p.s. still kinda blogging via tbit.tumblr.com and twitter.com/TBIT. July 14 08

Purging. I have talked about it before. It's sort of like running away. Something new. Abandon your old stuff, thoughts, habits and patterns and start anew. But I have never been anyone to totally toss stuff aside. Sure, I can empty out the closet and dispose of a handful of candle holders from my candle days, but I still have the iron monsters Marmy gave me. I can finally dispose of odds and ends, toys and memorabilia that holds no value but I still have a few Glad bags full of postcards, business cards, note paper and stickers from the past two decades. I can take down my personal sections, box up the blogs of the past, put away the CD covers but I still have a site up and a couple of sub-domains. I can purge but at some point I feel like I am getting rid of me.

We will ignore the sub-topic of me really wanting to do that as of late.

So, I have decided. I was going to get a new domain, and I still might, but I am resurrecting Hermit Dave. HermitDave existed sometime around 1998-1999, Ottawa and/or Edmonton. He existed as a sub-section of my friend's site Ndroid. "Ask HermitDave" went by the phrase, "No job, no friends, no life. Addicted to Coca-Cola. Who better to ask for advice?" It was how I felt being in self-exile and obsessed with finding meaningful work. I am sort of feeling that way again, in self-exile, very isolated from people I know and especially "myself" -- whatever that means. The main thing is that I have the "Dad would be proud" job. Guys at 40 shouldn't be worrying what their Dad would say about their state of employment but I have invested over a decade in that feeling so it's not going away anytime soon. That combined with Marmy working weekends while I finally have them off along with the accumulated stress of the wasted last 5 or 6 years (ummm, how about 20 ?) has me deep deep inside my head. Thisboyistoast was supposed to be a light touch, an escapist blog of link-loving and pop culture references. The dark recesses inside HermitDave's head are not for the blog.

So, I will not shut down TBIT but just add the layer of HermitDave onto the site. Or, once the dust is settled, move the fucker over to his own domain. I also intend on using the clean slate, empty page or empty DIV tag as a chance to re-learn web & design skills. First up? CSS. Kind of like I enjoyed watching Ed do, I will play with CSS and re-do the site time after time after time until a real design emerges. But all with learning in mind. Sure, I have said this before but since this has nothing to do with learning a skill for work, it shouldn't have self-imposed procrastination. I don't do ANYTHING at work that has to do with webpages so it shouldn't interfere.

Part of the realization for this was not only the re-opening of the HermitDave mindset but the more practical return to open blogging, not all categorized and minimized. I don't want to reformat the existing structure of TBIT or exile the current ones to Archives, like I did the blogger days, but I don't want to use the current style. Simple, limited categories are my current idea. There will still be QuickLinks of a sort but no categorization of them. The main categories should be Personal, Movies, Comics, Gaming and some more not set in stone. Time to have a voice again.

When? As always.... soon. May 11 08

OK, it's time to poo or get off the pot. Either I continue updating this neglected blog (and update the look i have been working on for years) or just shut the frakker down. April 21 08

Andrew Olmstead was an american soldier and a blogger. He died recently and he left a post mortem post on his old personal blog that was activated by a friend.

I like the idea of this, a sort of Last Testament of a blogger that can obviously be seen by more than those who hear about a Last Testament and Will. I sort of imagine writing an unpublished post and updating it on a regularly basis, a reflection on your life and your blogging, to be left to those who enjoyed your reading. I think this would be a good idea. (via davenetics) January 11 08

Why We Began Blogging states,

Tell us about the things that are beautiful, wonderful and make you love life. If more people would do that then there certainly wouldn’t be people complaining about the amount of blogs in the world."

• Portal; I played a pirate copy but liked it so much I asked for it for Xmas.
• The Portal song, Still Alive; this will be on a mixCD I do this coming year.
• Joe & Jess moved here. I cannot remember exactly when they arrived but it was nice to have them in the same city as us.
• Work; I have been here over a year now (just) and it's so nice to not have the stress I had for the last number of years. Now, if I could just have my brain appreciate that more...
• my MacBook Pro. Squeeeee. I don't know why I like the beastie so much but I do like the convenience of sofa surfing and the learning of a new OS. It's also great vanity wear, like designer label clothing for a geek.
• Torchwood; I really did enjoy the Dr. Who spin-off and cannot await another season.
• Reaper (TV) and Wonderfalls (TV on DVD); two shows that made me laugh and LOL and look at Marmy cuz I know we are sharing the humour together.
• Vicki's mascots for the Olympics; I just love the fact that someone I know did something mascoty that I would have giggled over their cuteness even if I didn't know the designer.
• Marmy's Tarte Tatin.
• long walks; I don't do enough of them but I really like them.

New design is still sitting in limbo, not as bad as the stalled-delete-the-software limbo of PhoToast, but a "my routine interferes with me completing things" kind of limbo. The new design will involve having more words on the page than I do now, a redesign of intent as well as .... visual. I like writing, even when I do it badly (ala most of the time) and I get inspired by wordsy places like Verbalized. Simple, to the point and fun to read. But not journal-like... to be honest, I like randomalia in my reading unless I know the person personally. Then I want to read each drop of their life.

Tangent. Wordsy tangent. Why the fuck is my life so often like a Rube Goldberg machine of mishaps and accidents? It's as simple & annoying as placing a awkward shaped bowl against the microwave when I am washing dishes, which leads to a number of things leaning against it and ends up with somehow snagging an entire handful of clean forks with one plastic cover and sending them all spinning onto the floor. I always yell at the objects like it is their fault, as we know it is, and wonder how it could happen. As if I tried to setup things that way there is no way I could accomplish it. I swear that someday I am going to elbow a bag of bread and somehow collapse the apartment building next door.

But maybe it's just the universe trying to tell me that my current state of mind (sour, self-obsessed, pent-up, frustrated, on-edge, unable to smile for real) is affecting more than just my immediate environment but causing real woe in the world, ala butterfly in tokyo kind of damage. Talk about self-obsessed.

P.S. I am not talking about current as in "this hour" but days, weeks, months and most likely the entire last decade. It's like my entire reserves have been drained, as in those reserves that people recharge when they take vacations. Mine are empty, the furnace of my contentment is off and I don't know how to re-light the pilot.

Oooops, I didn't mean to rant or whine but sometimes the words come out. October 16 07

A little while ago I blogged this link to Ed's comic strip about his old blog (not done by Ed but about Ed). This morning I was going through my referrers, seeking to compare it to Google Analytics (playing around with it), and I noticed a link from Milo to this post from a couple of years ago. It's kind of strange when you start repeating posts without even remembering you had done so. It must come in the "thousands of post" stage of blogging. August 30 07

When my father was here, we caught a bus. The carpenter in him just had to check out the big city's Home Depot to see if it could compete with his in NS. I don't drive and I only truly feel the weight of that missing piece of my adult puzzle when older relatives are in town. I should be able to drive them places instead of being beholden to the TTC, the mass transit and the taxi cab. As I sat, I watched him approach and immediately grab the dancer's pole that is your support system in a bus and grinned knowingly at him as he balanced himself. Bus drivers only care that you pay your fare not that you have safely made it to your seat.

As he sat, I noticed that the direction of my smile had caught the eye of a young lady riding with her mother. She then caught my eye and gave me a shy smile. It was one of those moments of public contact, like in "A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood" by Trish. No story passed between the girl and I as I had parents to focus on, but I had a feeling she had one pass through her head. I am definately one of those people creates stories for those strangers in my wake but I wonder how many stories I have been part of? August 21 07

I don't know why it irked me so much today but running into tons of people who have blogs with two posts for all of 2007, one from January stating, "So I finally set up a blog...." and another from March stating, "It's been a while since my last post...." and then nothing else. Please, what was the fucking point? The fact that I wasted my time clicking your witty blog title from probably one of your offline friend's blogrolls is all the worse by the fact that you are one of a couple of thousand of people filing up bits & bites on the internet with "i got a blog but I am not blogging" sites. Gee, I must be grumpy today. July 27 07

I am curious. Are you a lurker? Leave a comment. I am curious about the lurker vs regular vistor population here. July 16 07

I look at michael sippey > (un)filtered and like the clean, especially the clean of the icons representing the handful of categories. I have an ever emerging ton of categories, being created as the whim hits me. More like tags than categories. Is it time to update them, to go through the almost two thousand MT posts and re-categorize in anticipation of the latest redesign and reimagining of TBIT? Almost two thousand?!? July 13 07

Maria, so you never have to ask again, ALL comments are moderated not just ones from sexy blogs. It saves me from having to delete a ton of comment spam. May 29 07

I used to have a little bit of a following at my blog. But that was because blogs were new and my kind of babbling and links were relatively rare. Years later, when blogs are a pop culture catch phrase, I am not so much. It's not that things have changed so much, it's more that some people write better and more interestingly than me. I accept that and if I wanted to change, to gain readership, I guess I would. But then blogging would be work not fun. For example, I complain about the commute -- the jamming onto to trains, the squeeze through narrow flesh tunnels to exit at Bloor, the standing in front of the doorway of subway cars stopping me from getting 1 foot beyond the entrance without a shoulder nudge, the days it all smells like bad breath, the spicy food eaters, the women hitting me in the back of the head with the massive bosoms (bus rock, whack, bus rock, whack, bus rock, whack....), the people who read my book with me, the backpacks that smash me in the face as teenagers have a body swinging conversation, etc. I would complain and whine and try to sound a little funny. But if I thought about it for a bit, I might make a post like Meish's Things my new commute has taught me #1. It's a good read, a fun read and informative. May 29 07

Let's do something different and post a link to the same blog twice in a row. As long as I set it up, it's OK? But this post is all about writing without the setup. I have always considered good writing being the kind that jumps right into it and I think I have noticed what is lacking in my current crop of scribbles -- I never just jump into it, i always have to set it up. You should just be wrapped by the style and the story... of a story. P.S. The use of popups as footnotes and tangents makes both the writer, the web geek and the tangential talker in me just shine with smilies. May 04 07

OK, this was a good good question by Chirographum.

Given infinite time, resources and coding knowledge, what changes would you like to add to your blog? What type of features would help improve your blogging? If those changes were available on another blogging platform, would you switch? Would you change the content, or just its organization?

So Bruce Sterling decided to take the wind out of the SXSWers with a rant about blogs and mashups being dead in a decade. I can easily envision such happening but only when a significantly accessible and attractive technology comes along to replace blogs. As for mashups, yeah they are an "in the now" kind of thing. But for blogs, I want to say that now with the world being given the power of self-publishing, we will be doing it in one form or another forever. I want to but I cannot.

Once, the same statement could have been said for the static personal site. It was relatively easy to make a website for yourself based entirely around whatever theme you wanted. While most looked attrocious, they were still personal. Host Your Site webbies came along and things began to look a little generic. Then journal sites came along and things became a little linear. Then Blogs came along, they regained some personal touches, but were quickly supplanted by Host Your Blog webbies and things went back to looking generic. Soon, something else will come along and replace blogs. We will look back and notice how quaint it was to blather on daily about nothing. When a site updates daily with an article or observation, it will be once again a "daily column" not the business's blog. Oh journals and daily blathering wil still be around somewhere, but something else will overtake the majority of people who go to a tech conference whether it is SXSW or Banff (why do i always want to type bamph?) Blogs in the Snow or whatever. March 15 07

I was browsing through the ancient archives of blork blog circa 2001. Yes, anything over 2 years ago is ancient. It is formatted as a few lines of text and then a "click title for more" navigation scheme. But I didn't notice the navigation and assumed it was just a daily post of a thought or two. I like that. I like the idea of abandoning the link-posting and 2000+ words aspects of blogging and embracing the concise aspect of short posts. But can I abandon such? Not likely so it might mean a backwards sideblog with short no-links entries :D February 27 07

Hey, this is not quite the meme yet but it's a neat idea. The Year in Posts or, "the first sentence from the first post for each of the twelve previous months." Mine should be interesting (or not) as many will be just the link fodder. In each case, the first word links to the original post.

• hey, guess what... i am out of the city, in some version of suburbia called Woodbridge, celebrating New Year. And referring to the last line... it wasn't.
• OK, it has been years since I truly diddled with writing fantasy stories but these BioWare contests for Neverwinter Nights make me want to write something. I didn't but I did lose everything else I have written for 5 years due to a harddrive failure and bad backup methods, i.e. none.
• It was at the point where I decided to cut out my personal comments from a blog post, that these Link Fodder posts were all I had in me. I hope to get back to longer posts, but probably won't.
• OK, this was my first official post as a weblog, though I had owned a personal website for years before that. Nothing like self-referenetial blogging, not that I do that anymore...ahem
• I do so when an artist like James Jean allows me to peek at his sketchbook. At least it didn't start with OK.
• If only I had been able to buy this for the mother-in-law's (she was once a nun and still verrrrrry catholic) visit last week.
• Walking along Queen St West. I do that every week day now.
• So this morning we head to Halifax to see my sister, my nephews and if things go wrong, my brand new niece. My last day in Cape Breton during my trip home for a family reunion. I wish I could grow up and get over the trauma I inflict upon myself about going home.
• If you know me, you know I have been complaining about that crappy BlackBerry that Bell "convinced" me to upgrade to. I still love my Treo.
• Download music Listen to music. Gramatically bad link dump.
• In case you are wondering where I am in, all four of you, I am still here just sort of wrapped up in my own little blanket of stress, one of my own making. That was a bad couple of weeks and wow, I have been playing WoW for two months??
• Is it possible to have Stockholm Syndrome for/from the workplace you just quit? Yes, yes it is.

Last night and all of this morning I have been spam bombed. It is all from one guy and it is one 'not approved' comment to every single one of the just-shy-of-one-thousand posts I have made since moving to Movable Type. Their replacement for MT Blacklist just cannot handle a spammer who changes his IP for every post. So even though they are not approved, I still have to go through the Comments list and delete them, and they fill up my email box. What do i do? Well, I could go through the process of changing my comments.cgi into something obfuscational but I imagine spam software writers are more intelligent than that. The question is this. WHY? Why are they spamming me? I am not popular, not even popular enough (or young enough) to get a free cell phone. They will not generate any hits from my site and since they are sooooo smart as to by pass most security features installed in most blogging software, why don't they use the common sense those smarts should have installed? Why don't they place that energy elsewhere as no one really can be making money from spam, can they? I still believe the only people making money are the fuckers who market the idea that spam can make you money. Look at the basic idea of sending someone an email masquerading as something benign and then expecting someone to be coaxed into buying something from the company that just lied to them. Or leaving a complimentary comment in someone's blog and then asking them to buy your penis enlarger. Do they companies who's products are being shilled think this will build company & product interest? We really have to educate businesses more. And we should pay programmers & developers as much money to combat spam as the guys who write the spam agents must get paid to send us shit. August 20 06

Ed asks, "Where are those pictures now?" To be honest, I have no clue. I hunted my HD last night, as I thought I have all versions of TBIT sitting around there, but alas, all I had was the source HTML and the original files are gone. I probably uploaded them from work and left them there; I imagine there is a Meep Disk somewhere with their contents. Some afternoon I should hunt. Thanks for the memory. July 19 06

I really should try and become more popular in this blogging world again. That is, if I ever find the energy to do so. It's not that I want to be popular, I could attain that just by filling the cat bowls with milk every day. It's more about the schwag and the invites to cool events. It seems Joey DeVilla, our illustrious accordion playing local internet celebrity, was invited to a blogger-invite-only Q&A with David Cronenburg about the Andy Warhol / Supernova exhibit. I saw a poster of that on the TTC the other day and said to Marmy, "Now that is something I need to see." Joey hasn't actually blogged it yet but he mentioned it in the post where he discusses a Hollywood-style gossip-mongering falling-out between a popular video blog host and her partner/producer. Joey doesn't do it gossip-mongering style but you know that his post will be up there on the Google ranking and me, well I had never heard of the RocketBoom.

So, why am I out of the loop when I was there at the beginning of this blogging world, having beer with HChamp, trading emails with Jason Kottke and being yelled at by Dave Winer. Yes, I know that the fact that I haven't worked in the industry for over 5 years factors into it but it's also a bit of bitterness as to that fact, I guess. If I cannot play on the playground then I don't want to be part of the playgroup. But I do imagine that if I had persevered in my attention to said Blogging World, I could at least be back to working in the area. Blogging does make some of the best networking. I am still trying to remember if I actually want to do that.

That said, I don't think I am capable of becoming a popular blogger in this world of too-many-blogs. I am not focused enough, I don't read RSS feeds for the juiciest meme, I don't post (many) videos nor do I have an interest in trolling in controversy. And I complain far too much about my life. Oh well, obscurity and envy make great drinking buddies.

Yes, this was just a braindump.

Update: He's blogged about it now. July 09 06

So, Dave Winer wants to quit blogging. One of his comments is, "I don't want to blog forever." That is the exact reason I will probably always have a site even if I lose the desire to post. I do want a blog forever. I think it will be neat to look back at it 40 years from now when technology and social strata is soooo different, y'know when we all have jetpacks and vacation on the moon. July 05 06

I read this article (or arguement) of two well known business types (whom I have never heard of) debating Can Bloggers Make Money ? One thing that stands out is, "Yes, but only if they fill a niche and lots of people are interested in that niche." OK, nobody but me said that. Let's say I wanted to quit working as a retail whore (more whore, less retail everyday) and write a blog fulltime. What would be my niche? Right now it's churning out material from other blogs, i.e. leeching. My niche would have to be me, right? What else? So would I find all the various elements of my life and right blog entries about them? Interesting entries, that is.

Would I wander through my cookbooks and write blorkish style cooking adventures as I imagine 101 Cookbooks does? Would I write movie reviews like gKent does? Or how about details on the D&D and RPGing world ala EN World, from the perspective of someone who doesn't play anymore? How about news from the video gaming world, which I have never really been part of but can fake it because I am old enough to have played them for 25 years. A music blog, even though I haven't bought more than 5 CDs in 5 years? Just WHAT would I write about or are all my niches already filled? I am sure I could write soley on the niche of the aging geek, his problems with being near 40, indentity loss, belly expansion, career, personal endeavours, etc. Someone would want to read that, right? May 14 06

When one is considering updating the design as well as some of the implementation elements, that may involve editing the hundreds of already existing posts, should one write more posts? April 21 06

Wow, that is a lot of white space down there. You would think after a week's vacation I might have something to say. April 18 06

OK, I feel the need to redesign. But unlike blogging days past when there were many design oriented sites which you could browse for ideas, I have no clue where to go for inspiration. I will build a category just for the idea of inspiring sites and will credit everyone who suggests something. Please send anything you find nice, clean, attractive, well-done, snazzy, etc.

Also, as a sideline, thisboyistoast.biz will make a comeback not as the site of a webdesigner but as the site of another sort of webmonkey, more related to the skills i have now (albeit expired as they are), sort of fluffy, life-experience related. If you see any sites where people do more than place a portfolio and resume and a laundry list of three-letter technologies, please tell me as well.

Does this latter one make sense? March 26 06

Nope, I am not blogging today. March 16 06

So on the outside it's a link to a neat story about a cool zombie making wasp. But the bottom leads to a link for the book. And the three big guys, jKottke, Slashdot & BoingBoing all lead readers here. Yep, blogging is biz. February 09 06

Kottke's big article on leaving ALL comments open is quite interesting. I leave everything open because I am not popular and I still have to delete a handful of comment spam every day. On my PhotoBlog, they are not moderated very well so I have to go back every few days and delete porn spam that has made it through. Much of the actual comment spam doesn't seem to lead to a real site or anything that could make the spammer money so it makes me wonder if hacker types are just testing software. January 25 06

Reading an interview with a Montreal blogger, who is also a video game producer, got me thinking about jobs. And yes they are usually on my mind anywayz.

Part of my moaning about sucky jobs and work situations is that I never had any idea what I wanted to do growing up. Many things like film director, screen writer, novelist, graphic artist, TV producer, video game creator, etc. seemed like the jobs that only people in great big cities attained. Me in lil ol Sydney, Cape Breton could not conceive of becoming such. These days, I wish I had pushed or had been pushed.

They say you are never too late, that you can become anything you want as long as you try. Or at least I still hear that being spouted by people my age or older. I honestly do not think that is true. It's a left over 70s/80s riff that just doesn't apply. The generation of today that has to be retrained is going to be stuck with the lower end jobs. They won't be able to break into fields where 20sumthins dominate. Very few can take subbordinate who is 20 years younger and few want a manager they could have fathered. There is also the time involved in becoming established in any creative career. Take video games, in all the media that you read or watch (i am subscribed to G4/TechTV.. yes, I haven't cancelled yet) video game people seem to be totally attached to their jobs, living breathing and being their work. Do I have the time to do that? Could I afford to start at the bottom for sucky pay and do that? Do I have any obsessions that I could sink into that could become a job? I wonder... December 29 05

A coworker, who happens to be still in highschool, mentioned he picks up his latest assignments via the English teacher's blog, a blog only about the class. I find that weird, appropriate and somewhat anarchistic. December 14 05

Interesting that after all these years of blogging, I only find out now that the term Blogosphere refers not to a collective of people blogging, but the subset of people who blog about blogging, it's technologies, it's trends, etc.

I come to this understanding during my reading of the latest drama between Mena Trott (a person behind MT, the software used to do my blog) and Ben Metcalfe (someone I never heard of), a drama about being nice on blogs and in comments. I have been part of this debate in the past and I have changed sides. I used to be part of the "be nice" crowd but really, only being nice means your blog is relatively benign and most often boring... mine for example. Occasional blunders in communication make for good posts; thus this whole thread and my post. (pointed to by razorshine, by way of HorsePigCow) December 09 05

It's sort of amusing reading the story of fraud and abuse at PriceRitePhoto: Abusive Bait and Switch Camera Store, a post about trying to buy a great deal on a camera and ending up being abused by their sales/CS reps. The most interesting part is how he fought back by posting this story on his blog and the feedback generated enough of a negative highlight that hey apologized. I still think they are a scam company, one of those many companies that may actually sell you stuff but never the high ticket / low price items you want. They make money from the people who do not cancel, accept the abuse, accept the sell-ups and do not dispute problematic charges. I knew a guy who quit a pretty good job with a moving company to accept a position with a competitor. Then he found out that he competitor made it's money by overbooking and forcing customers to pay extra for "emergency situation moves". December 02 05

It is completely evil to be blogging before 7am. November 09 05

Weird. Through all my fascination with the Coca-Cola bottle and logo (when asked why I drink Coke instead of Pepsi, if I don't really taste a difference, I answered, "I like the Coke bottle better.") I have never thought of Coke as a cool (kewl) beverage. It seems they are trying to change that with the introduction of some funkified deziney bottles. There is the main site, which focuses on the designers themselves and then there is the bottle gallery. Will we see it in stores? I doubt it.

Now the interesting thing is how I blogged this. I saw the original mention at JuliaSet but did a Google search to find some more references, perhaps a news story or another more media-ish blog post. Thus the above link to CoolHunting. Why did I do that? Is blogging so meta now that original source links and original opinion is not valid without references to where you heard about the source and examples of better writing on it? I knew someone out there would find out why Coca-Cola was doing this so I searched.

But really, considering how unlikely it will be that the three convenience stores in my neighbourhood will carry it, it's unlikely I will ever see the bottles. Maybe I should start going to the club district. Dodging bullets, knives and more than a few skanks should be worth a neato bottle or two. November 08 05

So it's been about a week away from the keyboard. We had a guest in the guest slash computer room and while I did have access to the media slash J's computer, I do my blogging from here.

A few things on the go. Turned 38 the week past and I feel old. Maybe it's the trucker belly that is uncomfortable to sleep on, maybe it's the almost-40 and in neutral (workwise) and maybe it is because I actually am. I collected my usual fair of popculture from friends and J -- finally I can watch Jeremiah Johnson in it's entirety instead of just a few minutes here and there when it runs on A&E on sundays. And it's appropriate that I am watching Band of Brothers considering the time of the year.

Speaking of gifts, on the day in question J and I did our dinner at our favourite mexican resto here at Yonge & Eg (Mariachi just south of Eg) and on the walk there I was wondering if something was up. We had sent out emails to the usual crowd and everyone, including the guest, replied that they had other plans. Every plan sounded plausible but the coincidence was amazing. So of course they were all at the resto when we arrived. Cards were passed, beer was imbibed and I ate far too much. I paid for it the rest of the night. Oh, and cake was eaten -- Dufflet cake, gawdamn heavenly cake! Thanks for coming folks!! And after all these years J still knows how to make me grin in appreciation.

The week with the guest (p.s. since when am I so anonymous? it was the geeky ent by the way) was a way-stressful week at work. I know, I know people who know me never hear me stop but things were grandly stressful. The largest seasonal sale of The Store's year was happening -- we were down at least half a dozen bodies with inexperienced occasionals taking up the slack, managers calling in sick and customer tensions at an all time high. There is a point in stress where you no longer get annoyed or angry or upset but feel tired all the time. That was me, burnt and exhausted but not due to overt hours. Sure I worked a day-off and some extra hours here and there but really it was the environment and seeing all the people who were on day 11 of a no-break stretch. It's over now so the lack of bodies is balanced by a normal 100% customer ratio.

Pop culture is still being absorbed at a high speed downloaded rate. Watched the new D&D movie the other night in all it's badly acted, horribly scripted, tons of in-jokes glory. Still, it was strangely better than the hollywood first movie. On the weekend the rest of the gang giggled at MST3K while I fell asleep. On Monday, gKent and I went to see MirrorMask and I fell asleep a couple of times. Too much imagery turned a switch in my brain. Will have to see it again with J and any other Gaiman slash McKean fans who want to come. My current loo-read is an atomic age Green Latern paperback digest that gKent gave me -- lots of weak stories, silly villains and less than a stellar understanding of science; I love old comics. And I haven't rolled a ball all week. November 03 05

How did I end up as the top Googly for boris the mover ?? October 26 05

I used to wonder why Jen was doing those moodboard thingies on her website. I could kind of see why but not entirely. So today I just blundered into her original reference which was at The Unskilled Designer. I then realized that the corkboards I have had over my desk for the last 10 years or so represent the mood board in my life. Or at least they used to.

I used to put the boards up in the new apartment, every one since Edmonton, and cover them with postcards, flyers, ads, photos, notes, lists and other such paper paraphernalia. They would represent my creative state and would change regularly based on my moods and state of creative activity. The current one is a muddle of jammed on crap without any positive mood or creative venture. Yes, my current state of mind created it but I also believe that it contributes. Sort of like my boss in Mtl always considered a clean desk at the end of the day was a great way to start the next day. Time to clean up the corkboards. October 25 05

LMAO.

I can remember when someone pointed out that what I was doing with my personal website was this new catch phrase called blogging. I saw that it did describe me somewhat and joined the cult. Then people started telling us about 2000 word minimums and weblogs having to have a focus or topic and I became confused and disenchanted. What was wrong if I only posted a link and what I thought of it? Then recently people started doing that again, probably because they didn't have much to say having already too much to read on other people's blogs. They called this remaindered links and often had it on a sidebar or in a different style(sheet).

But now there seems to be a movement to describe what we all did about 6 or seven years ago and are calling it Tumblelogs. So once again, if I do mostly my lazy short piece Link Fodder, then I am now tumbling. I don't ever think I will get this concept right. And if I can't be right, can I at least be popular? October 19 05

Tom Coates makes a heartfelt post about his absent dad and a fake blogger from an ad campaign leaves a comment. It ruffles Tom's feathers. He gets an apology.

I must say that I am royally pissed about these kind of tactics. As Tom says, I cannot really see the value in leaving a few comments and getting a handfull of clickthrough but I imagine it has something to do with telling people you get paid to blog. It just bugs me because alot of people enjoy getting comments about their little space in the world and while we are used to spam in email boxes, in front of movies and on television, when someone tries and hide it behind a thin veil of authenticity then they are obviously not on the up-and-up to begin with. So why would you be interested in their product after they did that? With that being true then consumers are not the true desired element of the campaign but the ability to sell the idea to a client is. Most clients are stupid when it comes to the internet and having any data to show them might sell. Thus, we shouldn't attack spammers to end spam but educate people that spam does not generate interest or cash -- it's all a falsehood. October 04 05

Gahhh, this sickens me. There is now Blogging as Spam (the only results searching for me other than Livejournal hits) when there was already newsgroup spam, comment spam and the good ol favourite, email spam. Next thing you know, they will figure out dream spam. September 14 05

Have you ever sat at a blog and wondered whether you should post a rebuttal comment, being annoyed about their whining "everyone is doing everything to offend me" post? When it's a personal blog I usually just take the better judgement and leave them to their moaning. But on a public blog like Metroblogging you should expect recrimination right? They complain about all the normalities of the TTC along with a few beyond considerate behaviour. Most people take the TTC because it is their mode of transporation. Expect a little behaviour that may not be YOUR choice of behaviour or just walk. Meanwhile, people please remember that there are others around you. Yes, listen to your music, have something to eat before you get to work, connect with friends while above ground but remember that backpack filled with textbooks is going to knock someone down or at least knock their glasses off, the seat next to you is not your cafeteria table and i don't need to hear you swearing at your wife because she didn't pack your lunch so you could eat it on the train. But then again, all I ask is a little considerate behaviour but I don't often get that, anytime or anywhere. August 11 05

OK, this confoodles me. It's a post from the BlogHer conference and it seems to be bemoaning the male dominance in A-List bloggers. First off, is there really a sustainable A-List of blogging these days? How is it determined? And I don't mean based on page rankings on someone's software. When I started blogging, you could quickly define the blogger A-List because just about everyone was reading them, using the links they posted and continuing their conversations in your own blog.

"Heather Champ talked about this this that that today and I thought..."

The other thing is, do people really care about the A-List bloggers anymore? Is it really desirable to be on a list of blogs often read? This contemporary world of blogging has diversified and divided blogging into a thousand audiences, no longer just Bloggers. People read for weird links, techie stuff, personal annecdotes, child raising, comedy, pop culture, toys, shopping, etc. If you write for one of those audiences and you write interesting stuff then you are likely to be on their A-List. I may be naive but I don't think male or female matters. If Cory Doctorow came out tomorrow and admitted that for the past year, Boing Boing was actually written by a female partner while he was busy writing and promoting his books, I don't think it would change things. Would it?

Hmmm, and for the first time since I re-launched this site I will give linky love. "So Martine said that that that and I said this this this." August 03 05

This is the way to make sure your company gets a bad light focused on them. Accordian Guy has a run in with a moving company that someone commented about on his blog. They didn't take kindly to the comment and attempted to bully Joey into deleting the comment. It didn't work.

I have always wondered about things like this. The internet, especially since the onset of forums, blogs and commenting systems, has often been used for, "i need to do this; whom do you suggest or suggest against?" Moving companies, auto repair shops, rennovators, etc. are businesses rife with bad reputations and shoddy dealings. We need to protect ourselves.

Luckily, if I ever need a moving company (in the past it has always been a friend with a license and a rented truck) I have one in mind here in Toronto. They are Avenue Moving (nice pic Scott :) and I deal with them at work and while on personal/work relations with them, I have never heard anything but good things from customers. July 29 05

Hi folks; I guess this is a wave hello and a thankyou for being so patient. Inserting some text to extend the first paragraph of this post beyond one line; Firefox has a weird 'first-line' bug in it.

The site is pretty much back; OK so only the weblog is back. Soon I will revive other elements of this and make it once again a personal site and not just a weblog.

I have finally done the move from Blogger (gawds rest ya lil blogger account) to Movable Type. I needed more power and more so needed categories. So far the new tool has been fun to play with and using a combination of IF statements and RegEx I have been able to do most of what I want to do with Categories and Archives.

I am happy with how most of it came out. Other things are still in the works. I am happy that for the first time ever, there is a minimal of graphics -- some backgrounds and a masthead. I am still tweaking the CSS of the remainder text. I am happy that I have two mains types of posts -- Link Fodder and the usual bloggy Full Post. I intend on adding Photo and CD Cover to the list. I desperately have to work on navigation, right now the links just get you around, and I intend on more maleable sidebars in the future. Basically, if I don't activate the site now I won't ever do so. I could tweak forever.

Comments are on but only for Full Posts. I have Blacklist installed and I will play with it's settings until the spammers go away. Or I will install other toys to slow them down. Or if things get too bad, I will shut the fuckers up entirely.

Be prepared for things to change around alot until I am happy. July 25 05

OK, this entry on Amber's photoblog has her celebrating her birthday with Kevin Rose of Systm and Screensavers fame. Why? Everyone thinks it is because they are seeing each other. They may be, cuz really.. who knows, but I imagine it was because he was in Toronto taping his episode(s) of Call For Help TV.

Meanwhile at Kevin Pereira's moblog, he gets a snap with his CO-HOST Sarah Lane and everyone thinks they are dating. Once again, they may be, but who really knows. Why is everyone (obviously including me) talking about this? Isn't the Tom Cruise schtuff enough shite for you? July 08 05

Of course we knew that Bloggers would react quickly to London blasts and it would have been hard to believe otherwise considering the comparisons to 9/11. The first thing we heard were, "Are you guys alright???" in any group blog, Flickr Group or whatever where Londoners might visit. I like that; no blast related curiosities, just cries or worry for fellow Internet Users.

On a personal note, our store District Manager called to wonder what the vibe was in Toronto considering we have a subway as well. She was wondering if it would affect sales. July 07 05