Filed under: Family, Life, Stress, Technology, Thoughts, Work Life Balance | Tags: Blogging, Facebook, Flickr, Life, Technology, Thoughts, Tumblr, Twitter
I’m taking the month of September off. Not off work, but off Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress, Flickr and the many other distractions that have kept me from proper family/personal time over the last few months. I’ll still be checking my email and perhaps be online for five minutes at a time checking bank balances and cinema times, etc, but that’s it.
It’s an experiment of sorts. I tend to be easily distracted and lose myself for hours on teh internets which has created not a little tension at home, but I also feel that my thought processes are actually being affected by the flittering about that this fine Apple iMac allows me by having so many programs running at once!
So, from tonight at midnight, I intend to use the time saved to do the jobs that have been left undone, to spend more time with my wife and kids (!) and to fix various broken things, and cut the grass rather than pay somebody to do it twice a month, and get moving on a number of things that the “internet inertia” has stopped me from doing.
Now, I could be smart and say that the graphic above represents me “hitting the road” from the internet, but I’ll be honest instead and admit that I weigh 276lbs. My intention in being that honest is to force myself to be looking for a sign for Interstate 256 to post on 1 October – in other words, get off my arse and get some exercise. I intend to take seriously the idea of eating properly (not just my Branflakes) and losing some weight and keeping it off.
I have various other similar intentions for the month of September, regarding work, finance, leisure time, etc.
Wish me luck!
Filed under: Blogging, Podcasts, Stress, Technology, Thoughts | Tags: Blogging, Life, Podcasts, Stress, Technology, Thoughts
Recent frustrations with my wireless connection at home resulted in me getting not a little miffed and, after trying everything else, resetting my router. This had the effect of wiping out the settings for my connection and I have been unable to reset the wifi for the last two days.
This has had a number of impacts on my life:
- I find myself with “time” on my hands. No constant browsing, Twittering, or gazing at a screen has resulted in a startling realisation that I need to find something else to do, like read, or watch TV, or God forbid, exercise.
- I spent yesterday evening in the front (TV) room of the house from 1915 until 2230. This is unheard of. I was receiving strange looks from my wife and son who were unsettled, to say the least.
- Yesterday, I bought a Belkin router. Sadly, the CD within was only for Windows XP and older (!) Windows systems – thwarted! This evening, I’m typing this into Word to copy and paste onto WordPress when I finally get my wifi restored. So this is like a computer fix….
- I also bought a T-Mobile laptop dongle thingy which cost £29 plus change – and it’s really crap and intermittent. I also unfortunately spent £30 on airtime, which I’ll use up before I bring the dongle back for a refund. Fucking useless piece of shit.
- I’m starting to run out of podcasts! I’m finally catching up with Fresh Air podcasts that I downloaded as far back as last year. This is good news but they’re a little out of sync when I’m listening to pundits etc talking about how they think Obama will fare when he’s finally inaugurated!
- Yesterday, I drove a 38 mile round trip to pick up my Macbook so I could use it in an internet café at lunch time to send an email and follow up on some tweets on Tweetdeck and get an internet fix – how sad am I?
So, tomorrow, on my day off, I’ll be visiting Carphone Warehouse to see what they can do to restore my sanity. If their broadband was all it is cracked up to be, I wouldn’t have had to reset the router etc, bastards! I think I’ll go a little postal on their asses!!!
My blog hits reached 25,000 today. I’m going to take advantage of the milestone to consider a few other things I have been thinking about for a while.
Bye for now!
I’m struggling to find the time and motivation to maintain my blog. This is the first time since starting last July that I am having difficulty finding something to blog about and the motivation to do so.
I’ve started an anonymous (for obvious reasons) personal finance blog to chart my path through the current economic situation and this has had an impact.
Not sure how long I can keep this one going…but you never know!
Filed under: Blogging, Society, Technology, Thoughts, UK | Tags: Blogging, Society, Technology, Thoughts, UK
I’ve been using Twitter since August last year. I cannot remember why I signed up to use it and I’ve only a vague recollection of it’s existence before then. Since then, the phenomenon has grown greatly, particularly through some celebrity endorsement from Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) and Jonathan Ross (@wossy) here in the UK. The premise if simple. Upload a message of up to 140 characters, which can be all text or can include a link to a picture on Twitpic or another service, or a link to a web page. I can vouch for it’s addictiveness – I would rarely take a bathroom break now at work without checking in on my iPhone!
Twitter’s uses are as varied as the messages and content that Tweeters put on it. It can sustain a direct conversation between two Tweeters who follow each other. It can be a marketing tool. It can be just a way to vent on some subject that is vexing you at the time. It can be a means to share good or bad news instantaneously – reference the aircraft crash-landing into the Hudson River recently. It was news across the world via Twitter long before the news services got to the story. And many, many other uses, such as organising people quickly and easily for political or charity-based events. A recent world-wide Twestival was held to raise money for the charity:water organisation – over $500,000 was raised in one night across 175 cities.
For me, however, it provides a sense of community, some great links to information I wouldn’t normally get and humour. That human relationships can develop on nothing more than 140 characters at a time, is the best testament for Twitter.
The montage above shows my “followers” a few days ago. It gives a flavour of the diversity of the users of this tool. Try it, you’ll love it!
Filed under: Blogging, Entertainment, Technology, Thoughts, UK | Tags: Belfast, Blogging, Technology, UK
Rockers!
Belfastwestival took place in Lavery’s Bunker on Thursday evening. £500 was raised by a combination of door money, raffle proceeds and donations to the event’s Paypal account from Twitterers who couldn’t make it to the event. Well done to @goodonpaper and @icedcoffee who organised and compere’d the evening.
The Rockband tournament allowed many to let their hair down (figuratively, as only one of the many band members actually looked like he might be a rocker (see guitarist above)). Groups created on the night included The Test Eagles, “We’re Trying, I Swear”, The Sonic Artists, Unlucky Fried Kitten, Apple Pie and Three Smarties and a Tube, with the winners picking up a replica Fender Stratocaster donated by the Belfast Guitar Emporium. The eventual winners were….Apple Pie!
It was nice to be able to put some faces to the Twitterers who I had “met” since starting tweeting last August. Everyone was very friendly and it was clear that Twitter can bring disparate age and demographic groups together to do good!
And the winner is...
Filed under: Belfast, Blogging, Entertainment, Technology, Thoughts, UK | Tags: Belfast, Blogging, Entertainment, Technology, Thoughts, Twitter
I had an interesting experience this morning. Myself and Andy McMillan (@goodonpaper on Twitter) has an opportunity to promote this evening’s Twestival event for charity:water on Belfast’s U105 FM radio station. Carolyn Stewart seemed genuinely interested in Twitter and had us on air for eight minutes rather than the usual four! Nerve-wracking stuff but despite a few SNAFUs and stumbles, we managed to get the point across well, we think.
The event takes place in Lavery’s Bunker between 20:00 and 22:30 this evening with entertainment, raffle prizes and good craic (still hate that word!). Pay at the door or buy tickets online at the Belfastwestival website – costs £5, 100% of which goes to the charity (Thanks Laverys!)
Filed under: Belfast, Blogging, Entertainment, Fun, Technology, Thoughts, UK | Tags: Belfast, Blogging, Entertainment, Fun, Technology, Thoughts, UK
This Thursday night, Twitterers from all over Northern Ireland will congregate at Lavery’s Bunker in Bradbury Place, Belfast for a night of fun and craic (hate that word!) and at the same time raise money for charity:water. Similar events will be taking place across the globe on the same day. Everyone’s welcome to attend and Lavery’s management are donating the entrance fee straight to the charity.
It kicks off at 20:00 and there are lots of raffle prizes, entertainment, etc.
For more details, contact:
@belfastwestival
@itsabenzbaby
or check out the website at:
Filed under: Blogging, Technology, Thoughts, Work Life Balance | Tags: Blogging, Technology, Thoughts, Work Life Balance
Today, I’ve passed the 20,000 hits mark on my blog since I started on July 31 last year. I’m amazed, to say the least!
I started it to help clear my head and de-stress and I have found it very enjoyable and a great way to “meet” people across the world. I can recommend it to anyone!
I have recently submitted my blog to AlphaInventions.com an innovative site where different blogs are showcased on a rotating page. You can make a payment for longer inclusion in the cycle or submit for free and get displayed till it’s your turn to get ‘bumped off’ by someone else.
I’m just submitting for free at the moment but I’d like to say thanks to Cheru for a great idea. It does work.
To those who use Alpha Inventions, watch the cycle, there’s some potentially good stuff in there. Also, when you submit, go visit the blog you bumped off. It’s only fair and again you may find something interesting.
Finally, to all my new visitors I’d like to say hello and welcome. Have a look around; there’s all sorts of weirdness here along with rants, raves and a few interesting things too…
Ravings From The Bog 