Category: misc

In Betweeners

Elaborating on (or maybe not, it's not my place to say) my 'Between' post yesterday, @matigo provided some nicely written (as-ever) insights into a modern curse..

'Curse' is my cruel trick; a word, a hook to drag you in. Oops!

Social burnout.

Most here will have a social networking networking history, may even identify personally with Jason's words… For me it's a case of 'the wrong time of year'.

For you…?

Choice. While I had only IRC and MS Chat, that's all I used. IRC was a one-day thing for me; i can't recall any actual interactions at all. Literally one day. I got online and, within the first month explored every protocol and service available to me as a new Microsoft Network (MSN) customer.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention ICQ in my blog post; a service I used mainly to connect to people I already knew online. In real time. Mine was, probably still is, a 6-digit user ID.

Nowadays though we've dozens of places we can go to express ourselves. There are social networks, forums, niche services… There we can chat about our desires, hopes, dreams… with other like-minded people, hopefully without troublemakers intervening. Most of us want a quiet life when we want a quiet life.

Yes, that.

So, App.net (ADN); it's a place with lots of good memories, good people, but it's been let down by its founders and those in search of a bigger audience.

Now mine's not a massive criticism. I'm hardly there at all, my feeling's more one of a remembrance of the emotional baggage stemming from the SOTN post, the frankly-ridiculous antagonism (I'll never understand why people don't simply block) and the network's inevitable subsequent decline.

And guilt.

I'm not doing #QuoteSunday (always a low-engagement thing) in part due to IFTTT's ADN support shutting down, nor am I running #ThemeMonday (once an entirely different proposition.)

That reminds me, I should really move the #ThemeMonday page at my site and replace it with… Sometime.

I must examine my other social network profiles linking to ADN, to see whether I must move them to where I'm most comfortable calling my social hub.

Or must I?

A perhaps-telling FYI; Last year, despite others not doing, I upgraded my ADN account to 'Developer'. More of a statement of intent, a gesture, an attempt to pay back in… I developed nothing of course but got a vague sense of wellbeing, and a hammer to add to my bio. THIS year I downgraded. To an 'ordinary' paid user account. Not all the way to '40'.

Hollow.

But here I am at 10C, with a Premium account paid-up until 2017 (over the top of Jason's invite) developing an 'app' for 10C. How odd.

So, back to the blog post. Burnout maybe, but I'm happy to call 10centuries.org (10C) home.

One thing to bear in mind; I'm crap at publicising stuff; hence the one successful invite. Kinda successful, I'm hoping the guy I invited will spend a bit more time at 10C…

And that others will follow. There's nothing to lose. No ads, no spam. Really.

And here be (more) Adventures! Maybe.

Insurance

Car insurance: I got home today, opened the insurance company letter, and sat. Quickly.

They think I'll be paying more than £130 per year extra to them.

Ah, no.

A quick price comparison site search shows that, if I'm careful choosing the cover, I could get a policy £500 cheaper than I'd be paying if I allowed inertia to dictate terms.

RAC Insurance: yourselves you can go and fu[CARRIER LOST]

Between

It would be fair to say that I'm between social networks. I don't mean I'm not participating, no. I mean that I'm inhabiting the void between those I used to be active in. Ok, ok, I'm bouncing about in either the Venn diagram voids or the overlaps between services. Or both.

It's an odd sensation.

So, my past:

  • MSN Chat, from early 1997 until autumn 1998 was my entry point into online chat. It was easy. I fell into the What's Cooking Online (WCOL) room entirely by accident and stayed there for a while,
  • Facebook appeared in my life around 2008. It's still there, though you wouldn't know I'd been around since then were you to look at my 'Friends' list. They're pretty-much all people I know, see?
  • btinternet.chatter grabbed me in 1998 as a BT phone customer with the related btinternet ISP, once I'd spread my wings away from the cosy MSN. Though it was shut down some time ago, I occasionally attempt to keep in touch with the lovely people who inhabited it. Closure notwithstanding it's been around 11 years since I was last active there anyway,
  • Twitter, we all know about Twitter; it was my home from 2010 until…
  • I discovered App.net, early in April 2013. A great community, lovely people, an ad-free and owner-meddling-free environment; I can't quite figure out why I'm not there right now…
  • 10Centuries.org is where I 'am' right now though, more of a dipper than prolific. Great people (a number* from ADN) and a comfortable, spam and ad-free environment. The network, as I'm sure you've heard me say, is in an invite-only phase right now. I have some.

Well ok, I do know why I'm not active. I've spent more time programming/developing/attempting to fix and evolve my 10C client – and avoiding talking about it online – than being 'social'. Weird.

*100%.

Steps

A week and a half ago the Sony Lifelog app on my phone announced that I'd passed a milestone: 500,000 recorded steps.

Its not a massive total for the around 5-1/4 months I've been allowing the app to record my comings & goings. It averages less than 3,200 a day. But it means I'm on track for over a million in a year.

A step millionaire.

I'm wondering now what it would have been without the 2 days in London (>33,000) and without Ruby dog…

Thanks; to both bustling metropolis & our chomper.

Invisible

During winter the darker hours bring out the worst in people. I'm not talking about death, mayhem, increased criminality; it's a simple as a disregard for child and personal safety.

Every morning I've been seeing see cyclists ride along busy roads, black clothing, black bags, black bikes. Even on the wrong side of the road. Lights? None. Adults don't seem to care, and children… Well, surely parents and schoolteachers should be monitoring departures and arrivals?

There's a phrase. Most don't seem to know what it means, don't seem to care:

"Personal resonsibility"

noun,

modern, ambitious, ambiguous:

1. An overwhelming reliance on state initiatives to promote a sense of wellbeing in self.

Yesterday evening around 5pm, as I was driving home, I spotted a young man walking past a high hedge above a low wall. That is I eventually spotted him; his clothing (not camo) hid him very effectively. Though visibility was reduced by that time of day, by no means everyone had side- or headlights on…

And don't get me started on drivers of black cars – overwhelmingly the most common group to avoid side- and headlights entirely, Is it a part of the mindset involved in the purchasing decision?

Modern LED car sidelights are annoying too. Daytime running lights at the front, but absent entirely from the rear, bypass common sense entirely. Drivers get in the car safe in the knowledge that people in front can see them…

A stealth, Darwin-Awards-winning society, that's what we have.

Rubus cockburnianus

My wife was watching TV earlier; Monty Don, the gardening programme host, mentioned a flower variety and I'm assuming a caption appeared onscreen.

A quote from her email:

"As soon as Monty Don said it I weed my pants laughing. And then I though of you x"

So…

Rubus cockburnianus.

Really.

It's a bramble.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_cockburnianus

Do your own research. It's real, not a 'funny' Wikipedia plant.

Slumber

There's a modern disease I share with a good proportion of the world. There's not a massive social stigma attached to it these days yet all kinds of crackpot remedies are supposed to help…

So what is this thing?

I have trouble getting to sleep, sleeping, and waking at a reasonable hour.

The central foundation – part 1 of my journey to nighttime joy – comes from a potentially surprising source.

Last year I wanted a Windows tablet; HP had just brought one out under £100 (US$99) and I'd decided a planned hobby could benefit from its price and convenience. So I searched for reviews.

The first YouTube review I came across was very informative, as the numbers of views attests. Watching it at bedtime though I noticed a curious phenomenon: I'd consistently fall asleep before it ended.

It still works.

Here it is:

https://youtu.be/dby5yqbP7IA

Let me know what you th

Paralympics

Posting something about the upcoming Rio Olympics yesterday, I asked a question:

"Who are we supporting this time?"

It should have been obvious really. But it wasn't. In case it's not for you, watch this YouTube video…

Turn the sound up…

Its only 1-1/2 minutes long.

Martin, thanks.

Olympics

It's nearly 4 years since the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. 4 years. Wow!

Rio De Janeiro!

Er…

Where's the advance publicity here in the UK? Look, I know a country hosting an event is bound to have a crazy run-up to the main event; local interest in the shape of homegrown heroes* and the possibility of winning a ticket lottery to view a niche sport on a weekday evening are things everyone can grasp hold of…

Who are we supporting this time?

*No, not heroes. Emphatically-not heroes. Role models of course (until the wheels fall off) but a single-minded dedication to accuracy or speed does not a hero make.

Haircut

The mobile hairdresser paid a visit today. She tidied the girls' fringes and hair at the back, did something with my wife's and, rather odd this; dropped a load of greying hair on our kitchen floor after she'd cut mine.

I feel a lot less scruffy now. Maybe I should shave; back to a goatee?