The Geekorium

To James,

I’ve not actually met you in “real life” yet, and much of what I know of you I have only learned through your blorgs, twoots and videos of you getting slapped… which seems to be more often than regular folk.

Regardless: Happy Birthday.

I’m glad you’re having a good year. I hope you don’t grow up as soon as you think you should. We should meet sometime soon.

Some updates:

Spurred on by the outpouring of comments and (!) blog posts after asking for feedback, I got stuck into a few posts here and on my other site. Thank you everyone who responded and wrote replies - it gave me some much needed confidence and meant the world to me. I was buoyed for days afterwards (and loved the commentfest that followed here and elsewhere).

I officially quit Twitter (with my joshnunn account at least). I was leaving it open ended so I could come back without looking like a fool, but now I’ll have to hang my head in shame if I DO return.

First Waves is going great-guns. tjb654 tweeted “Wave on Slow Cook” and was retweeted by Pamela Fox (one of the Wave API evangelists). So I got a bunch of new readers and some more Facebook Fans!

I began re-working my portfolio site. I couldn’t be bothered installing a test environment on my laptop, so I put it up and started editing it live. It took me a little longer than I expected to make it usable though, as the documentation for MODx¹ went down just as I started, so I couldn’t figure out how to build menus. Eventually I got something I’m happy with up just before…

Lifehacker (!!) linked to my site What the F is that about?! I suspect I’ve stepped into a mirror world where the Joshua Nunn of this world produces things that interest people and that they want to read. I kinda feel sorry for the poor schmuck who got sucked into my universe, but then I remember he probably goes around with a goatee, so it serves him right.

Tonight I published a massive post on First Waves. I suspect that because I’m massively proud of it, it won’t be read by anyone and I’ll realise that my mirror-self managed to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and switch us back… bastard. Or I could be pleasantly surprised that I get some people reading it. I’ve paid for a Clicky account, so now I’ll know when YOU are reading this… unless you’re using a feed reader… or I’m not on my computer when you do… What was i saying? This point has descended into a Rubenerd-esq sort of ramble. My apologies.

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.

I’ve never met Mo. You might think I’m afraid of him because he’s scary lookin’ or because he’s a “400ft tall doomsday megabot¹” but I’m not. I just haven’t had the opportunity yet. He isn’t scary online though - in fact he’s quite the opposite. His avatar shoots laser beams from his eyes, but I’m sure they’re laser beams of joy.

I’ve followed Mo soon after I joined Twitter. He’s one of the more active Adelaide Twitterers, despite the fact that he’s unapologetically² a Friendfeed fanboy. He’s just as active on both services though, and happily pops in and out of both to carry on cheerful conversations with his many followers. He’s helpful and talented, and an inspiration with his (rassafrassin) custom workouts. He tweeted the beginning of his plan to get fit, and has reported huge successes since, showing tremendous determination.

His ReactionDynamics site showcases his photography and 3D design work, as well as his impressive resume. It also contains a picture of Mo with his sweet Abraham Lincoln beard³.

If you wanna follow someone who’s well known to both Twitterers and Friendfeeders alike, who sometimes talks like a robot, has a wicked wit, and is and all-around overachiever, follow @mokargas. And on Friendfeed too, if that’s your thang.

Beau is one of my few core Twitterers who I haven’t actually ever met in person. But he’s the epitome of what the internet means for relationships for me. Though we’ve never met I’ve known him for about a year now, and I respect his knowledge of technology, I appreciate his perspective as a high school student, and I love his enthusiasm and sense of humour on Twitter.

He was one of the first people to follow me on Twitter (out of the blue), and then a few days later emailed me for access to a locked website I administer. I’m pretty certain it was completely coincidental¹ but if he hadn’t added me to Twitter I would have given him access, as it was only through Twitter I knew he was a high school student and not a teacher as I would have assumed - HA!

I’ve followed his websites in their various incarnations over the last year. Unfortunately I’ve only realised in writing this that his entire site has moved AGAIN, and I need to re-subscribe to his blog. It’s packed with tips and tech news and obviously updated a lot more often than I’ve been thinking for the last month or so!

If you want to follow someone who’s full of energy and enthusiasm, is a little quirky, has a passion for geekery, and I suspect may have a little of the drama queen in him² you can find him on Twitter @beaugiles.

Lord Folland of Albion (or David as he was known before he took the throne of Albion in a bloody muddy coup) has been a mate of mine for years. We used to attend the same church, and had enormous fun making videos together and editing them on his eMac(?) iMac.

We hadn’t caught up in years, until my early Twittering days he found and followed me. Now I appreciate his incredible intellect (he’s a trained SCIENCE teacher you know), his insight on IT, and his passion for education and literacy. He’s a complex and terrific man.

If you’d like someone in your twitter network who is always encouraging, a little bit goofy, and all sorts of smart, look no further than @lordfolland

Thank you Beau - your subscription brings me to 16 subscribers in Feedburner!

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Pitiful… Absolutely pitiful

And if that was you that actually clicked on one of my feed items, you’ve given me a feedburner “reach” of one! Hooray! I’m popular! I can use exclamation marks! See?!

On another more serious note, Hittail.com suggests that I should be writing about “bible comic strips” and “allinurl blog”…

Hittail - confused

I suspect that Hittail might be getting confused.

Today is the day. Most of you already know, but today I get to write about it.

I’m gonna be a daddy. My wife of five years is pregnant and we couldn’t be happier. Our little Peanut (as we’re calling him¹) is 12 weeks old already and due late July.

Here’s his latest piccy

Little Peanut

I don’t know what it’s gonna be like being a dad, or if I’ll be any good. But when I imagine holding my little child for the first time, I don’t care - I just want it to come right now. I’m so excited².

OK, time to step it up a notch.

This poke war has gone on long enough

Merry Christmas everyone.

During my last holidays, Mil and I went to Canberra to see some family we haven’t seen in ages. It was very relaxing.

Before we left, Anna and Andrew gave us strict instructions to take a photo in front of something big (Australia is renowned for our big things). So on the way back we stopped in Berri at the Big Orange. We took a couple of photos, but this was the coolest.

Photo taken at the Big Orange, Berri

This is where it is

So there you have it. Proof that we can’t not do exactly what our friends tell us to.

Al’s class of miniLegends got me this wonderful gift on Monday to say thank you for fixing and running the school’s computers (it was SSO week).

Little yellow dog is watching me

He’s a little yellow doggy with a web camera in his nose. The miniLegends have posted some pictures of him one close up, and one showing the unfortunate location of his USB cable (and me, looking terrible).

As their post says, bright yellow is my favourite colour and I was really wanting a web cam - so it really was a most excellent gift.

Thank you miniLegends, thank you Al - you made my day!

The Internet is so fun, I love it!

Was uploading some photos to my PicasaWeb album and noticed that someone had managed to find my photos and had left a comment!

It didn’t bother me much that the comment was in what seemed to be Spanish, or that for all I knew it could have been spam. But I did what any curious geek would do: I ran it through a translator.

ES UNA HERMOOOOSURA ..
DE PERRITO =)
PUPPY,
EL DEL ANUNCIO DE PAPEL PARA LIMPIARSE EL CULO

Comment from my photo album

becomes:

IT IS A HERMOOOOSURA. OF SMALL DOG =) PUPPY, THE ONE OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF PAPER TO CLEAN THE ASS

Of course, this is NOT a satisfactory translation. It’s almost offensive at first glance - like they could be saying he should be used to wipe someone’s butt. Or something.

But I persevered. I tried Babelfish with much the same result.

Hermoooosura didn’t translate, and I guessed it might be spelt strangely - like with to many o’s for instance. But Google wouldn’t translate ‘hermosura’ either. A quick search brought up this page and this discussion though, which says it means ‘incredible beauty’. So I believe ‘hermoooosura’ is better translated as ‘sooooo beautiful’ - like a young girl might say about a tiny white dog.

Realising that she was probably being nice, I kept trying to understand the translation. Further poking around in translations sites helped me realise that ‘anuncio’ while translated as ‘announcement’ can also be translated ‘advertisement’ or ‘ad’. I then quickly realised ‘paper to clean the ass’ (papel para limpiarse el culo) is actually TOILET PAPER! And it all falls into place. This is my rough translation:

It is soooo beautiful and small =)
It looks like the puppy off the toilet paper ad.

Translated comment from my photo album

What a lovely thing for a complete stranger to say! And how fantastic that someone I’ve never met - who doesn’t speak my language - can leave me a message, and I actually have a chance to understand her. To actually communicate across languages!

I have since learned that ‘perrito’ can be translated ‘doggie’ which is even cuter! and ‘limpiarse’ conjures images of flossing! How marvellous is language?!

NOTE: I will post this on my education blog as well.

I’m between Wedding and Reception for my best friends Anna and Andrew, the most excellentest people I know. They matched each other up there at the front of the Chapel, and I don’t just mean that one wore black and the other wore white. I mean that they look good together. They really are both terrific, and couldn’t be more perfect for each other. I wish them both the best. And I hope they make it through the rest of the day. Yahoo tells me its a top of 33˚C today and the abc LIES and tells me 24˚C, and frankly, I’m not inclined to believe anyone who says it’s less than 37… So yeah they would be hot. And I’m looking forward to the reception. Who doesn’t love a reception?

My wife and I have been waiting for these two to get married since about a week after they started dating, and most of the time we keep forgetting they aren’t. So I’m not sure how much will change… for us (I’m hoping things might be slightly different for them!)

So whoever you are reading this, charge a glass and join me in a cyber-toast to the coolest couple in the world, Anna and Andrew!