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'Blogs'

Started by TJ, September 02, 2004, 04:15:03 PM

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Divnee Gan

It's like a billion Bukowski's!

23 Daves

Before anyone gets too dismissive about blogs, there's always the odd bright ray of celebrity sunshine.  I direct you to this little wonder:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/j_shuttleworth

Sometimes you're very proud when a fictional character from Sheffield is on your friends list.

butnut

Wow! Is that really John's blog? That's an excellent find, and one to keep. Thanks!

23 Daves

Quote from: "butnut"Wow! Is that really John's blog? That's an excellent find, and one to keep. Thanks!

So far as I'm aware - it's linked by the 'official' website, for sure, and the material seems to be fresh (though I'm no Shuttleworth completist.)

User comments are diabled as well, which would suggest he doesn't want to break the fictional tone of the whole blog through the complications of external interference.  (ie people going "Hello John!  Your'e Great!!!1")

Unless anyone can say otherwise, I'd treat this as being a genuine piece of work.  And why not?  Richard Herring has one.

Borboski

Bumpeh.

How do people actually find out about these?  Mrs B wants me to set up a website etc. and so I went on blogger.com and quickly set something up just to get me started.

But if I search through google I can't find it.  Obviously it's not going to have a very high hit count - but how do these things grow?

Hmm.. what's the question?  If I set up a site, and no-ones looked at it yet, will the content still appear in google so you can search for it?

Macerate and Petrify

I read http://www.bigpicturesmalloffice.com/ :

QuoteWhy should you spend the time following the sometimes soap opera that is my job? Why should you care about what I have to say? First, because I actually have much to say. All the time, about everything. Nothing and noone is spared. My tortured soul reaches out and grabs at everything which becomes grist for my sordid mill.

Second, because I don't spend my waking hours planted in a cubicle. I am in a corner office. With floor to ceiling windows and an assistant who actually makes me coffee. I am a Senior Vice President. I sit on the Executive Committee, a host of Steering Committees and even committees with no capital letters. I do a lot of sitting. I have won awards, made speeches to large crowds, and been quoted in national papers, all of which prove that I have a great deal of credibility or that the people who give out awards, listen to speeches and write stories in newspapers don't. I admit to preferring the first option. So should you.

Quote from: "Borboski"If I set up a site, and no-ones looked at it yet, will the content still appear in google so you can search for it?

It tends not to.  You need to register with Google to get the site into their cache (this could take days or months depending on their load).

Baxter

I set up a blog just the ther day but it's for my friends and i to post to when we're traveling around europe to keep the people at home updated of our antics.

slim

?? I'm sure I replied to this. I hope I haven't posted it in another thread by mistake...

mr. nice guy

The only blog I can recommend is this one by a london ambulance driver. I spent nearly three hours reading through these tales of alcoholics, dead people, kicking doors in and ragging an ambulance round Newham

http://randomreality.blogware.com/

chand

Quote from: "Borboski"Bumpeh.

How do people actually find out about these?  Mrs B wants me to set up a website etc. and so I went on blogger.com and quickly set something up just to get me started.

But if I search through google I can't find it.  Obviously it's not going to have a very high hit count - but how do these things grow?

Hmm.. what's the question?  If I set up a site, and no-ones looked at it yet, will the content still appear in google so you can search for it?

I think things take a while to show up on Google anyway. Oddly, if I type in my Livejournal nickname Google doesn't find my journal, but it finds the user pages of about five or six of my livejournal friends because they have my nickname on their User Info page. So Google searches livejournal at least.

As for getting people to find out about your site, I have no idea. With livejournal and things like that, people come across your page either by hitting the 'go to a random journal' button, or by searching on people with similar interests, as defined on your interests page. Personally though, mine is mostly for people I already know and links to my main site for people who come to me that way (which is virtually nobody).

no_offenc

I submitted my website's address to Google and a day or so later it was up there one entry from the top...

so it *does* work.  Okay, my site's like one of two sites with that name, but the other one's a fashion designer's website, whereas mine's one of these "webzine" things in the form of a Movabletype blog (because it was easier to set up and looks decent).  I just wish the people who said they'd write stuff for it (nobody from here) would actually bother.

Borboski

Well mines for me and a few pals to write about politics and current affairs - and hopefully have arguments on there rather than throughout the day, when I shouldn't be responding to emails.

Hmm... which won't stop me posting here will it?

chand

Quote from: "no_offenc"so it *does* work.  Okay, my site's like one of two sites with that name...

I made the mistake of not considering Google when coming up with my band name. I went for the name 'Enough Rope' and if you Google that my site is on about the 40th page, after discussion pages, a million listings for and articles about The Clash's 'Give 'Em Enough Rope' album, swathes of stuff about Dorothy Parker and Laurence Block and an Australian band who have the opposite name to me. I'm even behind some shit about an early 'lost' episode of 'Columbo' which had that name.

The lesson being: in the 21st Century, find a name which has one page of Google results.

lazyhour

*BUMP*

I've just recently really got back into blogging, and am all excited and energised by it again.  There is a healthy level of scorn and suspicion about blogs on CaB, and I know some people here have stated their explicit dislike of blogs in the past.  I was just wondering if anyone's opinion on the subject has changed recently?

There seems to be a level of stereotyping going on about what blogs actually are.  Are they really just a way for teen goths to vent?  I discovered a blog today.  It's not really a "weblog", as it presents its own material.  In fact, in many cases the term (we)blog isn't really an appropriate description for what's being made under that name.

Anyway, it's called Swapatorium (don't be put off by the name), and it's about a Texas couple's crazy love of thrift stores and old art/junk.  I have just spent about 4 hours looking through the archives.  It's here:

http://swapatorium.blogspot.com/

I just really want to have a bit of a natter about blogs with you smashing people, really.  I have little-to-no time for personal thoughts-type blogs, but stuff that presents culture and art and thoughtful stuff just rocks my world.

Any thoughts that haven't already been totally covered by this ole' thread?

Frinky

Excellent link, thanks.

I'm currently being asked to document a short, still-image based film I'm making via a weblog. Not that I thought I'd see the day where I was getting a degree graded on how comprehensive my Weblog was, but still...

It's pretty basic at the moment since it's not due till the end of January. I'll just backdate all my entries and pretend to look somewhat studious. As far as I can tell, it's basically seeing how well we can digitally manipulate images to tell a story of some sort - we're supposed to take La Jetée as "inspiration". I'm trying to tie this film in to match with another film I'm doing, that'll become part of one larger installation that I'm hoping will be put on in January.

Even I don't know where the "film" is going, apart from 3 still photos that I've already taken, so if not for you, it'll be interesting for me to follow.

http://dancingavocado.blogspot.com/

The blog format is fantastic for research and notes, I have to say. I'd probably have more layout control if I used my own templates, but, meh, this looks good enough.

The Duck Man

I have a blog, but I'm not telling you bastards where it is.

Alberon

I also have a blog, only started it recently. I keep it mainly as a diary for myself. I've failed at every offline diary I've ever tried to keep including ones saved on my hard drive. Blogging is so easy to do I hope it means I'll keep at it longer this time. I write it for me so I can remember the small things in life I'd otherwise forget though I'm curious what other people make of it, though I don't think I've had many people visit it, let alone read it.

I keep it anonymous and vague about details though, mainly so I can say what I think without really worrying if my friends or family read it.

I learnt my lesson on that one years ago when I commented on a newsgroup that while my academic bosses at the university I work at were very good in their chosen field when it came to organisation and management they hadn't a clue. And the Head of Department read it. Luckily he had a sense of humour and merely joked about it.

One blog I do read on a regular basis is by a doctor resident in a New York hospital which is very well written I think and not doom and gloom filled.

http://theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com

She's been writing it for about five years now.

Make me smile

Quote from: "mr. nice guy"The only blog I can recommend is this one by a london ambulance driver. I spent nearly three hours reading through these tales of alcoholics, dead people, kicking doors in and ragging an ambulance round Newham

http://randomreality.blogware.com/


Nee Naw, the blog of an ambulance dispatcher is good as well.

Deadman97

Same as Duck Man, I've got a blog. You fuckers aren't getting anywhere near it though.

Lady Beaner

Right, time for 'Hunt the Blog!'

Darrell

My shit blog is a shit blog that is shit. And is a blog.

lazyhour

I love Darrell's shit blog.

So, have any initial blog-haters changed their position on such things?  Has anyone gone off blogs as an internet phenomenon?

ffogems

QuoteDarrell is in your extended network

I wondered why I was walking funny.

humanleech

Don' know if anybody's noticed, but there's a general agreement here. Blogs are good when they're based around a specific subject, not just the author's general life and opinions.

This one is about obscure and 'outsider' art from the past and the present. The blog has become quite well known, and people send lots of fascinating examples, which are displayed on the blog. I should add that I've got nothing to do with the site, just passing it on.

http://www.spamula.net/blog/

SweetRosalyn

I tend to think of blogs and ljs as different - blogs are more like columns in magazines, whereas ljs are diaries that you let your friends see.  

I actually find some ljs very interesting, just as I would love to go through and read my friend's diaries.  I like to see how other people see the world, and to know what they're feeling and going through, and generally just to keep track of what's happening in their lives.  It's partly voyeurism, and partly... well, it gives me a sense of perspective, remembering that everyone is at the centre of their personal world, and that their world can be completely different from mine, even though superficially we live in the same place and share some of the same hobbies and so on.  

Often people are a lot more honest on their ljs, as someone (Banana Woofwoof, I think?) already mentioned.  I find it fascinating what people will say when they have the safety of the internet to hide behind - people will write all sorts of things they'd never dream of saying in person.

You may have guessed from this, I keep an lj, and no I'm not putting the link up :) I have basically four levels of privacy, Public, Friends only, Custom Friends and Private.  I know my family search for me on the internet sometimes, out of curiosity, and there are some things I don't want them knowing.  I use Custom Friends if there's something I don't want a specific person/people on my friends list to know about, and Private if it's a post that's absolutely just for me, that I just needed to write down.  The vast majority of my posts are Friends only. I try to be as honest as I possibly can - I write most of my posts as if they were just for me, and then re-read them to see if there's anything I really can't let anyone see.

I find it great for getting thoughts out, and a lot of the time it's easier when you know people will read them, because it forces me to be really honest with myself, and look at it from a different perspective.  And I like to use it to keep a record of my life - I have an awful memory, and I'm terrified that in a few years time I won't be able to remember most of my life.  I want an accurate record, so I can go back and read it and remember what life was like at the time of writing.  I've already forgotten what feels to me like a stupid amount of my life - I get quite upset about it sometimes - it scares me, when people recount stories to me that I just don't have memories for any more, at all, I have no idea that they happened and they were within the last couple of years!  

Also, I'm a writer, writing comes naturally to me and I find it very enjoyable.  I like being able to just splurge onto the page, knowing some people find it interesting, and some people don't, and the ones that don't aren't obliged to read it.  Sometimes I feel a little guilty, like I'm being narcissistic and boring, but then I'll have a friend tell me that they felt humbled by something I wrote, or someone else will write a post on their lj about how they were affected by something I wrote.  That feels good.

Going back to blogs... I didn't notice this one linked yet, it's very good, by a guy who's doing a JET program in Japan:
http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html

I used to like this a lot, too:
http://www.cubicledweller.ca/
but it hasn't updated in a while, so I'm not sure what's happened there...

lazyhour

Quote from: "SweetRosalyn"
Going back to blogs... I didn't notice this one linked yet, it's very good, by a guy who's doing a JET program in Japan:
http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html

Brilliant, thanks for this linky.  I used to do the JET programme in Japan, so it'll be nice to read about someone else's experiences on it.

Interesting post too, SweetRosalyn.  

See, there isn't any real agreement about what makes blogs good or bad, humanleech.  You just have to look at the comments above about what kind of blogs people keep even here.  They are personal opinion-y diary-ish blogs, and I'm sure their authors don't think they're rubbish!

slim

I still like blogs but have less time to digest them these days.

23 Daves

Quote from: "SweetRosalyn"
You may have guessed from this, I keep an lj, and no I'm not putting the link up :)

Oh, go on... that's just not playing cricket.  Or at the very least feel free to nudge me on LJ itself.

To be honest, I'm a bit baffled by these "blogs without any focus are boring" posts.  At it's best, LJ is absolutely no different to Cookd and Bombd.  On any given day, someone on my friends list might write a post about art and design, another might write a post about some personal problem they have, another might do a political post, and another a post about music.  These can all then be responded to as comments, and discussions can then ensue.  I mean really, what's the actual difference?  Well, the main difference, of course, is that you can bleep the LJ users who irritate you out, or ban them from looking at your journal.  It's "Goodbye Bernard Manning's Y-Fronts" with the mere click of a button.

I like the banter on LJ just as much as I enjoy the posts themselves, as well.  If you think LiveJournal is crap, you're probably just not using it properly.  Get an account and give it a go.

Oh, and here's a nice one to get you started - confessions of a psychiatric nurse:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/uberjeep

slim

Oops, I meant to say that I'd already spotted Frinky's blog in his profile (What was I doing snooping round there, eh? Feel violated?) and enjoyed it.