Branded much?
Saturday, January 31, 2009 ~ 2 comments so far
In Glasgow STOP Haz caffeine STOP world now better place STOP
Further photos may be forthcoming STOP
Fellow Followers
Friday, January 30, 2009 ~ 3 comments so far
A couple of days ago I Twittered the following “Twitter-verse – recommendations for a Photo Poster service (ie, send them a JPG, they send back a large format ‘poster’ of said photo)“, to which Lyle responded “@gordon : Photobox, although it does depend on the size of print“.
Last night I browsed to the Photobox website and had a look around. I didn’t fill in any details, although I did bookmark the specific page I was looking for so I could revisit it at a later date (e.g. after pay day!).
And today I received an email from Twitter stating that “PhotoBox (PhotoBox) is now following your updates on Twitter.”
Coincidence? I think not.
Evidence that Twitter is now in the realm of ‘marketing tool’, definitely.
Thankfully Twitter remains controllable, frankly I don’t care how many people follow me. I can block those I really don’t want to see my updates, and the rest, be they person or company, do me little harm so they can follow, follow, follow all they like.
Remember people, you control your social media and your social media is not you.
Get off your RSS
Thursday, January 29, 2009 ~ 31 comments so far
January draws to a close (already!!) and it is time for me to own up. I’ve been experimenting on you. Sorry about that but, on the bright side, it’s not like some weird alien abduction involving probes and brain washing.
In fact, if I’m honest, it’s only really occurred to me these past couple of days that I’ve been experimenting.
I’ve been posting to this blog for a very long time and it’s fair to say, and indeed I did say it, that my blogging mojo was slowly eroding. To try and see if it was just laziness I decided that I’d try and post every single day for at least the month of January, and then see how I felt.
This is contrary to most of the advice and reassurance I was given, which largely boiled down to the fact that I need only post when I wanted to and that the lovely, smart, beautiful people who read this blog would be quite happy.
Quality not quantity they said.
Pfffftttt, I said.
Which brings us right up to date.
Putting aside the part of me that writes all this for the sheer fun of it, I turn to my stats. Surely with a more regular stream of content, my stats would be on the rise? I may it stands to reason, doesn’t it?
You’d think.
It hasn’t. Not one jot. My average (130 visits a day) remains as it was throughout all of last year. Flat, static, constant.
Mind you, I don’t actually know how many people read the posts via RSS (dear people who make clever website stats thingies, can’t I get ONE single via of all the consumers of my content?). I’m an avid RSS user myself and I know how often, on average, I actually click through to read a website
So I’d like to extend my experiment a little. For today only, could I trouble you, dearest RSS reader, to click through to the website? You don’t have to leave a comment, just load up the website if you read this post.
I’ll post before and after stats, so come on people LET’S MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!
Feeling Good
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 ~ 1 comment so far
Birds flying high you know how I feel,
Sun in the sky you know how I feel,
Reeds driftin’ on by you know how I feel
OK, so it’s maybe not a new day, a new life, or at least not in the grander scheme of things. I’m not reborn or anything, but there is a noted shift in my mindset and thinking these past few weeks.
Perhaps it is down to the fact I’m writing everyday. Yes, some of the blog posts have been less than inspirational but I’m enjoying the habit of making myself write.
Perhaps it is the realisation that my work persona is shifting slightly. That is more subtle, and has come about through several little comments from several different people, all of which have helped me realise a few things that I need to correct, and a few qualities I have that are beneficial to everyone else.
Perhaps it is because I am, slowly, beginning to lose weight again. A blip this week has already been tackled, and as soon as I’m done with this blog post I’ll be doing some exercises (in preparation for my return to physio for my dodgy knee). My blood pressure is down and under control.
Perhaps it is the fact that I have more of a routine of an evening. I’ve cut out a lot of things that used to distract me that weren’t really bringing me any real benefit and have even found the time to read a little more (just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman).
Perhaps it is because I think, for once, I’m organised and on top of things and I’m starting to get a handle on a lot of things that kind of flummoxed me before.
Perhaps it is just because I’m that little bit older and a little more accepting of who I am.
Perhaps it is all that and more.
Perhaps I should go back through this post and remove the word “perhaps” as it doesn’t now fit with my current internal soundtrack. Sing it, Nina.
Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel
…
And I know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Previously on 24… er.. this blog…
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 ~ 6 comments so far
One thing I don’t do very often is revisit previous, recent, posts and offer any closure or update. However I think the following are worthwhile revisiting:
1. My iPhone Apps
In the process of writing that post, I realised that the some applications I did have on my iPhone weren’t quite right. So I spent a little time hunting for better alternatives and on the way picked up a couple of new applications.
Replaced applications include:
- Tweetie in for Twitterific – Twitterific was great when it first came out but seems to have been left dormant, Tweetie is far more complete.
- Remember the Milk in for Zenbe lists – Zenbe is a good, web aware, list app but it’s not as good as RTM for task management. I’ve had a badly used RTM account for ages so this was a good push to get me focussed on using it, especially as I’ve now put money behind it (you need a Pro subscription to use the app on your iPhone). Working well so far.
New applications, some of which I’m still evaluating, include:
- CameraBag – a simple photo manipulation app with presets that mimick various effects. Very much a one trick pony but kinda fun nevertheless.
- Tumblrette – I have a Tumblr account, and this app might help me make better use of it rather than just recycling blog posts and Twitter statuses.
- RunKeeper Pro – I had the lite version of this but the Pro version was offered free for one day, so I’ve nabbed it and put it back on the iPhone in the hope I get back to jogging sometime this year.
- MMS – which provides MMS capabilities on my iPhone, not done much with this yet
- SaiSuke – which gives me direct access to all my Google Calendars. Not quite sure why I have this, think I thought it did more than it does!
I also re-jigged my home pages some, and they now look like this (click for bigger):
2. MacBook screen issues.
I reported a weird glow, right in the centre of my MacBook screen, that would appear and disappear, seemingly, intermittently.
The circumstances of when I first noticed this was when I was sitting on the sofa with the laptop, I was facing the window and it was a nice sunny day outside. I was dropping the brightness to eke out a little more battery life (too lazy to go upstairs and get the power cord) and when I dropped the brightness to 0 (a black screen) there was the weird glow right in the middle of the screen. I tried to replicate this effect later in the evening but couldn’t.
Got all that?
Now take a look at this photo of the case of a MacBook. Notice where the Apple logo is, that translucent section of the casing? Right in the middle of the screen.
Yup. That’s right. Sunlight streaming through the Apple logo onto the back of the ‘darkened’ LCD screen.
Thanks to Matt for figuring this out.
So, apparently, it’s not just my Mother that is an idiot.
Speaking of which…
3. My Mother is an idiot.
At Christmas we got my parents a Wii Fit board to go with their new Wii. My Mum has been using it and enjoying the various mini-games, one of which includes using the position of your body on the board to help balance a tight rope walker as he walks between two buildings (on the tight rope).
You lean left on the board to make him lean left, right to go right. It’s pretty basic but quite tricky.
So I could understand when my Mum said that she couldn’t complete the task, that she kept ‘falling off’. It is quite a tricky game.
However it was only when she mentioned it to Dad that she realised why.
She had the Wii Fit board round the wrong way. Lean left to go right…
Sorry Mum, but I need to do SOMETHING to distract from my moment of idiocy!
Music to work by
Monday, January 26, 2009 ~ 7 comments so far
I have a thing for loud, chord heavy rock music. It is why I still enjoy tracks from The Cult, why Puddle of Mudd, Eagles of Death Metal, Aerosmith and the like feature heavily on my playlists.
None of those acts (with perhaps the exception of Aerosmith) would claim that they are at the pinnacle of song writing, I doubt they’re expecting an Ivor Novello anytime soon but they do write some catchy, if simple, melodies. Ideal stuff to whack on in the background whilst I’m getting my head down to work.
On a separate note, is this a generational thing? The need to have a source of ‘noise’ to help focus?
Anyway, riff-tastic rock is a tried and tested accompaniment to my working habits. I do veer into electronica on occasion, but ultimately the Sigur Ros’s and Portisheads of this world are too varied in tone and pace and end up disturbing trains of thought. Rap music is about the only other alternative for me, with Jay-Z and Q-Tip jostling with long time favourites Cypress Hill for ear time.
I’ve tried Classical music, Jazz, Folk, Pop, and everything in-between but nothing works as well as good ole fashioned rock ‘n’ fuckin’ roll! Maybe that’s my predeliction towards rock music, brought up on a diet of Queen and Status Quo, peppered with Simon & Garfunkel, Manilow and Sedaka, it’s understandable that I favour the pop side of rock music, and generally appreciate a well crafted song regardless of genre.
But for music to work by? Gimme chords, heavy riffs, a chugging bass and thumping drums and I’m happy. Lyrics are not important, subject matter makes no difference, as long as I can keep if banging away in the background I’m a happy and productive bunny.
This post was brought to you by the Foo Fighters track All my Life, the Eagles of Death Metal track Cherry Cola and Puddle of Mudd’s Nobody Told Me.
What music do you work by?
MacBook Screen issues
Sunday, January 25, 2009 ~ 10 comments so far
There is a dot on my screen. It’s not a small dot, it’s not a distinct dot so I guess it’s more of a blurry circle.
But it’s there, in the middle of the screen, glowing at me. It’s slightly worrying. It’s most noticeable when I dim the screen all the way down. On the MacBook you can use the F1 and F2 keys to decrease and increase the brightness. What the following photo tries to show is the screen set to minimum brightness (the next step down is completely dark/off).
Ignore all the reflections and screen dazzle, that weird glowing circle in the middle looks almost exactly like that (I’ve adjusted the pic very slightly to make it more obvious).
The most annoying thing is that it doesn’t always appear. It comes and goes on a random basis. I’ve tried it with and without the power cable in, with and without various applications open, I’ve restarted several times, yet still it comes back.
Any suggestions?? Anyone?