Let’s Pimp Again…
May 11, 2008
Carrying on from here, few more of my favourite blogs…
- Rambling On. Lottie and her very precise Virtual Bitchslaps (and more!).
- Hayley’s Online Soapbox. A very refreshingly sceptical and investigative approach to the “paranormal.
- Andrew’s Tech Blog. Newly discovered. A wealth of techie info from a very nice guy whose brains I want to pick
- Richard Dawkins’s “In the News” Section. News stories with on science, atheism and religion.
- Wired Science. Science blog network from Wired.
- On the Road Again. My stand-up mate, John.
[Please be aware that not being included in the list does not necessarily mean your blog falls into the "badly written blogs that claim to speak with authority on subjects they quite clearly know nothing about" category.]
A Few of the Places My Blog Has Reached.
May 10, 2008
It’s always fascinating, even after in excess of ten years online, to discover the wonderful, distant places my rambling posts reach — places like, to name a few…
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
- Tacloban, Philippines.
- Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
- Islamabad, Pakistan.
- Honolulu, Hawaii.
- Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
- Fishkill, New York.
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Oh, and let’s not forget…
- Exotic Cardiff in Welsh Wales.
Pimp.
May 10, 2008
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but what with my “creative endeavours” and whatnot, I just haven’t got round to it.
Until now.
The blogoshere is growing on a minute by minute basis. It’s estimated, in fact, to be growing so fast that by 2020 it will have broken free of its technological confines and turned the world and everything in it to a fish-paste-like mush… or was that nanobots? Either way, it’s a force to be reckoned with — and as our blogging skills increase I’m sure the trend for so-called “real journalists” to start sweating a bit and worrying about their job security will also continue to grow. Exponentially.
But, let’s face it, there’s a whole heap of dross out there. Silly, personal websites I have no objection to. They serve a purpose for the individual concerned and more power to them. What I don’t like, however, are the badly written blogs that claim to speak with authority on subjects they quite clearly know nothing about.
With this in mind, I thought I’d take a few moments to introduce you to some of my fellow bloggers who don’t fit into this category. These are the blogs I read on a daily basis. And they are a bit good.
See what you think.
- The Odd Blog. Mike’s mix of Internutter de-masking and commentary.
- PD Smith. Science writer par exellence.
- The Will Rhodes Portmanteau. Will’s political blog.
- Nectarville. Bekki’s blog. Slow down, girl!
- Pharyngula. ”Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.”
- KurzweilAI.net. Science and futurism.
… that’s all for now, but more will follow soon.
[Edit: Please be aware that not being included in the list does not necessarily mean your blog falls into the "badly written blogs that claim to speak with authority on subjects they quite clearly know nothing about" category.]
Post It — Request Time.
March 27, 2008
Now, there are possibly hundreds of blog posts wandering around my internal landscape waiting to be written which, due to time demands and possible law suits, probably never will be. Like the one about the time I got my fingers trapped in a lift (elevator, for my American readers) door, or the one listing my foolproof ways of guaranteeing personal happiness (that one involves a fee and the, erm, laying on of hands. Enough said, I think.)
It occurred to me today, however, as I sorted through ideas, discarding some here, filing some there, that maybe it would be fun for you to decide what I blog about this weekend. My version of your favourite radio station’s request hour.
So… I’m not promising anything, but what would you like me to cover over the weekend?
Green.
February 12, 2008
Yes, I realise I don’t look “myself” right now (i.e. my customised blog “look” has reverted to the old, ugly green header one), but rest assured it is me and the problem is (hopefully) being worked on. WordPress is having ishoos.
EDIT: WordPress had this fixed in minutes… unfortunately, not quickly enough to prevent me from ballsing up my stylesheet and having to rebuild from scratch. (Anyone says “backup” and they are dead.)
The Measure of Worth.
February 5, 2008
It doesn’t do to be too well-adjusted. Whatever people may say to the contrary, being a normal, cheerful, moderately successful individual (if there is such a thing) is a sure-fire way of fading into oblivion wearing a nice pair of slacks, cup of tea and hobnob in hand (and, no, that isn’t a euphemism.) The happy man will not aspire, for obvious reasons — contentment keeping him from attempts at improvement simply because… well, like I’ve said, it’s obvious. The content and well-adjusted types will never audition for Big Brother or fall out of nightclubs on the arm of the surgically-enhanced in the hope of being “snapped” for the tabloids (that should be a euphemism.) And it is implied on chat show and celeb mag alike that this ephemeral, ordinary man should be pitied. He is a dinosaur. A relic. He hasn’t lived because no one has seen him live.
And, of course, such a celeb-centric, twisted, pseudo-Warholian attitude is tripe. Leftover tripe reheated, at that. We all know it, because we are on a different level, intellectually. We are above all that superficial nonsense. Our lives aren’t given meaning by the mere fact of their being observed by others! They have meaning already.
And yet we blog.
In recent months, I’ve read and heard a number of criticisms of the “blogosphere” (a word that makes me gag, incidentally.) These have ranged from the more considered, but nonetheless laughable, journalistic cries of “bad reporting” etc to the absurd comment that ninety-nine percent of it (”it” being all blogs, not merely journalistic blogs) is worthless, because of “factual errors”. The former is ridiculous for many reasons. It presupposes that all journalists are good journalists, for one thing, and that, naturally, all bloggers are shoddy in their approaches. This apart, however, it is clearly a Trade Union-esque mentality coming to the fore. “These bloggers are threatening my livelihood!” It’s a brand of fear and, as a writer who often despairs at the second-rate celebs who trespass on my “turf”, I can understand it. It doesn’t mean it’s right, but I can understand it.
The latter is the one I find especially annoying, however, possibly because it indirectly includes my blogtastic effort in its assault; the “blogosphere” is worthless trash, ergo my blog is worthless trash.
I don’t, of course, believe that for one minute. My definition of “value” or “worth” is too broad and flexible to allow that. I know enough to check and re-check any “facts” I read on any blog covering issues important to me but, then again, this is something I tend to do as a matter of course — even, on occasion, with articles on the BBC News site. To equate “facts” and only “facts” with a measure of a blog’s worth, however, is foolish. There’s more going on here than that.
Which brings me to the question of why we blog. Is it just an extension of Orwell’s writerly ego trip, a way for us to validate our paltry lives by demanding to be noticed? Or is there really more to it?
I can only talk about my own experiences and motivations as a blogger. To do more, I think, would be to miss the point (as I believe so many critics of Web 2.0 do.)
Blogging serves a number of purposes for me — but all of them are tied in very solidly to my life as a writer, my very basic human need to share and discuss ideas. It doesn’t especially matter if they are factually correct (although it helps), it’s the process that’s important. People interest me. I like them. I like reading their thoughts on my work. I like giving and being given advice in an environment that I control and which is relatively safe. Yes, it’s flattering when people leave positive comments, but that isn’t the only reason why I do this. I do it, first and foremost, because it is natural.
We are built to engage with others. It benefits us on so many levels. When you sit in a pub or some other gathering place, do you dismiss everything the local raconteur says that isn’t fact-based or somehow “educational”? No, of course you don’t — because that isn’t why he talks and it certainly isn’t why you listen. It’s the process. Human interaction.
Is it really so difficult to understand?
Receive by Email.
October 14, 2007
All future blog posts can now also be received by clicking on the Receive by Email link above. You can also subscribe via Technorati (see right), should you so wish. Let me know what you think when you have time.
