Friday 29 February 2008
A visitor!
"Wow!" I thought as I took a quick look at the statcounter stats. "My site has had a visitor". I'd already discounted the UK hits as probably all me (they were). But one from the US - "Wow!" Then I drilled down further. The location was Mountain View, California (now where have I seen that before. Oh yes it's Google and low and behold one of my entries now shows up in a Google search. So not one single person, but potentially millions. Always look on the bright side.
What's in a name?
Why Phase Two (Faceless)? Why any name for anything? Any time that I'm in an ad-hoc quiz team, there's always the struggle for a name, almost always people don't agree with my "witty" suggestion and go for something toe-curlingly bland. I've given up suggesting "And The Winner Is...". But I'm getting off the point (which you'll find happens a lot with me (along with nested parentheses)). Why this name for this blog?
Phase Two because it's my second serious attempt at a blog (the first ran from April to November 2005). (Faceless) is my reaction to the Facebook "look at me, look at me" self-publicity side of self-publishing. My old blog had my photo and profile in the standard top right position. I'm not a particularly avid reader of blogs, but I've noticed that many eschew the profile/photo thing and don't even have any part of a name in evidence. Somehow I like that, so this time round, I'm faceless. And of course (I was taught at shcool that you couldn't start a sentence with and, but what's good enough for William Blake is more than good enough for me) the whole thing sounds like the relationship betwen the Reader and the Blogger - face to face except not quite (less).
Phase Two because it's my second serious attempt at a blog (the first ran from April to November 2005). (Faceless) is my reaction to the Facebook "look at me, look at me" self-publicity side of self-publishing. My old blog had my photo and profile in the standard top right position. I'm not a particularly avid reader of blogs, but I've noticed that many eschew the profile/photo thing and don't even have any part of a name in evidence. Somehow I like that, so this time round, I'm faceless. And of course (I was taught at shcool that you couldn't start a sentence with and, but what's good enough for William Blake is more than good enough for me) the whole thing sounds like the relationship betwen the Reader and the Blogger - face to face except not quite (less).
Thursday 28 February 2008
The strange mark on my arm
I have a strange mark on the inside of my right arm, near the top. I noticed it (or rather my wife did) just before Christmas. At the time we thought it was a bruise. I noticed it again yesterday (or rather my wife did). It is now bigger than it was with a central pale brown area of perhaps half a centimetre, with an irregular reddish area around it of about a centimetre and a half.
I can't deny that I'm worried about it - skin cancer immediately springs to mind.
I have an appointment with my doctor on Monday - we shall see.
I can't deny that I'm worried about it - skin cancer immediately springs to mind.
I have an appointment with my doctor on Monday - we shall see.
Wednesday 27 February 2008
Why is nothing ever simple?
In an idle five minutes whilst eating a buttered hot cross bun, not having anything to write about, I thought that my one-post blog deserved a visit counter. I remembered that for a previous blog I'd used statcounter.com and even remembered my login and password. All was very simple and I noted with pleasure how easy it is now to add javascript to a blog.
Easy.
Except the counter didn't appear - just one of those funny red crosses when a picture is missing. I followed the same process again and - same result. In an effort to see what was going on, I pasted the URL of the picture into the IE address bar and hit return.
Oh.
What appeared was a warning message from my employer saying that the page had been blocked because it fell into the category of "sex". What is more, the message said that my name (which it echoed back to me, to prove that it knew who I was) had been logged as someone who had tried to access a site in the "sex" category.
For some reason my employers filter software thinks that c39.statcounter.com is something more than just a counter - maybe it is. I've now canabilised a counter from a disused web site of mine - c6.statcounter.com is apparently pure as the driven snow.
Easy.
Except the counter didn't appear - just one of those funny red crosses when a picture is missing. I followed the same process again and - same result. In an effort to see what was going on, I pasted the URL of the picture into the IE address bar and hit return.
Oh.
What appeared was a warning message from my employer saying that the page had been blocked because it fell into the category of "sex". What is more, the message said that my name (which it echoed back to me, to prove that it knew who I was) had been logged as someone who had tried to access a site in the "sex" category.
For some reason my employers filter software thinks that c39.statcounter.com is something more than just a counter - maybe it is. I've now canabilised a counter from a disused web site of mine - c6.statcounter.com is apparently pure as the driven snow.
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Blogs and "Social Networking"
I first posted a blog a few years ago at the height of Blogmania. MySpace was probably around, but below my horizon - just about to appear in my rear view mirror. Facebook and Bebo were both things of the future.
Of course the press still periodically publish stories about popular blogs like "Belle de Jour" and "La Petite Anglaise", but usually once the blog is on the wane.
At the moment there's hardly a week goes by without news stories that mention one of the social networking sites.
The Social Networking sites are much more about the medium than the message. On the surface Blogs and Social Networking occupy a similar space. It's all about self publicity. The social networkers are saying "look at me, look at me, this is what I'm doing 24/7", whereas the bloggers are saying "I'm on a journey through life, stick around if you are interested".
So why a blog now? Funnily enough the initial trigger was an advert for a ticket re-seller which uses someone referiong to "MyFace" to illustrate their ignorance. Then I read in a newspaper about what had happened to ""Le Petite Anglaise" as a result of her blog.
Vast generalisation alert: Social Networking is about showing people everything. Blogging is about showing yourself what you want others to see. At the moment the latter suits me better.
Of course the press still periodically publish stories about popular blogs like "Belle de Jour" and "La Petite Anglaise", but usually once the blog is on the wane.
At the moment there's hardly a week goes by without news stories that mention one of the social networking sites.
The Social Networking sites are much more about the medium than the message. On the surface Blogs and Social Networking occupy a similar space. It's all about self publicity. The social networkers are saying "look at me, look at me, this is what I'm doing 24/7", whereas the bloggers are saying "I'm on a journey through life, stick around if you are interested".
So why a blog now? Funnily enough the initial trigger was an advert for a ticket re-seller which uses someone referiong to "MyFace" to illustrate their ignorance. Then I read in a newspaper about what had happened to ""Le Petite Anglaise" as a result of her blog.
Vast generalisation alert: Social Networking is about showing people everything. Blogging is about showing yourself what you want others to see. At the moment the latter suits me better.
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