Category Archives: blogging

summer holidays

01 Wednesday Aug 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, blogging, books & writing, computers, culture, films, food & drink, friends, fun stuff, health & happiness, holidays, home, humour, life stuff, love, miscellany, music, musings, philosophy, photos, sevilla, television

≈ 13 Comments

laptop-books.jpg

It’s August 1st and I am officially ‘on holiday’.

No classes until September. Yay! Well okay, no income either, but I’ve been looking forward to this stretch of time ahead of me not having to be anywhere or do anything unless I feel like it. It will especially be nice not to be woken up by alarm clocks (well, other than the pointy-eared variety).

When I asked earlier about what summer stuff everyone was planning to do I still hadn’t made any major plans, and then I realised that what I wanted most was a month totally without plans. So there. 🙂

Well, there are a few things I want to do like go to the gym in the mornings and do some stuff around the apartment. But mostly I reckon I’ll be reading and hanging out online (hence that particular thumbnail), taking evening walks with Nog, going out for our *emergency cold beer and air-conditioning sessions* and the occasional tapa, and also watching films and playing with floppy cats who – I am very happy to report – appear to be friends again. They’ve even started playing fighting again, with no pee in sight, which to me is even more of a sign of them being pals again than falling asleep together.

For awhile it looked like a recent bad back incident (comment 19) had put the kibosh on my gym idea, but after a couple days of anti-inflammatories, gentle stretching and lots of walking I think I’ll be able to start back mañana.

Meanwhile, Sevilla has pretty much turned into a ghost town already, which is always a pleasant change of pace.

So all in all, August should be a nice month for carping the diem.

How’s your summer been so far?

netvibes

17 Tuesday Jul 2007

Posted by in blogging, media

≈ 24 Comments

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Does anyone here use netvibes?

I came across it this morning whilst checking my blog stat page … I saw that one of today’s ‘referrers’ came from netvibes.com and I wondered what it could be. So being a curious cat I clicked on the link … and then ended up spending an hour or so making myself a very pretty netvibes page!

Except I’m not really sure what it’s good for, you know? I mean, as it can be accessed from anywhere, it seems great if you often travel or don’t have your own computer as you can organise all your links and RSS feeds there. But so far it looks like an online personal agenda. Is that really all it is? Am I missing something?

Waits for f_geek.gif to show up …

spam disclaimer

14 Saturday Jul 2007

Posted by in blogging, rants

≈ 4 Comments

spam.jpg

Boy this is annoying. f_cross.gif

This morning I was skimming through myAkismet spam file before deleting stuff in case any comments from friends got stuck there by accident and I saw one that at first glance looked like it came from me!!! WTF? Okay, on closer inspection it had a Yahoo search page as the website and the name was ‘azaharwordpresscom’ all together (not just ‘azahar’), but I thought, hell, what if other people get this and think it’s me spamming?. I deleted it but I’ve saved the IP number, which goes to a webpage saying that it originated in Amsterdam. 😕

What would be the point of this kind of spam, since there wasn’t a link in the message? Should I report the IP number? Just forget about it? Anyhow, just in case it ends up in other people’s spam files I wanted you all to know that it wasn’t me! Has anyone else had this happen to them? Or do most people not bother checking their spam before deleting?

5 reasons why I blog

07 Saturday Jul 2007

Posted by in blogging, friends, life stuff, miscellany

≈ 5 Comments

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I have been tagged by Woodpigeon.

So here goes. Though I suspect this is going to be more difficult than it looks . . .

  1. Like Woodpigeon and a few others, I began my ‘online life’ on a forum started by Douglas Adams called h2g2. Also like Woodpigeon, I started my blog because h2g2 had been going through some changes that I didn’t feel comfortable about. So at first the blog became an extension of what I had been doing on h2g2, but with more personal freedom (being able to edit posts and comments, upload photos and also being able to say fuck whenever I felt like it 😉 ).
  2. It’s a creative outlet. I enjoy coming up with topics that I hope other people will also enjoy and find interesting, then finding a wee thumbnail piccy to go with it and sharing thoughts and ideas with those who stop by and comment. I suppose the response to my blog is also gratifying. Although I don’t think I do this to attract attention per se, I’m always quite chuffed when a particular post draws a lot of comments. So far I haven’t become addicted to checking out my blog stats, though of course I do look at them now and again.
  3. As well as keeping in touch with friends I’ve known for years (both online and in RL) I’ve met some wonderful new friends here and feel my life has been quite enriched by having met them. Compared to who one is able to meet in RL (which can be somewhat limited) I find that communication in the blogosphere really opens up the possibilities of finding individuals from all over the world who have a wide variety of interests and experiences. It’s also a wonderful way to not feel alone. I can come here any time of the day or night and find comments written, and then go off and read what others have written on their blogs and comment there. Quite often I just enjoy reading without commenting, which I’m sure many others also do.
  4. It’s sometimes a personal diary as I also write about things going on in my life and trips I’ve taken, as well as just some things I feel quite strongly about, like relationships & friendships and personal self awareness stuff.
  5. Finally, it’s just fun. I love talking and I love writing. So this is a great place to do both at once. 🙂

I shall now tag . . . Wandering Coyote, truce and Metro.

The untagged are welcome to share their reasons too.