Category: old blogging

I have AIM on my PC at home, but it is freshly installed and I haven’t got round to customising the standard setup. On my PC at work, when one of my “buddies” logs off, I get a cheery “goodbyeeeeee!” courtesy of Bugs Bunny (yeh, I know – I’m a big kid). The standard AIM sound is a slamming door. I hate it. It seems sometimes to be a personal comment, a door slammed in anger, perhaps even in the face. Especially when the person who is leaving is someone you’d really like to be talking to, but feel that you should wait for them to initiate the conversation.

I’ve just done something very enjoyable. For a long time (more than three months), my camera has sat on my shelf with a part-exposed film inside of a holiday I’d rather forget. I’ve been pondering what to do with it – discard the film or expose it. Well, tonight was a superb sunny evening (if a bit cold), so as soon as I got home I went out and used the last 24 frames around Chichester. I’ll post the results here (subject to editing) once I have got them processed – I’ve hoped to have caught a little of the atmosphere and character of the place, right from the more touristy stuff like the cathedral spire, down to the minutae of the front door of the archdeanery, through to the contradiction of the Shippams factory in the city centre and the betting office and tattoo parlour next to the old chapel in North Street. Anyway, I’ll post the best pictures on here and you can judge for yourself.

further to the current train of thought on the web as means/end, read this. (link poached from none other than Ev himself)

Creator of BBC test card dies. (thanks David)

Plaudits should be given to those blog authors who do not publish abstruse writing.

Following on from my long and late-night ramblings about the nature of the net, I notice this morning that Meg has posted the initial conclusions of her thinking session. Conclusion #1 encapsulates what I was trying to say, applied to notsosoft.com:

This site is about me. Don’t forget the crucial “about”. It’s a little word, but it makes a big difference. I am not my website.

That is something that applies to everything on the web, particularly blogging – or at least, it should do, in my opinion. The web is about communication, not about the web itself.

The parlous state of my finances has been made much worse this morning by the arrival of a bill I should have had in September – for my college course fees. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone on that retail therapy session last week, as now I have to find £335 from somewhere, and quickly. Anyone need a lecture on plants given any time soon? My rates are very reasonable!

so much blogging – so little time.
This morning, as I walked down South Street on my way to the station, I passed a woman walking the other way who was clearly in tears. She was smartly dressed, on her way to work – I’ve passed her most weekday mornings. I wonder what has happened in her life today?

I’ve thought a little more about my earlier comments about the weaknesses of the net as a communication tool.
Whilst I stand by what I said, I feel I should add this qualification: the net is no different to any other tool. It is only effective in the hands of a skilled operator.
Handy analogy: think of the internet as a big bag full of builders tools. You could use those tools to form materials (your thoughts and ideas) into something beautiful, like a lovely home, a super extension or even just a smart set of shelves. But to do that, you need to know how to use those tools effectively. Otherwise, the result will be a bloody mess at best, or dangerous at worst.
I suppose what I am trying to say is this: the internet, including email, instant messaging, websites, blogs, e-commerce – the whole lot – is simply a tool. It is a means. It is not an end in itself. It is, without doubt, a very exciting, innovative, constantly changing, hugely mutable and malleable tool. But, in the end, it is only a means of getting a message across.
You must decide what that message is – it could be that you want to entertain, educate, promote, market, inform, humour, excite, titillate, provoke. But these are all forms of communication, and that is what you do with the net – communicate. The net is not the end – the message is the end, the purpose. The net is merely a method of getting that message across.
And, just like our analogous builder with his set of tools, you need two things – the correct, good quality materials and the correct tool for the job. You might have the most wonderful piece of wood in the world for making your shelf, but if the only tool that you are willing to use is a chainsaw, it isn’t going to look that good when you’re done.
So the value of what you do with the net depends on two things – the quality of the message that you send in the first instance, and the way in which you send it.
If you forget that, then you are pissing in the wind.

I’ve had a mostly restful evening, consisting of sitting around doing very little, reading, playing games, looking at other blogs, cooking and eating, chatting with a couple of friends. I even managed to spend most of the evening offline.
I’m still tired.
My head is still full.
I had the chance to go to the pub this evening for a quiz, but felt a bit too tired and certainly too skint.
But maybe I should have done. Yesterday I went through most of the day feeling a bit melancholy, and ended the day on a bit of a high. Today has been the other way round. I started off feeling great and kept that going for most of the day. But now I feel a bit….feh.
And no lottery win tonight either. guh.