Not today

Thursday, January 15, 2009 ~ 4 comments so far

So far, in this year of two thousand and nine, I have posted to this blog everyday.

But not today.

Too tired, too busy and, you know what, quite happy not to be pushing myself to blog just because it’s another day.

Just wanted to capture that thought before the day ends.

When you can’t write…

Monday, January 12, 2009 ~ 7 comments so far

… write.

12 days into 2009 and my first little hiccup. The weekend offers me nothing with which to grace this blog, unless you want the fascinating tale of the one time I ventured outside all weekend, to pick up our wheelie bins as they had blown over. This led me to have wet slippers and the discovery that the sole of said slippers is slightly tapered and the join between sole and upper is almost completely underfoot in the middle of the slipper, unlike a more conventional slipper construction which would have a solid sole all the way across the sole of your foot, the join being at the sides.

Oh god. Am I really talking about slipper construction? How quickly I sink to such depths.

But then deciding to stay within the confines of the house, rather than venture outside into the howling gales and lashing rain, means my sources of blog inspiration are limited, as evidenced above.

Largely I ‘pottered’. Which means I did a little work (a design proposal for a prospective web design client), played some games on the PlayStation (ok, one game, Pro Evolution Soccer 3), tidied a little, watched TV a little, ate a little (3lb weight loss from last week!), read a little more of Live and Let Die, and so on and so and so on.

Ohh and I played with the cat.

But I’m determined I won’t resort to using the cat as blog fodder even if he remains charmingly cute and occasionally annoying.

To be fair my weekend was quietly enjoyable and if I’m honest it did actually generate a fair few topics for this blog. It’s just that I can’t seem to write that much about any of them.

I was going to discuss the blatant sexism in the James Bond novel I’m reading but then it was written in 1954 so one can hardly expect it to live up to modern political ideals.

I could discuss Pro Evolution Soccer Master League tactics, specifically who is a good buy for a Division 2 team (hint: Gouffran, Gambino, Urreta, Mezague and Beria first) but that would REALLY narrow my audience. Not to mention the fact that most of the information I have to offer is already listed in the previous parentheses.

I could cover the fact that I spent some of the weekend re-installing Windows and, subsequently, will have to spend more time re-installing the applications I use. In a way this is a good thing, it means I can clear out those that I don’t really use anyway.

And finally, I could ponder my thoughts around the idea of switching to using my MacBook as my main computer, with the purchase of a NAS drive to host my working files, media and photos but… well that’s a way off so no point in doing that.

Instead I thought I’d just start writing and see what happened and, as usual, I find that I’m quite able to fill a blog post. Sure the quality isn’t that great but a post is a post (except when it’s a page, right?).

And hey, YOU’RE still reading..

Ye olde blog

Tuesday, December 16, 2008 ~ 7 comments so far

OK, perhaps if I head back to some previous “unblocking” techniques I might be able to kick start my blogging mojo.

Remember when Referrer Searches were all the rage? Back when we all suddenly discovered that our blogs were being indexed by something called “Google” (weird name…) and that meant we could see how people came to find our blogs? Those were the days, eh!!

So, aprop… ohh I’ve done that…

So, without further ado here are the top 12 search referrals (slightly filtered):

1. gordon mclean
2. itunes stuttering
3. my mother is an idiot
4. how to make a cup of tea
5. how to kung fu withdraw testicles
6. jamie bulger email
7. 37signals apps
8. monitor rss start torrent
9. recipes for chicken with red pesto
10. one mans blog.com
11. voyeuer nature
12. mrmen

To be fair, there are multiple variations on “red pesto chicken“, as well as “iTunes stutter“, and “how to make tea” but they fail to knock a good old ego search off the top of the list. And no, it’s not me googling myself… honest.

I should also apologise, again, to my mother for calling her an idiot, and I should point out that I no longer use ANY of the 37signals apps that I seemed to be so bothered about last year.

And, finally, I have NO idea how to “kung fu withdraw testicles” but it sure sounds like something that would come in handy… at some point… if my testicles were under threat I mean…

I think I’ll stop there.

Now, what should I do for my next post?

Apropos of… something..

Saturday, December 13, 2008 ~ 9 comments so far

I am not out shopping today. Mainly because I do most of my shopping online. That and the fact that we have a night out tonight and Louise is already off out to get her hair done so I’m stuck in the house unless I fancy walking…

This moment I’m sitting on the sofa, the TV is tuned to… some food channel it seems… and there is a fresh pot of coffee gurgling away in the kitchen. I’m wondering what to have for lunch, but might wait until later as I slept in so still not that hungry.

I’ve checked my email, updated Twitter, purchased a new app for my iPhone (Speed Dial, going cheap today, looks great) and a soaking wet cat has just come in so I’d better finish this and go dry him with a big fluffy towel.

I say all of this as it seems I’m projecting a version of me here that isn’t really me. I’m not a nasty person who shouts at women pushing their babies in prams. I did it once, felt bad for it and recounted the tale here with a view to pitch it as something that wasn’t very nice but was possibly a little funny in a dark kinda way that maybe others would relate to.

I’ve said this before, so let me repeat. I am not this blog. I am not the person you’ve met in the pub once or twice. But I’ve said this before, quite recently.

Perhaps I’ll stop blogging about me. Perhaps, as I’ve changed, I need to change what I write here. Perhaps the coming year will be different. This blog has changed over the past year, and will, of course, continue to change in the future. However, this is the first time that I’ve been aware of the change myself. It doesn’t feel natural, it feels forced, and that means that it’s no longer just a fun hobby, it’s now, whilst not a chore, certainly something that I have to think twice about.

I’m not entirely sure, but this has been building for a while so, I guess, consider yourself forewarned. This blog is changing…. somehow… for some reason… roll on 2009?

I AM A WINNER!

Monday, November 10, 2008 ~ 6 comments so far

In January 2007 a website I designed was launched. The mission of the website was to highlight great writing on personal blogs; to draw attention to blogs that you might not have heard of before; and to point you to one absolute guaranteed humdinger of a blog post, once a week, every week.

One year and several months later, I’ve been honoured to be the Post of the Week. I’m hugely flattered given the quality of the other nominations, although there is part of me that wonders what took so long!

I highly recommend you head over to the Post of the Week website to check out the other nominations from last week and all of the previous winners, the quality of writing continues to amaze and I’m humbled to included.

Can’t Blog, Won’t Blog

Sunday, August 24, 2008 ~ 5 comments so far

I should write up my thoughts on the Olympics as they are now over.

I should mention that I managed a 15 minute jog this morning.

I could write something about the cat.

I could write something about my sister’s engagement (party next week).

I could write about the Wii Fit we were given as a present on Friday night.

I could write up how old my Gran is looking these days, and how many memories it brings back of watching my Grandpa slowly fade.

I could publish the beginnings of a rather crap short story I’ve had sitting in draft for months.

I should ask if anyone knows the maximum dimensions for hand luggage on a Ryanair flight.

But I can’t, I won’t.

This may be the fault of Twitter – if I’m updating there I’m still getting my ‘communicate with people online’ fix out of the way – or it may just be because I can’t be arsed.

No, that’s not true. It’s not because I don’t want to but because I just can’t seem to get started on anything. I had hoped procrastinating on the topic may have helped but, alas, no.

Next week will be a busy one, both at work and at home, so don’t expect much from me here. Mind you, no doubt I’ll be twittering for Scotland. Catch me there.

Wordle

Thursday, July 24, 2008 ~ 3 comments so far

Requires Java, click for fullsize (then create your own!).