bookmark_borderHouse

No, this is not a post about bingo. It’s a post about an American TV show – House (official site which is crap, try TV Tome instead, mind the popups though).

Hugh Laurie – yes theHugh Laurie of “Fry and..”, “Jeeves and Wooster”, and … er… something else… (a guest appearance in Friends?) – plays Dr. Gregory House, an acerbic diagnostician, an American diagnostician at that, pay attention now, that bit of information is important.

Dr. House is, the central character of the show, heads up a team of young doctors in a clinic. He’s not interested in everyday complaints or everyday patients, preferring to take on challenging problems. He’s the diamond in the rough, the rogue doctor who everyone tolerates because he’s brilliant. In a rather schmaltzy piece of production he also has a limp, presumably so you feel some sympathy with this single minded, rude and determined man.

Laurie plays it well, never coming across as aggressive, merely emotionless – when faced with an outbreak in the maternity unit, he comes to the conclusion that they’ll have to use two babies as test cases, lest the other six die – and the rest of the cast seem adept. The first couple of episodes have been laying the back stories of the main characters and other than some “why the hell do they have to SHOW the graphic detail moments” on the operating table, it’s not been too bad.

The only slight problem will be if Laurie’s A-merry-can accent will start to grate. Took me a good 15 minutes of the first episode to get past it but after that it was barely noticeable.

I guess the main competitor will be ER but so far there is no romantic interest in House and I think it’s the better for it. It is still finding it’s feet, that’s for sure but is definitely in the black humour/drama category and has offered some good viewing already.

Not sure when it’ll hit terrestrial but when it does, give it a look.

bookmark_borderProlific

Apparently I’m classed as “prolific”. Well from three separate emails I’ve received over the past couple of days that seems to be the perception. How do I manage it? You ask (well three of you did). Well I’ve given the matter some thought, examined my processes and ideas and come to one simple conclusion.

I’ve absolutely no idea.

I have a fair amount of draft posts waiting patiently in the wings to be finished off, polished up and sent out into the big wide world (web), but the reason they are sitting in draft status is because I can’t finish them. You see, despite the masses of evidence to the contrary, I do like to consider what I post and try and make a point or two but for some reason, and this problem has become more prevalent recently, I find myself trying to cover six or seven differing aspects of a topic and end up completely loosing the thread. Even something as simple as sticking to one tense or the other is sadly lacking, veering from back and forth like some inter-dimensional timelord.

Of course just writing this blog post, whilst a complete cop-out, is evidence enough that you can blog about nothing. It’s realising that nothing is a worthy topic. Errr… that doesn’t read correctly… ach, you know what I mean.

Perhaps a return to more observational blogging is required.

Hmmm, bit hard when you are sitting are your desk though.

bookmark_borderArterific

Lynn has left us (last week people, DO keep up) and the blogging world is sad. I’ve swapped postcards with her and despite my insistence that her name was Michelle on more than one occasion, she was always kind, helpful and just a lovely fuzzily warm person. I wish her well.

In a completely unrelated (as yet) moment I removed the blogroll from this site. Did anyone notice? That was last week as well, but given that I’ve not heard a peep from anyone I’m guessing it wasn’t used much anyway, right? MyBlogLog backs me up on this, which is good as that was one of the main reasons I installed it.

So, isn’t this awfully rude of me? Surely a blogwhore such as myself should have links up the wazoo, leaking all over the site, right? Well yes, I guess I should, I do feel a bit naughty but as last week progressed, and no-one called me on it, I wondered if it was really THAT big a deal?

Anyway, the blogroll may return at some point, you can access it on the links page anyway, but I think I may pick up the baton (or is that a knitting needle?) left by Lynn. She had a semi-regular feature, culled from a long forgotten internet “movement” – the AORTAL – where she’d proffer forth a couple of websites that she thought others would find interesting.

The idea kind of snuck up on me, but obviously my brain, prompted by Peter on Saturday and a few other factors, has decided that this is a good thing, and will tide me over until … well… later…

I’ll try and keep the feature regular, probably monthly but we’ll see how it goes.

bookmark_borderWaxing

I read an article on singer/songwriter Jimmy Webb on Saturday, in which he said:

“Music, for me, has always been the medicine for some of the unpleasant things that happen in life,” he says. “And when we feel bad, we like to know that someone else understands where we’re at, that it’s not some isolated experiment that we’ve been selected for. I must have heard people say, ‘That song is exactly what I was going through’ about a hundred thousand times – so there must be some truth in it.”

It reminded me of why I started blogging, and some early contacts when all I was writing about was me and what was going on in my head. It also got me wondering if blogging is the new songwriting?

Lyrically at least, the process must be similar (any songwriters out there? Feel free to contradict me here!), you take your life experiences, or those of others, and start writing. You may try and romanticise them, embellish them and make the story your own, you may expand on a simple idea or pare down a complex theme to the basic raw emotions, whatever the process it’s very similar to blogging.
Continue reading “Waxing”

bookmark_borderMeeted

Ohh so much to say, so little of it will make any sense if you weren’t there…

The problem with having fun is how quickly time flies. This was one of many thoughts that zipped across my brain as I trundled homeward on the train, gazing out of the window as the sun set, burning the sky.

In a way I was more nervous about this blogmeet as if only a couple of people had turned up for this one then I doubt if I’d already be thinking about the next one (yes yes, it’ll be Glasgow).

So, without reservation and with a great deal of sincerity I’d like to thank the following for turning up and making the day.. well… bloody great.

Photos from the event will appear here and on the blogs listed above (we’re a surprisingly photogenic bunch, even if I do say so myself).

Ohh and thanks to Richard for posting the list – despite being hugely organised I forgot to take home my notebook with everyone’s URLs written on it! But as David (wee) pointed out, I could have emailed it to myself from his laptop. Oh yes, some geekery was to be had, but I think the balance was pretty good.

Finally a quick note of thanks to the staff and owner of the Jolly Judge. Not only is it a nice pub, but the staff are great and we even got a round of drinks on the house. Very generous!

I’ll leave you now with one question, as asked by Peter: “Which is your favourite blog?” (and you are only allowed one!). That certainly got us all thinking!

bookmark_borderEdinbruuh

This time tomorrow I’ll be in sunny Edinburgh. Well technically speaking I’ll be in a pub in the basement of a building so the chances of getting any sun are remote. Too late to change the venue now though.

I’m quite looking forward to this blogmeet. The first one was exciting for different reasons, not least if anyone would turn up (thankfully someone did), but there is also the rather odd experiencing of meeting, what is essentially a group of strangers. This time round I think we’ll number between 5 and 10 depending on who arrives when, couple of people are coming along later, and if everyone makes it, and I’m hoping to get to meet three bloggers in particular who I’ve been reading for a long time, autographs will be sought!

Those of you have attended other blogmeets will realise that, of COURSE we don’t sit around and talk about HTML, WordPress, CSS, RSS or anything else along those lines. Believe it or not we are there because we are interested in meeting the PEOPLE behind the blogs, and believe it or not, nearly ALL of us are normal. Nearly…

I’m also going to head through a little earlier and have a wee wander round Edinburgh. It’s a city I’m only passingly familiar with, much to my shame. I’ve only ever been there for events (concerts, interviews and the like) and know the main parts reasonably well but much of it is lost on me – I have promised myself that I’ll take the Rebus Tour someday but not sure what Louise would get from that.

Anyway, to anyone in the Edinburgh area on Saturday it’s not too late to come along, even if you can only pop in for a wee while and to say hello, and meet some of the foremost members of Scottish Blogs*. I think this blogmeet will be the best attended so far, and can only lead to … er… more blogmeets? Next one will be in Glasgow though, there’s only SO much Edinburgh this west-coaster can handle in a year.

* or anyone who happens to turn up…