Tag: MAKE

bookmark_borderNaNoWriMo? No!

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I’d love to.

I really would.

Every year that rolls around finds me considering it.

Every year I start to jot down notes (where do you think one man tales came from?).

Every year I visit the website, and get excited at the thought.

Every year I think, yeah I COULD do that.

Every year I think, maybe I SHOULD do that.

Every year I think, maybe that’s just what I need.

Every year I think, yes, this is the year. I will do it!

But I won’t.

Not this year.

I just don’t have the time (such a lame excuse, really).

Even if I was to promise myself to MAKE the time.

I wouldn’t.

I SHOULD.

If it really meant that much to me I would.

But I won’t.

Maybe next year.

Maybe.

Will you?

bookmark_borderGet off your RSS

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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!!!

bookmark_borderResolve

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I wonder if I’ll manage to make 2009 a year of change? Takes a lot of willpower to change, but at some point I guess I need to bite the bullet and all that.

In my head I’ve already resolved to take more photographs, having got a wide angle lens for my camera I really should make the time to go out and take some decent photographs. I’ll need a new camera bag mind you, as I’ve now got two extra lenses, not to mention a set of macro filters.

I should also spend less time on the computer and use that extra time doing… well anything else really. I received some good books for Christmas so I can hopefully kick start my dormant reading worm, as well as taking a little time to do some exercise more than.. ehh… never a week.

So, yes. As I sit here and type I’m filled with hope and optimism for the coming year. A year of change I think. I hope. Perhaps.

It’s always easier to MAKE the resolutions than to keep them. So perhaps I’ll just be happy if I can develop any form of resolve for anything at all. That might just be enough.

bookmark_borderAutumnal Musings

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Working from home today to allow me the option to go and stand over a bank manager to MAKE him process our new mortgage application in time. This should save me having to make a payment to both the old mortgage AND the new one this month (if that happens I’ll be offline for the month as we’ll have no money to feed the meter, and we’ll be living off beans on toast. That’s one can of savers beans and one slice of toast borrowed from the neighbours… to last the month).

Presuming that everything goes well today, I can look forward to a weekend of peace and quiet. Louise is away from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon on a hen weekend in Edinburgh, that strange far away land of salt and sauce. I’ve taken tomorrow and Monday off, so will have plenty of time to get some stuff done. This may, or may not include:

  1. Cutting the grass.

  2. Finishing the fireplace in the living room.

  3. Watching Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi on DVD.

  4. Finishing the “His Dark Materials” Trilogy.

  5. Playing Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (recently ‘acquired’).

  6. See what BitTorrent goodies I can grab.

(See what I did there? Ordered them by importance to try and influence myself.. in reality I’ll start at the bottom of the list and work up but hey, every little helps, right?)

It will also involve chinese takeaway, a wander round the shops at MY pace, and some pondering of the coming month of October.

For October is my favourite month. Mainly because it’s my birthday month (what? you want to buy me something? How kind!), but really because it’s always the first proper autumn month. Granted September has done a good job this year but you can never really trust it not to throw in the odd hot muggy summer-like day. October does it’s job properly, bringing in the first morning frosts, the bulk of the trees finally realise what is going on and start burning their leaves, and I no longer have to worry about being too hot (a constant problem for those with their own additional.. er.. ‘insulation’).

So, it’ll be quieter here for the next few days, but I have something in mind to keep you all going. Nothing major, but could be fun. I’ll post more details later today.

bookmark_border*click*… is this on?

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My, isn’t it a lovely day. Blue skies, a light breeze… What? Ohh yes. Hello! I’m back. Almost.

That is to say I’m back here, but have not had much chance to get back there yet. I will soon though.

As ever a short break means a design tweak except this time the ENTIRE site has been done. The old “Words” become “Musings” and the “Photos” take on much more importance – there’s even a “Best of” gallery for you to chuckle over. (suggestions welcomed for a better way to MAKE the galleries as snapGallery isn’t as flexible as I’d like).

Now, there is a monster post brewing, mainly a link dump to be honest but I’ll cherry pick the best bits of the things I’ve come across over the past couple of weeks. If you are very lucky I might even tell you what I’ve been up to, it’s deadly dull though but we’ll see…

Anyway, enough about me, how are you? What have I missed?