposed to unintelligible rabbit-like mumbling then apologies are in order. Sadly, Star Trek's universal translators haven't been invented yet and even if they had, they might not cater for broken bunny-language.

Currently playing: Reasons to be Cheerful, Ian Drury
Mood: stubborn