Month: August 2005

New music

I’ve been ripping some more CDs to my PC recently, and thanks to an iTunes smartlist I can confirm that today I will mostly be, randomly, listening to tracks from the following albums:

Blimey, that was a longer list than I thought it would be, should be an eclectically interesting day. I’ve listened to some of these ages (years) ago, others are brand new (why don’t ALL CDs come with that little pull tab to help get the cellophane off?), but having spent all day re-listening to “The Seahorses – Do It Yourself” I’ve been feeling a tad nostalgic.

Now, there’s a great album. Whatever happened to The Seahorses?

Editor’s note: I should really link all these through my Amazon Associate and see if I can earn more than the £1.43 I already have in the past three years… but that’s an awful lot of work. We’ll see if I get the time later… in the meantime, if you DO decide to buy one of the above, any chance you could just paypal me 30p or so? Ta. DONE. And of course you can check I’m being true to my word.

August 19, 2005

Top 100

There seems to be a bit of a brew-haha gathering on blogland. Well sort of, but unless you read certain sites you’d never know so let me summarise for you.

Technorati are trying to establish themselves as THE auditors of the web, amongst other things they maintain a “Top 100 blogs” list which lists all the top linked sites. It’s currently questionable that this “A list” is reliable and accurate, with others spring up in competition – Feedster’s Top 500 for example (500 does seem a little OTT mind you).

BlogHer, the conference (movement?) aimed at increasing the standing of women in blogging, and featured the following debate topic: “The BlogHer Debate question for 2005 is this: Women bloggers, how do you want the world to learn about what you’re creating — if at all? Do you want to play by today’s rules or change the game? … Does the current link-based power structure matter to you?”

The link will take you to a more detailed discussion of how we got to this point.

The general idea, and something I’ve discussed here before, is that the current way of ranking the A-list gives the older blogs more prominence than may be accurate and discounts the inputs from new blogs – the female angle at BlogHer stems from the early adoptance of the internet by male dominated establishments I.M.O. – and is gathering momentum.

People have started de-linking A-list sites (I have some in my blogroll on the right) and while it’s easy to think of all this as yet another storm in a teacup and nothing that is of real importance, and while it gives more credence to the “navel-gazing” charge given to a lot of blogs by the mainstream media, I think we may be at a fundamental point in blogging’s evolution. I’m not unique in this thought, far from it, but I’m not sure the ground swell of reaction is focussed in the right direction.

Instead of discounting the A-list shouldn’t we be challenging them? Saying to them “come on, you are in a position of influence, use it wisely”? The people who are linked to the most wield a lot of “link-power” and yet few (any?) use that to promote new or upcoming blogs. Part of the problem may be a question of recognising which blogs to link to, but as has been demonstrated elsewhere, if someone has a mind to it, and with a bit of self-promotion, you can place yourself on their radar quite easily.

There is a lot of talk surrounding this and other similar issues at the moment – top 100/500 lists, ranking stats, and so on. I think they are being given undue focus though, it’s almost as though some people forget what blogging is about. Distilled to it’s core, blogging is about content. Those with good content will prosper, those without will not. It really shouldn’t be any more difficult than that.

Should it?

August 18, 2005

The Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Those of you who’ve never read any of the Harry Potter books should scroll on down to the next post. Although I will suggest you give them a try, they’re quite good fun, dead easy to read, and are a good way to unwind without having to read a “serious novel”.

And for those of you still reading, yes I do think the Harry Potter novels are serious, and the fact that I’m already looking forward to the next one worries me slightly as it’ll be a long wait!

Quite enjoyed this one but I think I should have re-read the previous book as so much was referred to that I kept having to stop and try and remember what had happened. Still it was good to see the characters mature further and…. well I’m gonna stop there as I don’t want to post any spoilers. I DO have a theory about the ending of the book though.

Beware, spoilers ahead!
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August 18, 2005

The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Ever since I read American Tabloid I’ve always looked forward to picking up another Ellroy novel, his ability to pull you into the era – in this case late 1940s L.A. – is second to none, as is his ability to pace the story perfectly and plant enough seeds that you develop his characters for him.

The story of a brutally murdered woman and the cop that tries to solve her case leads us into a tangled web of corruption, intrigue and… well you can get all that from the blurb on the cover. What Ellroy consistently produces is a well crafted plotline, full of curveballs, smacking you hard in the gut when he drops the chops on how it played out.

If you’ve read any of his other novels you’ll feel at home in this macho world where when hit hard, and dames play the sass to perfection. The grime oozes from the pages as you fall deeper into the story and next thing you know it’s playing out like nothing you thought. He seems to take a perverse pleasure at crafting stories which give you all the clues but that you’ll never solve – allowing some empathy with the lead character.

At times brutal and over the top in many aspects, Ellroy manages to portray the film noir scenes perfectly, knows when to speed things up, and what he can leave up to the reader. Case in point – early on in this book there is a boxing match, whilst reading it on the train I could feel myself racing through the passages, caught up in the fight itself and willing the lead character to win.

Not a book for everyone, but if you’ve never read any Ellroy this is a great place to start. Be warned though, once you’ve read one, you’ll want to read another.

August 17, 2005

Prick

I had a “morning constitutional” down to the doctor this morning, well the nurse as it turned out. I was getting some blood taken to get my cholesterol checked. Previously this was done with a pen-like gadget, a quick prick on the end of your thumb and it spat out a reading:

“FAR too high you lardy so-and-so”

Slightly disconcerting when you are expecting it to read 5.4…

Anyway this was the proper “you’ll only feel a little prick” type of blood gathering and, after my childish giggles had been abruptly stopped by a rolling of the eyes (I wonder if nurses hear any NEW jokes?) I departed with a teeny plaster that apparently fell off on the way home and the instructions to phone the surgery a week on Thursday after 2pm.

it’s odd, I know the reading will come back high as it was high the last time it was taken a few years back and the doctor already has notes on why (the whole hereditary thing), and whilst I’m conscious of what I eat at times, mainly I’ve not bothered as I always figured I’d end up on medication like my Dad.

It’s only just struck me that that day could be sooner than I expected, I’m wondering if I’ll get called into see the doctor in a couple of weeks and that’ll be me. Pill-popping for the rest of my life. Do I still have time to control it through diet? Is that even an option? Guess I should have a chat with my Dad.

The really odd sensation is the realisation that I’m middle-aged, things don’t work they way they used to, I have aches and pains when I get up in the morning and I’m realising how badly I’ve treated my body – my temple – in the past. This thought has been developing over the past few weeks, ever since my Dad’s heart attack, and for once I’m losing weight, exercising more and I’m not really thinking about it as a chore. I’ve not eaten chocolate in weeks, even when I was out at the weekend I had a few glasses of water at various points through the night, and abstained from my usual post-club snack.

This all goes to prove to me one thing; you can have all the knowledge of what you should and shouldn’t be eating, how much you should be exercising, and so on, but if you aren’t in the right state of mind it won’t make the blindest bit of difference.

Something inside my head has clicked though. I have offered myself no incentive to diet and exercise, there is no reward, or competition to spur me on, yet I feel more determined than ever.

My name is Gordon McLean. Three weeks ago I sent the scales over the 18st mark, this morning they are just over the 17st mark and I ain’t stopping there.

August 17, 2005

A joke

Well it made ME laugh.

The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were 3 finalists. Two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

“We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!”

The man said, “You can’t be serious, I could never shoot my wife.”
The agent said, “Then you’re not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home.”

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, “I tried, but I can’t kill my wife.”

The agent said, “You don’t have what it takes. Take your wife and go home.”

Finally, it was the woman’s turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room.

Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said…
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August 16, 2005