New Wurzels Release
It's on iTunes, too.
QotD: What Blogging Means
What are the positive and negative associations that you and those around you have with blogging? Have attitudes changed over time?
Ah, good question, given that my day job* is getting a whole company's worth of journalists up and blogging. And, to be frank, the major problem is negative associations. Journalists' pre-conceived ideas of blogging tend to fall into two schools:
- Lonely losers blogging in their underpants in their bedrooms
- Rabid, opinionated ranting.
The reasons for those views are pretty clear to me: those are the versions of blogging that have seen the most exposure in the mainstream press, and hence have penetratrated journalists' busy minds. However, I do find it more than a little worrying that so many people who are, by nature, publishing professionals have been happy to just accept the recieved wisdom from another source, rather than exploring the issue for themselves.
As I've pointed out on more than one occasion saying "blogging is all losers ranting in their bedrooms" is a bit like picking up a copy of Horse & Pony and going "not sure I like this magazine business, it's all about teenagers and their horse obsession. It's confusing the medium with the message.
The positive side is the unbridled enthusiasm I see in some journalists' eyes when the idea of connecting directly through to their readers via the blog becomes clear to them. These are the journalists who genuinely care about providing the best information for their readers and want to interact with them. And that's just cool.
*Yes, I did have an evening job in the past, writing game stuff for White Wolf. But I no longer have the time, and they no longer seem to have the money (pay rates down, author comps cut?) to make that worthwhile part of my life.
A new start
So, another blog from me. Why? Well, because One Man & His Blog, which used to be a general interest blog, has evolved into a blog specifically about journalism and blogging. I have other interests, like photography, and architecture, and dance, and culture, and more. And I want to blog about them. But I don't want to dilute the focus of my main blog.
And so, I begin again, drinking coffee and exploring complexity. I hope you'll come along for the ride.
Vox Hunt: It Came From The 70's
Audio: It's 70's music Wednesday.
Proof that anything could hit the charts in the 70s…
Vox Hunt: Here's Some Stuff
Show us a pile of stuff.
Submitted by The Eugene.
Fields of rape
Suffolk is yellow this time of year
(Although, now I see this from my desk, I can see how lousy colour reproductiosn is from my mobile phone).
Gilbert & Sullivan's Baby Got Back
Respect My Authoritaaaah!
Convincingly broke the Technorati top 40,000 blogs with my main blog this morning.
30,000 here I come!
30,000 here I come!
All together now: Wince!
Man cuts off penis in restaurant
| ||
|
A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant.
Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the man was aged between 30 and 40 and that his injuries were self-inflicted. The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis. | ||
|
|
|
Checking Out
The tattered remains of a wedding…
Lewisham blogging drinks
New haircut time again
What do you think?
Still They Come!
St George
A statue at St George's Hospital, created by one of the staff.
Sinister Bins
First Andrew captured them massing.
Now they ATTACK
Is there no escape for any of us?
Sun over Lewisham Station
Of course, if I hadn't been commuting by train, I'd have missed this quality of light:
Commute
On the train today. It reminds me of how lucky I am to drive most days.
10 Ways to know a WoW Addict
I'm only guilty of a few of these...
|
Tea at the Crazy Bear
My Brother Runs...
As some of you know, I lost my father to cancer five years ago, and now my mother is fighting against it.
Both of them have had huge support from the local community nursing fund, who exist to provide the terminally ill and the families with support and assistance in their own homes. It's funded from charitable donation, and my brother is abandoning his over-paid city boy ways to run the London Marathon partially in aid of this charity.
If any of you would like to support him, the money would be gratefully recieved.
Vox Hunt: Is For The Birds
Show us some birds.
Snapped this little fella grabbing a bite while I was in New York:
And spotted this chap a couple of years ago in the Everglades, while on holiday in Florida:
Rooftop car work
Just refilling the screen wash, but it looked impressive with the car all alone on the top floor of the carpark.
Exciting Times chez Tinworth
Oh, at least, if you're interested in gardening:
For today was the first day we actually got out into the garden to start sorting things out. Lorna did most of the work, frankly. I was engaged in the endless struggle to get my study under control for much of the morning. But out into the garden I eventually went, to do my bit.
I rather like our garden. If you ignore the shuddering traffic noises of the road outside our frnt door, it's a little oasis of calm in the heart of Lewisham. One a day when Lorna was woken by people fighting over parking on a side street, every little oasis of calm you can find is worth having.
Especially with barbecue weather just around the corner…
Messin' With Mark's MacBook
Bank Holiday Begins
Today has been an unexpectedly quiet day. We dragged Nicola back here in the early hours of the morning and let her sleep off her birthday excesses.
I cooked a full English brunch early afternoon, which helped recovery, and the rest of the day has been based around pottering and chatting.
Oh, and some work on my blog. I like to squeeze some productivity into the most indolant of days.