Category: Blogging

Largely older posts, mini blog entries and memes from the past… a vault of dusty nonsense.

Can't Blog, Won't Blog

I should write up my thoughts on the Olympics as they are now over.

I should mention that I managed a 15 minute jog this morning.

I could write something about the cat.

I could write something about my sister’s engagement (party next week).

I could write about the Wii Fit we were given as a present on Friday night.

I could write up how old my Gran is looking these days, and how many memories it brings back of watching my Grandpa slowly fade.

I could publish the beginnings of a rather crap short story I’ve had sitting in draft for months.

I should ask if anyone knows the maximum dimensions for hand luggage on a Ryanair flight.

But I can’t, I won’t.

This may be the fault of Twitter – if I’m updating there I’m still getting my ‘communicate with people online’ fix out of the way – or it may just be because I can’t be arsed.

No, that’s not true. It’s not because I don’t want to but because I just can’t seem to get started on anything. I had hoped procrastinating on the topic may have helped but, alas, no.

Next week will be a busy one, both at work and at home, so don’t expect much from me here. Mind you, no doubt I’ll be twittering for Scotland. Catch me there.

Finish This Sentence

Ignoring the fact I have been specifically tagged, and not completed, a few memes in the past couple of months, this one I think I can tackle. Thanks to Cliff for the open invite.

1. My uncle once: remembered my birthday (LOL!!).

2. Never in my life: have I chosen to eat a raw tomato, ick ick ick.

3. When I was five: I had the run of the house as my sister had yet to appear.

4. High school was: much the same as anyone else who was smarter than most and didn’t “fit in” with the cool kids.

5. I will never forget: finishing my first 10K and the emotions that went with that.

6. Once I met: a homeless person and bought him coffee and a doughnut.

7. There’s this girl I know: Who writes a blog that no-one reads, and she’s really good but hates getting compliments (and I’m not linking to it until I get permission).

8. Once, at a bar: I stole a bottle of champagne and no-one noticed.

9. By noon, I’m usually: ready for lunch and checking what the afternoon holds.

10. Last night: I did some work on a blog design, it’s coming along nicely (and the client is really nice, that helps).

11. If only I had: more discipline.

12. Next time I go to church: I’ll, again, wonder why I’m there.

13. What worries me most: is what the future may or may not hold.

14. When I turn my head left I see: a MacBook and the remnants of my lunch.

15. When I turn my head right I see: out of the window, across the cul-de-sac.

16. You know I’m lying when: I don’t tell the truth.

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!.

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: an obscure snob, sitting on the sidelines whilst the main play unfolded, chipping in with witty asides.

19. By this time next year: I’ll be a year older.

20. A better name for me would be: Mr. Research.

21. I have a hard time understanding: people who are happy to accept the status quo, who accept prejudice as fact and remain inconsiderate of others.

22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: only be there to gloat.

23. You know I like you if: I smile when we talk.

24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: whoever nominated me.

25. Take my advice, never: that plate of melted cheese? Don’t eat it.

26. My ideal breakfast is: filter coffee and toast with lashings of butter and honey.

27. A song I love but do not have is: the live version of Hotel California that they use on MTV sometimes (OK OK, Q or VH2).

28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: Climb up to the castle, and enjoy the view down the Clyde.

29. Why won’t people: just get along?

30. If you spend a night at my house: red wine and takeaway curry, good music and laughter.

31. I’d stop my wedding for: no-one as I’m already married, thanks!

32. The world could do without: idiots.

33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: let ANYONE stick ANYTHING in my EYE EVER.

34. My favourite blonde(s) is/are: Marilyn Monroe.

35. Paper clips are more useful than: not having paper clips when you need one.

36. If I do anything well it’s: convincing people that I can do anything well.

37. I can’t help but: constantly need something to hold my attention.

38. I usually cry: at soppy movies, or soppy TV shows, or… basically any form of simple emotional manipulation and I tear up.

39. My advice to my child/nephew/niece: only you know what YOU really want, learn to listen to yourself.

40. And by the way: one day this blog will cease to exist.

And I’ll take the same route as Cliff and wimp out of nominating anyone in particular. Instead, if you haven’t blogged for a while or just fancy a change, grab the sentences and finish them yourself.

This and that

Summer holidays make it easy to keep on top of RSS feeds, and easier to spot some ace new blogs. Check out this one, I think it could be quite good.

My father-in-law is back in Scotland for the month, so we’re off to see him tonight and I’m really REALLY hoping he wants us to bring in a fish supper for dinner. I’ve not had fish and chips for ages and currently have a real craving for them.

XNeat Windows Manager is yet another application capable of doing some nice UI effects in Windows. Best of all, and the reason it wins out over many other similar applications for me, is that with it installed you can MIDDLE-CLICK TO CLOSE APPLICATIONS STRAIGHT FROM THE TASKBAR. Sounds simple I know but it’s a habit I use all the time in Firefox to close a tab, and it’s been bugging me for YEARS that I couldn’t do this in Windows until I stumble across XNeat.

A quick thanks to Daisy for nominating me for a Post of the Week award, I didn’t win but was quite surprised to see my name in the shortlist. Who knows, it might inspire me to indulge my creative side a little more often (there was a similar post later on last week too).

Since I bought my iPhone I’ve changed the way I think about how I work when I’m at home, and find myself leaning towards my MacBook more often than my PC, it’s just so much nicer to use. The only downside is the small screen and limited hard drive (my music collection is larger than my MacBook’s hard drive). So I’m looking to the Belkin Flip (DVI version) as a solution.

Physio tomorrow, we’ll see if the eccentric loading exercises I’ve been doing (and for a change I’ve been pretty good at remembering to do them!) have had an impact. They FEEL like they have, fingers crossed.

Does no-one care?

To my knowledge there is no Fake Gordon. This fact doesn’t disturb me unduly, I’m quite glad there isn’t a fake version of me on the internet.

However I am a little miffed that I’M not getting sent anything from some unknown stalker stranger… although, frankly, if I were, I’m not sure Care Bears would be all that welcomed.

For the record, I AM NOT FAKE SEVITZ.

If I was the address would read “FKAESEVITZ” 😉 …

Regardless, this is bizarrely funny. Bravo Fake Sevitz, Bravo!!

Wordle

Requires Java, click for fullsize (then create your own!).

Redirecting Question

Note: This is a techie question, all those not interested, look away now.

(and no, I’m not doing very well at the whole ‘staying away from the blog to be productive thing…)

[update]SORTED!!!
That nice man wot writes Hydragenic came through for me (apparently he would ‘not be defeated’, he cracked it second time round).

I’ve added the following line to my .htaccess file on the gordonmclean.co.uk domain:
RedirectMatch 301 /index.php/(.*) http://www.onemanblogs.co.uk/index.php/$1

And now when you click this link (which points at the gordonmclean.co.uk domain) you’ll be properly redirected back to this domain (onemanblogs.co.uk).
[/update]

I received an email the other day. It was a nice email, the very kind I’d hoped my 404 page would generate.

The problem is a simple one. I moved domains a while ago, so some of the links that still exist point to my old blog URL (which is still live but is no longer a blog).

Following one of those links (from Lifehacker.com I think) will take you to this URL. Which is currently displaying a 404 error message.

To get to the correct page, all you need to do is edit the URL, replacing “gordonmclean” with “onemanblogs”. Simple.

So why the hell can’t I figure out how to write the appropriate .htaccess commands to get it to do that automatically.

I don’t want to redirect everything, only anything that has “/index.php…..” in the URL. Shouldn’t be THAT hard, right?

Well I’m stuck. So, dearest technical interweb friends, help!!