Happy Birthday Mike!

My buddy Mike’s birthday is today and he’s turning 3 months older than me!

Happy Birthday Mike, I hope you have lots of fun playing with your balls.

Internet Draft: Comment systems

Having fired up the old blogging engine[^die], I now find myself wanting to comment on Rubenerd’s latest post about enabling a commenting system, but find that due to lack of a comment system I cannot! And also having trashed both my Twitter and Facebook accounts in a single week, I now have NO CONCEIVABLE WAY to get in touch with the man. I mean, despite email and other antiquated ways of communication - should I perhaps be sending smoke signals?

No, email isn’t public enough. A person cannot comment on another blogger’s content from the detached privacy of an email - we are after all “civilised gentlemen”[^static].

Comment of the Day

Comment of the Day by Mike Seyfang

So consider this another comment in a long series of posts directly directed at Rubenerd. Tune out from here if you’re not him, and have no interest in how he chooses to enable comments.

I shall tackle his so called “two options”, and then suggest my own third option. I’ll ignore that he presented his own third option, because that’s thrown all my maths out and I can only count to many.

  1. Disqus: No. No. Don’t do this. No. Do not use Disqus. Not because there’s anything wrong with it necessarily, but don’t change how you do things to make a couple of people slightly happier - you’ll always feel dirty.

  2. A CMS: You could. But again, why change something that’s working for you[^aside]?

Your only real option is to take your comments outside your space.

  1. One option that comes to mind is something like /r/rubenerd on reddit. They have those new profiles now don’t they? x-post everything onto your profile, and link to it at the end of your post.

    Pros: no changes to the way you write (much), potential for actual link karma, surely everyone has a reddit account right?

    Cons: you still don’t own/control the platform and Reddit is most certainly mining their user’s data in all the same ways Facebook has been. Might be an effort to moderate, or you might miss stuff if you’re not a heavy Reddit user yourself.

  2. Pick some forum software or a microblogging platform like GNU Social or Mastodon and self host that, x-post to the site as suggested above. Enable Twitter/Facebook/Reddit logins so people don’t have to register to your site to throw down a witty one-liner.

    Pros: Self hosted means it’s your data and your readers can have a say in what happens to it. You get to decide how it’s shown - write a back end script that pulls comments in on a cron and adds them to the static site, use some Javascript[^safe], or just link to it and let people free-for-all

    Cons: It’s a hassle and no one will use it.

  3. Keep going as you are now. Use Twitter. I’ll keep responding from here and other people can find ways they feel comfortable to respond.

    Pros: Really easy.

    Cons: I don’t get to comment[^pro].

  4. If you’re mirroring your repo online, give people the link and let them clone and send you pull requests with their comments.

    Pros: Only dedicated idiots will comment.

    Cons: Only dedicated idiots will comment. You’d have to set up a template/rules for comments. It’s a fucking ridiculous idea.

  5. Build some sort of federated commenting system that would allow someone like me to make a comment on their own site and have it salmon’ed to yours. Frankly, I don’t think this would work with your current system and would probably be difficult to integrate without a CMS. I’ve been playing with Keybase which has a flat-file system integrated - you could join a trusted blogging network and use that to allow comments somehow.

I’m partial to the reddit idea, and might start doing it myself. I’ve also thought about setting up Mastodon and using that instead of Twitter. I also have a GNU Social instance running, but it’s kind of a bummer without many people to follow.

All these options are making me want to turn my own comments off, just to force some creativity. I’m looking forward to seeing what Rubenerd does.

Discuss on Reddit… IF YOU DARE

Quickedit: This page on Hugo suggests Staticman which looks pretty neat. Integrated with Jekyll, which I know you’re not using any more, but could be integrated into Hugo.

[^die]:Why hasn’t that word died!? [^aside]: putting aside that by suggesting you enable comments, that’s exactly what asking you to do [^runninggag]:And is this becoming some sort of running gag? [^static]:Which I must not be because I don’t statically generate my content [^safe]:with a safe word [^pro]:this may be a pro

Milestone: 445 Posts!

This was going to be a post for my 500th published… post. 500 is a big milestone. So I’ve been cleaning up my site, migrating and consolidating AWS S3 buckets and setting up https hosting on one for some of the images and videos I’ve posted here in the past.

500 steps forward, 55 steps back. That's how that saying goes right?

500 steps forward, 55 steps back. That's how that saying goes right?

But as I’ve been cleaning, I’ve discovered lots of old photos and short text posts that were imported through various automatic processes, like Flickr photos that were imported for a while when I tweeted them, or things I reblogged from other sites with dubious attribution.

So I’ve been judiciously killing them, and very rarely re-instating posts I never published (or only ever published on Facebook).

Which has all brought me to the much less auspicious count of a 445 post milestone for my return to blogging[^word].

Hooray! Here’s to 445 more! And then 110 more after that so that I reach a more rounded number[^help].

[^help]:Rubenerd can find meaning in all sorts of post numbers, maybe he can help me out here. [^word]:I will find a better word one day, mark my… word

Dashing Dynamic Duo

The words 'Batman and Robin' inside a stylised bat for the comic book

...Running

I once did a post about the old-old Batman and Robin Serial and took some screen-caps from the episodes. One of them has proven quite popular around the internet and has been used by sites like [Cracked] THE JOHNNY DUNCAN IMDB PAGE for any post that needs a picture of Batman and Robin running:

A grainy black and white still frame of Batman and Robin running towards the camera from the 1949 Batman and Robin serial

I wondered why it was so popular, till I realised just how iconic that image is, even if I can’t think of a particular example. So after some research, here’s a compilation of images of Batman and Robin running from different media.

First up is Adam West and Burt Ward running to the UN to save some diplomats from being powdered by their greatest foes. I think they’d gotten stuck in traffic?

Robin and Batman running towards the camera in a still from the 1966 Batman TV show

Kapow!

I can’t find any images from the original comics, but I’ll keep my eye out for them and put them up as they come. The closest I could find was this vintage 1966 Japanese comic cover. This is the Adam West era as you can tell by the eyebrows on the cowl[^shops].

A Japanese picture book whose title is in Japanese and Batman and Robin are running toward three villains who are an anthropomorphic fox, black-skinned crocodile creature, and an eagle.

What on earth is that weird black crocodile/mole creature?

Despite the lack of direct comic book proof, I submit this retro t-shirt design, and you tell me if it doesn’t trigger a memory of something in your brain. You know this is a classic image. If you’ve come to realise the iconic-ness of the image of the Dynamic Duo running, you can buy this t-shirt and wear it proudly.

Another image of Batman and Robin Running, on a T-Shirt

Mil... Can I have some cash?

Or if that doesn’t convince you that Batman and Robin hoofing it is one of pop-culture’s most classic images, try this piece from the 2007 Singapore Design Festival. Once glance and you immediately get it don’t you? Because it’s classic.

A parking zone sign with Batman and Robin silhouettes

by `to the rescue` by Draken413o

Here they are running in Batman: The Animated Series.

A cartoon Batman and Robin running towards the viewer from a still from Batman Animated Adventures

Animated!

Followed by an awesome wallpaper by BobbyRubio on Deviantart.

A drawn picture of Batman and Robin running across a rooftop

by `Midnight Run` by BobbyRubio

The next is Batman and Nightwing, but as Nightwing started out as Robin[^dontstart], I figured it was an homage to the idea and therefore valid.

Cover for Batman: Hush with Batman and Nightwing running towards the reader

Batman Hush

Which leads nicely into this one, which is the New Batman and Robin, who are Dick Grayson (the original Robin nee Nightwing) and Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s son[^seriously]. So the image comes full circle to the next generation.

Cover for Batman and Robin 19 with Robin and Batman running towards the reader

Batman The Next Generation

And for gamers, Batman and Robin in the best Batman video game adaptation of all time.

A LEGO version of Batman and Robin running towards the camera on the cover art of the LEGO Batman game

Arkham Who?

Finally, I leave you with Batman and Robin from the end of Batman Forever movie from 1995.

An animated gif of Batman and Robin running out of smoke from the final scene of Batman Forever

This movie is now only remembered as not being as bad as the next one.

[^withcheese]:With added cheese [^shops]:And by having seen quite a few ‘shops in my time [^dontstart]:Don’t even get me started [^seriously]:I said, don’t get me started…

Mandatory Detention of Asylum Seeker Children

I’m livid lately at the state of this country’s politics, and the reason is this government’s absolutely disgraceful reaction to the Human Rights Commission report into the children in detention.

Tony Abbott is a fool and an incompetent, but the vast majority of the front bench are much much worse. Not because they are idiots, but because they have proven themselves to be heartless pieces of filth.

If you haven’t already, take the time to read just the findings of the report. It’s a small list, but it cuts to the heart of the problems with keeping kids in detention.

“The overarching finding of the Inquiry is that the prolonged, mandatory detention of asylum seeker children causes them significant mental and physical illness and developmental delays, in breach of Australia’s international obligations.

The following is a snapshot of the findings:

  • Children in immigration detention have significantly higher rates of mental health disorders than children in the Australian community.
  • Both the former and current Ministers for Immigration agreed that holding children for prolonged periods in remote detention centres, does not deter people smugglers or asylum seekers. There appears to be no rational explanation for the prolonged detention of children.
  • The right of all children to education was denied for over a year to those held on Christmas Island.
  • The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, as the guardian of unaccompanied children, has failed in his responsibility to act in their best interests.
  • The Commonwealth’s decision to use force to transfer children on Christmas Island to a different centre breached their human rights.
  • The numerous reported incidents of assaults, sexual assaults and self-harm involving children indicate the danger of the detention environment.
  • At least 12 children born in immigration detention are stateless, and may be denied their right to nationality and protection.
  • Dozens of children with physical and mental disabilities are detained for prolonged periods.
  • Some children of parents assessed as security risks have been detained for over two years without hope of release.
  • Children detained indefinitely on Nauru are suffering from extreme levels of physical, emotional, psychological and developmental distress.

The findings damn both this government AND the previous one, and make some serious recommendations for improving the situation. That this government has chosen to attack rather than listen has removed the last rational hope that we aren’t being led by heartless disgusting monsters. Abbott shooting his mouth off is the least of the problems.

Scott Morrison has failed these children, and we’re told he should be thanked! They accuse a respected Human Rights lawyer of partisan bias intending to occlude any introspection, while admitting that they haven’t bothered to read it! They offer her a new job just weeks before the release of the report, and they smirk about it while testifying that she wanted it. I’m angry that all I can do is write on Facebook. I’m angry that people who voted for Abbott think that he’s the main problem. Or Peta Credlin, Or partisan politics.

The problem is that discourse in this country is games and intrigue instead of vision and accountability. No one is doing it right, and Australia’s soul is turning black while kids suffer and their parents face bleak hopeless futures. And none of my friends are to blame. None of you wanted this either. What do you do about it that I should be doing? Where do we go from here instead of impotently raging online? I needed to get this off my chest, and I do so knowing that I’m not helping, and I’m not improving the level of discourse by blaming Liberal voters. I’m sorry if I’ve offended.

I want to know that other people are thinking about this too, and I want people to know the facts, not the nonsense that our politicians want people to believe.

That Damn Basset Hound Again

I just got my first actual real life death threat in a comment on my oh-so-stupid-I-wish-I-hadn’t-written-it Fred Basset post.

It was a dumb post I wrote back when I was desperate for stuff to write about, and I regret writing it so poorly. While I stand by the basic sentiment - so I won’t delete it - it reads like it was written by a Youtube commenter and makes me cringe knowing that it’s cluttering up my site.

The worst part about it is the post accounts for about 3% of my search traffic and 3% of the comments I get. That doesn’t sound like much, but most of the other stuff I write doesn’t get nearly the same amount of interaction. And I still get comments on it now, about a 50/50 split of agreement and disagreement - it was highly controversial obviously.

And today I got another comment ending with the following death threat:

DO NOT mess with bassets again, or i will have to kill you. ruby

Of course, this chills me to my core, but I believe so strongly how bad Fred Basset is, that I will not be frightened into submission.

Sorry Ruby, I won’t be publishing your comments, nor that of the other person who left a comment. I just don’t care enough. I have other things I’ve written that are more important to me. Things about my life and family, or my ongoing sci-fi serial about Rex Havoc that’s at least as funny as Fred Basset.

What I’m trying to say is, I want to put Fred Basset to bed please. If you love him, that’s great. Have a great time! Why my opinion matters to you I cannot fathom. Just enjoy yourself.

And don’t threaten me.

Spam of the Month - October 2011

Some times its a discomfort within the ass to read what weblog owners wrote but this internet web site is rattling user friendly ! .

giant twist comfort cs

It reminds me of this translation

mac osx/win7

I became an “Apple fanboy” while doing a film making course. The course used Macs for editing, and at the time (about 8 years ago now) they were really the most reliable editing platform. Unless you had a high end PC, your home computer would not run video smoothly enough to edit without choppyness and dropped frames. Every Mac had firewire too, making the capture smoother on that platform. When I got my own editing rig, it was a Mac.

I kinda lost sight of how I came to be an Apple user, and started believing it was the better OS, or the innovation that set them apart from their competition. I still believe OSX is miles ahead of anything Microsoft is currently selling, but recently come to realise what it was that REALLY made me proud to be a Mac user. For the last ten years they’ve kept moving.

I’m not having a go at Microsoft here, although to some degree they deserve it. I could never understand why some people perpetually bashed Apple, and stuck by Microsoft despite no new desktop products (worth mentioning) for at least 7 years. They had as many rabid fans as Apple, but for no good reason I could tell. More importantly, I couldn’t put my finger on why it irked me. Certainly I had come to realise that you could do the same work on both machines, and with a lot of new “internet based software” could almost run completely on Firefox (or Opera) on any platform and not notice the difference. Why did it bug me that people were so fanatically devoted to Microsoft when they had such boring desktop products.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced and proudly showed off their successor to Vista: Windows 7. Despite the lacklustre name, the product looks solid, and even has some new features that most people would not have seen in a Desktop Operating System before. I might even go so far as to say that I’m truly excited for it. Far more so than I was for the release of Vista.

It was at that point that I struck upon why it baffled me that people were so dedicated to XP. Why it bamboozled me that people felt the need to make excuses for Vista. I can’t understand why people are so stuck on old technology. Why they can’t see the inherent awesomeness of new technology. These people aren’t real technologists.

There. I said it.

With technology changing so fast, you can’t afford to be wedded to old technology if you want to keep up. I’m sure I’ll be accused of chasing shiny things, but I think it’s more than that. I’m not one to switch to the latest and greatest just because it’s new, unless it actually is the greatest. The balance here becomes evaluating the new technology and making a rational decision based on actual experience. A person who claims to love technology, but can’t see beyond the interface to see the inherent value in a new technology shouldn’t be saying anything.

Of course I’m not saying that you should give every new technology a free pass. This isn’t about loving something new becuase it’s new, but rather evaluating it based on it’s potential.

Guessing Game

Playing a guessing game with Amelynne:

Me:

It’s big and grey.

Am:

A kangaroo?

Me:

No, but good guess. It’s got big ears.

Am:

A kangaroo?

Me:

Nope. It’s got big feet.

Am:

It’s got to be a kangaroo.

Me:

Well, no. It’s got a big nose.

Am:

A hairdresser?

When Play School becomes Too Much Play School

You know your daughter watches too much recorded Play School when, instead of singing ABCD-FOG1, she sings ABC-for-kids-on-2. And I can hear it in my head as she does it.

The ABC might not have advertising, but its sure got some catchy jingles.


  1. she doesn’t know what the alphabet is yet, cut her some slack 

You know you're a nerd when

{{< youtube kUZLVrBmuE4 >}}

You hum and whistle what you think is a classical tune for months. Only to finally place it, and realise it’s the Joker’s waltz from the 80’s Batman flick.1

A picture of a figurine of the Joker from the 1980s Batman movie played by Jack Nicholson

He's almost as creepy as the newest one by by Fox Magrathea Circe


  1. Actually, I knew it was from the movie but thought it must have been a classical piece first 

My First "Suggestion" Post

It's relevant. I Swear.

It's relevant. I Swear. by `Wanker Grabber` by chipandandy

I have that “Suggestions” button up there on the right because I’m hoping that people might make my never ending search for interesting stuff to write about easier. Before today my only suggestion has been (literally) “….”, which I’m not sure what to do with. I thought it a stretch to drag a post out of an ellipsis and a period.

Then today I got GOLD.

“mate your a wanker”

Not a suggestion as such. It’s entirely possible that the chap1 misread the tab to read “Statements”, and just decided to put his 2 cents in.

I do have a comment area under each post so if it’s a particular thing I’ve said, you could leave a specific comment. Failing that, you could contact me directly and say hello. Perhaps after a chat you might come to realise that I’m not such a bad guy.

I can infer a couple of things about my eloquent visitor:

He spent 10 seconds on my site. Just long enough to write “mate your a wanker”, and pretty much nothing else as far as I can tell. I can’t see exactly how he found my site, which suggests he either bookmarked it to come back later to insult me specifically, or he came from a secure site such as Facebook or his email. What he’s doing seeing my site in his email I have no idea.

He’s from Manly, NSW but I’ve never been so don’t know what that says about him. I’ll steer clear of geographical stereotypes in this post :P. He gets a small pass from me for using Google Chrome (the browser of the gods), but he’s using Vista so he is a little backward. And if he ever comes back I’d like to know if his Vodafone plan is any good…

So that’s the post you get for your “suggestion”. I hope it satisfies. Anyone else who has an ACTUAL suggestion is very welcome to write something up there, and I’ll treat you with a lot more respect than I’ve treated this one.

Isn’t spam fun?


  1. I presume its a fella 

Am I a Sellout?

When I started the Geekorium (back then, just “nunnone”), I decided to do it without ads. It was a protest against the appalling punch-the-monkey type ads that were most common at the time, and something I felt proud of. My website was not made to “generate revenue”, it was a place to be me and as such I was happy to pay for it out of my own pocket. It’s sort of my only expensive hobby that Mil looks away for.

Then a year ago I briefly dabbled with putting ads on my site, then in my feeds. I never generated any money from them, and they cluttered up my site so I killed them, and I’m still happily ad free here.

Silex 1936 Ad

Silex 1936 Ad by Mark (coffeegeek)

But I kinda feel the pressure to have ads on my First Waves site, so I’ve done it. I feel kind of dirty, but as someone who wants to make money off of this thing called the internet, I feel it’s my duty to understand how the advertising world works. If only so one day if someone asks me to help them set it up I can do so without looking like a goob.

But I still can’t help feeling a bit dirty about it. Ads have improved a lot since the days of AOL and Yahoo “start pages” where the ads almost drowned out the useful information, but now when I visit a site that I enjoy, I still have to wade through layers and layers of ads that push the content to the side and intrude on the reading. I never want that to be the case on my sites. Advertising should always be secondary in my opinion, but is that an unrealistic ideal? My biggest concern is that the ads I have are distracting and ruin the look of the site. I realise that’s kind of the point - to draw attention to them, but I can’t help but feel like the ads have killed what little aesthetic appeal I was able to impart to the site.

I know most of my friends with websites have ads, so maybe I can guess what they’ll say. I also don’t want to accuse them of being sell-outs - it’s purely my own misgivings about advertising that make me feel a bit like I’m selling out my “principles” such as they are.

But I am curious to know what you all think? I happily pay enough of my own money to keep my Geekorium running ad free, and First Waves currently adds no extra expense, so it’s not vital to have ads. I also don’t really make anything off the ads I have at the moment, so it’s not like I’ll miss them if they go. It’s just the “cha-ching” I hear when I think about it that’s got me a bit worried I’ve gone to the dark side. I also love the idea that one day1 I might have a few people writing articles for FW, and would love to be able to pay them to do so.

So should I keep FW ad free and uphold my vision for ad free content that people like to read? Or should I forget my concerns and happily take the cash? Should I put even MORE ads on? Ads on my Geekorium? Monetise my Twitter Feed? Actionise my synergy? What do you reckon?


  1. in the far far far far far distant future. Far. 

My Final Message to the World: Remember Me Fondly, on Wikipedia Preferably.

I always thought the advice to “live life like there’s no tomorrow” to be a bit odd. I guess people say it to convince others to take risks and try for things they might be scared to do, but I don’t get that from it.

Taking life on.

Taking life on.

If I was living like today was my last day, this is what I’d do:

  1. Tell work I wasn’t coming in today. Or ever. Maybe tell someone my passwords so they can get to all the old InDesign documents and Word templates I’ve made so they don’t have to start from scratch.

  2. Make sure my life insurance policy is sorted for Mil and Amm. Write down my email password so Mil can get into all my accounts.

  3. Blog my final thoughts, for the interests of imparting my final wisdom to the world1.

  4. Play with Amelynne. Do everything she loves. Give her lots of tickles and cuddles, which I love.

  5. Play with Mil. Ahem.

  6. Invite everyone I know over for a party. Play the “I’m gonna die tomorrow” card to make sure they come. Cross those that don’t off my Christmas list.

  7. Die. Or perish, or cease to be or whatever it is that makes it possible that I know I’m gonna die, and not be taken completely by surprise the way it should be.

None of those things, except maybe the ones with my girls are things that anyone should be doing every day. Giving out my work password would be asking for trouble, as would telling all my friends I was dying just to get them to come to a party2. Maybe some of them would be good housekeeping, but I don’t think that anyone with a mortgage who’s leaving behind a family should live life like there’s no tomorrow.

Perhaps the only thing I’d regret might be that I haven’t got my name on anything “big”. You know, the kind of major contribution to society that gets you a wikipedia article.

Maybe that’s a better adage for today’s age… “Live life like you haven’t got a wikipedia article about you yet”. That sounds much more inspirational.


  1. Unless it’s like a whole world ending thing, in which case I mightn’t bother as no one will read it. Unless of course there’s a chance of survivors, in which case it might be important to document how stoic and focussed I was in the end 

  2. as opposed to getting them to read my website… 

Hoping for Feedback, So Far Getting Static

Wooly hat

Wooly hat

This photo is not relevant to the rest of this post. Cute though huh?

One of the biggest problems I face when I contribute anywhere on the internet is feedback. Often there just isn’t any.

Whether it’s Twitter, this website, First Waves, Reader, Buzz, Fizz, Flickr, Facebook, Shittr, whatever, I just don’t get much feedback at all.

It’s partly because I’m a self obsessed narcissist1 that this bothers me so, but mostly because I just want to know what I can do better. What I’d like to know is if people find the things I share or write about are interesting, well written, useful, or pertinent so I can adjust my focus accordingly.

I started out blogging saying I was writing for myself, and I didn’t care if people found it interesting, but really I do. I want to be helpful. I want to share parts of the web that people might not otherwise find, and expose the things I’ve learned in my job or in my leisure. Now as sites like Twitter and Facebook become more mainstream, I find myself trying to be helpful and useful there as well and find myself in a (stupid) dilemma about where to put all this stuff I want to share. For a while I was using Twitter, but I didn’t feel like I was really saying anything of worth there. The most followed and re-tweeted2 users were the ones who were constantly finding and posting new stuff. When I got around to doing it, it was usually old-hat or (I assume) fairly uninteresting. I say “I assume” because I only occasionally got re-shared or responded to, so I took it to mean that what I said was uninteresting or dull and didn’t warrant much attention. So I quit. Hopefully it didn’t come off in a “I’m taking my ball and going home” sorta way3 , but rather in a “I’m not sure what I’m doing here” sorta way. I’ve had more success with Facebook, because I’ve tried to share stuff I know my friends might appreciate, and I get a few more “likes” and an occasional comment there than I got the equivalent on Twitter. But my Buzz and Friendfeed streams are the equivalent of me standing on the roof of my house with a megaphone. A friend might hear me when they come over, but I could just talk to them. And everyone else who can hear it might just be getting annoyed with me.

I’m trying not to be sulky about this. What I’m hoping from this post is not pity, but an answer. From the people who DO actually follow me (via my feed, or on Facebook, or who just come and visit when they think of me), what sorts of things do I do well, so I can keep doing more of that? The most lovely suggestion I’ve had so far is that I continue to do more posts about my family and bubby girl. And if those are the ones people like the most then maybe I will. But I named my site “the Geekorium” for a reason - I am a geeky fellow, with geeky tastes and by far the things outside my family that interest me the most are geeky things. I like sharing such things, but am fairly certain that the majority of people who read my site regularly are family and friends who have no interest in what the latest gadget can do slightly better than that last gadget I said was awesome. Writing about my family is hard though, not because they aren’t worth writing about, but because I don’t want to be one of those people who are always exposing their love one’s lives on line for their own gratification. If I could find a way to do it without it coming off that way, I might.

I also do large run-on sentences and start a lot of paragraphs with “I”, so I know I’m not the greatest of authors, so if it’s my actual writing style that bugs you, then maybe I should know that too4.

Should I keep my posts small? Talk about one topic only? Use words no bigger than two syla? Try and be funnier? Keep my sentences smaller? If you read my stuff and find it’s not quite what you’d like to read, tell me in my comments (or on Facebook, or via Buzz, or in the “suggestions” tab over there, or in an email) and maybe I can get better at it. They say you should write for your audience, and I’m not sure I’m doing such a bang up job at the moment, so please let me know.

I’d like to think that I’m getting better at this writing thing. I’d like to know what I can do better though. Stats and analytics software can only tell me so much - they can’t give me feedback about why one throw away post about Fred Basset gets more feedback than any of the other things I write about. So please help me out. Talk to me. Write to me. I’m listening.


  1. and isn’t everyone with a website a self obsessed narcissist? 

  2. that’s a twitter term for how people re-share information there for my non-twitter friends 

  3. I know one friend who took it that way 

  4. although be nice about it