tag: Blog stuff



12
Apr 2010

Will write for food

Bit of a brazen post this, but I figured it’d be worth a shot. Some requests…

I’m currently planning to expand upon my Master’s research in the form of a PhD. There’s really not much work being carried out on the psychodynamics of sustainability… analysing our ecological psychosis… the schizophrenia of the group mind… call it what you will. Gregory Bateson’s pioneering work has largely been left to gather dust despite the incredible importance and relevance it holds for modern civilisation.

Certainly there have been some books written on the subject, often rather good ones too, but really not enough to do the subject justice. Also, they have a tendency to be somewhat inaccessible. Bateson’s own writing can be quite difficult to digest and while both Narby’s Intelligence in Nature and Kidner’s Nature and Psyche have much to offer the dedicated academic, they are unlikely to ever reach a large audience.

It’s my aim — and yes, it’s a lofty one, but why set the bar low? — to produce a PhD thesis that can be successful both academically and also from the standpoint of the educated but non-specialist reader. The subject deserves to be released from the confines of the ivory tower.

However, while I’m putting together my proposal and continuing my research now, it’ll be a year or so before I get officially underway. I’ve missed the various funding deadlines for this year and, well, there’s other stuff happening that preclude the kind of intensive, full-time dedication that starting a PhD might entail.

Therefore, I’m kind of twiddling my thumbs right now, which is why I’m writing this post. My readership is small but select and I’m hoping some of you might have a bit of advice to share. Obviously any input with regards to putting together a PhD proposal (in the broad field of philosophy) would be greatly appreciated. But in the meantime I’m also looking for one or two things…

Firstly, I’m a bit of a dab hand when it comes to building websites and web applications. It’s been my main source of income for a while but work has slowed down considerably of late so I’m looking to expand my client base. I have a web portfolio, with the rather grandiose title of Ring Forth Web Studio, which you might point people towards if you hear they need sites built (WordPress installations and ColdFusion programming in particular).

Secondly, I’d really love to know how to go about earning a crust (or even half a crust) out of freelance writing. Yes, I’m aware that’s the Holy Grail for every blogger but if, dear reader, you’ve worked out how to achieve it, I’d be eternally grateful for your advice. You can either leave a comment here, or contact me via email at ‘jim’ at ‘numero57’ dot ‘net’. There’s also a web form over at ringforth.com for getting in touch about web work.

I’m aware that this is something of a stab in the dark, but I figured it was worth a try. Thanks for reading. Normal service shall resume soon.

8 comments  |  Posted in: Announcements


11
Apr 2010

Comments policy

I just want to post a brief note about the comments policy on this blog. Earlier today I received a visitor, Dusty Johnson, who decided to post the following few words on an old post of mine: “you fucking fag you suck”. Now, I try to approve all comments that are not obvious spam, so I thought long and hard about whether or not to approve this one (well, I considered the issue for a minute or so… which is roughly as long as it merited). Ultimately I decided to trash the comment for two reasons.

Firstly, the internet is already full of banal insults published by morons with the emotional maturity of a 13 year old, and “you fucking fag you suck” doesn’t really add anything my blog… or to the world in general. In fact, I feel that the less morons posting “you fucking fag you suck” on the web, the better.

Secondly, if I approve the comment, then my spam filter will consider anything else posted by Dusty Johnson to be legitimate. And frankly I’m not sure Dusty is the kind of person to whom I want to provide a platform.

Therefore I suggest that anyone who decides to insult me in the comments do so in a clever or amusing manner. Dusty won’t get a second chance, though, as anything clever posted using that name or email address will clearly be plagiarism. Swearing is fine (I don’t have any vocabulary hang-ups) and insults, while not exactly encouraged, are perfectly acceptable. But I’ve got to maintain some standards here, and “you fucking fag you suck” really doesn’t meet them.

2 comments  |  Posted in: Announcements


7
Apr 2010

A reluctant twit

I can’t say as I’m a great fan of twitter. Part of that is my reflexive tendency to rebel against overhyped social media. Admittedly twitter isn’t the source of all evil in the world, like Facebook is, but the thought of millions of people around the world checking to see what Stephen Fry ate for breakfast this morning just makes me despair. The modern cult of celebrity irritates me profoundly and twitter has gotten itself all tied up in it.

Like text-messaging, certainly I can see the utility of the thing. Although (naturally) the number of pointless and inappropriate tweets appear to outnumber useful ones by a factor of several trillion. Twitter seems to encourage people to broadcast the minutiae of their lives to all and sundry… as though Facebook Status Updates had escaped from their rightful home and set up camp at another domain. I’ve also noticed an increasing trend of people attempting to have serious discussions via twitter. The ramifications of Sudanese partitioning simply can’t be debated in 140 characters or less. And doing so runs the risk of trivialising important issues.

Follow me on Twitter

That said, I’ve finally succumbed to the thing and become a reluctant twit. The lovely and wise Citizen S insists that it might help me widen the readership of this blog. I’m not at all sure that I really want to widen the readership of this blog, but if Citizen S says that “more people should be reading what you write about sustainability” then I shan’t argue. Whether or not twitter will help in that respect is yet to be discovered.

Anyhoo, if you fancy becoming one of my small band of disciples followers, then just click on that little button there and twitter will handle the rest.

God help us all.

UPDATE: Incidentally, what’s the etiquette with regards to “following”? If I start to follow someone’s twitter feed and discover it’s full of “my cat just did a big poo” type tweets, will my decision to stop following them be the equivalent of telling them to fuck off?

7 comments  |  Posted in: Announcements


8
Mar 2010

RSS update

As the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice, I’ve made a few tweaks to the layout of this blog. This was done at the same time I switched my web-hosting plan and as far as I can tell, it’s all gone pretty smoothly. Obviously if you notice anything broken, I’d be grateful if you could point it out.

The one thing I have noticed is that the URL for my RSS feed appears to have changed. I could probably spend a few hours working out why this has happened and undoing it, but instead I figured it’d be a good deal easier to ask the three of you who actually subscribe to my blog to just check your newsreader and update the feeds should it be required.

The correct URLS are:

  • Entries (http://numero57.net/feed/)
  • Comments (http://numero57.net/comments/feed/)

3 comments  |  Posted in: Announcements


25
Nov 2009

Google number ones

Merrick has tagged me with one of those blog memes that I occasionally foist upon others; so it’s only fair that I step up to the plate on this one. He writes…

Give me five great things that your blog or websites rank number one in Google searches, then tag five other blogs. Bonus points if you manage to have any sexual content in the phrase…

Looking at the incoming links on my stats page, I was surprised to notice that I’m only the second result for ‘masturbating with a bicycle’. I’m constantly surprised by how many people arrive here having typed that into google. I suspect they’re rather disappointed when they get here though.

As for proper Number Ones, I seem to have cornered the market on…

  • CO2 per barrel of crude oil (this post)
  • effectively outlawing dildos in Scotland (this post)
  • don’t fuck with techno viking (this post)
  • Dublin to London by coach and ferry (this post)
  • rich in potent psychoanalytic symbolism (this post)

As for tagging others, I’m in more of a “have at this if you wish” kind of mood. But if you fancy having a go, leave a pointer to your post in the comments.

Keep on grooving.

2 comments  |  Posted in: Blog meme


16
Nov 2009

Double Rainbow

I clicked over to The Virtual Stoa just now and noticed that Chris had posted a picture of a double rainbow. I figured this was as good a reason as any to post this photo taken from my window a couple of days ago. Sadly the second rainbow had already begun to fade a little by the time I grabbed this snap. You can still just about make it out though.

Double Rainbow

Double rainbow over Rathcoole

2 comments  |  Posted in: Media » Photos


18
Aug 2009

Summer's not for blogging

Hey y’all.

Yeah, I’ve been absent for a while and am just about to head off to sunny Montenegro for two weeks. So I’ll be absent a while longer. Expect a return to semi-regular blogging in September. Summer’s just not the time for it.

I’ve not been writing as much as I’d like, and the two major projects that I’m working on have kind of stalled. But I’ve had quite a lot of ideas for them once I get back up and running — and frankly I’ve been enjoying the downtime. There’s the occasional pang of guilt about not getting stuff done, but it is very occasional… an echo of my long dead work ethic (it nearly killed me, I responded in kind). Summer is for drifting. For enjoying the company of a lovely lady and reminding yourself that it’s OK to live life effortlessly for a while — if you’re lucky enough to be in a position to do so. Neither work nor leisure. Amen to that, brother.

That said, there’s been plenty happening lately that would have drawn remark had I been actively blogging. The fact that the entire economy over here could collapse at any moment has added a certain edge to Irish politics just now… to Irish life in general in fact. Politicians and business leaders are looking increasingly like they’re not getting enough sleep.

The nation is bankrupt though nobody wants to be the first to put it in those terms. The bank guarantees are now the only thing propping up the financial system… but the bank guarantees will bankrupt the country if actually called upon.

There’s a vague hope that if the government can engineer a ‘Yes’ vote in our second Lisbon referendum (far from a foregone conclusion) that the EU might — just might — step in and help bail us out. The EU firmly denies that’s even possible, let alone likely.

But in the corridors of power in Europe the Irish have a single last-gasp ace in the hole. The uneasy thought in the minds of Europe’s bankers that while Ireland has clearly been the architect of its own downfall, it is actually small enough to bail-out. And the cost of that bail-out might well be cheaper than the impact on the single currency and Central Bank of a member state collapsing. Because nobody’s really sure what it means for a member of the Euro to go bankrupt. That’s just got to be an event with all manner of unexpected consequences.

Whatever happens though, one thing is certain, for a very long time we will all be paying for the follies of the last decade. And for the bizarre decisions made by the banking and construction sectors.

Don’t get me wrong. The entire country was possessed by that rampant Celtic Tiger. Every sector was making bizarre decisions. 4 million people embarked upon a decade-long binge. A bonfire of over-consumption with everyone eager to fan the flames. Politicians, retailers, banks, the hospitality sector, the auto industry, the land-developers… just everyone!

But although everyone was possessed by the same madness, it’s the land developers and bankers who created the vast majority of the debt. Approving loans based upon valuations that bear all the hallmarks of having been arrived at after an afternoon of champagne and cocaine. Tens of billions of euros just disappeariing.

Sadly, my own solution isn’t really catching on…

Phase I: Round them all up. Yes, every banker, developer and politician… in fact anyone at all who was a “decision maker” during the past 10 years. They know who they are and frankly should have the decency to step forward.

Phase II: Stick ’em all in one of those ghostly half-full developments that sprung up around Dublin during the boom. Homes built for an imaginary profit not because anyone actually wanted them. Keep them comfortable, well-fed and let them have all the Sky Channels for free. But keep them there.

Phase III: Nationalise everything (starting with every asset currently owned by Shell Oil in this country. Honestly, the gall of that company, selling our gas back to us at a profit!)

Phase IV: Come round to my place and ask me what to do with it all, now it’s been nationalised. I imagine Phases I through III will take a few weeks. I’ll have worked out what to do next by then (hint: it’ll probably involve a combination of private property rights, socialised services and collectivised production… think Cuba via Stockholm with a heavy dash of Deep Ecology).

Anyhoo, enjoy what’s left of the summer.

I’m planning to.

1 comment  |  Posted in: Opinion


28
May 2009

Bloggage

This is one of those posts about blog trivia, so will be of limited interest to many. But I thought I’d do one in honour of my spam filter having just caught its 100,000th piece of spam. Actually, when I logged in just now, Akismet told me that I’d had…

100,014 spams caught, 1,476 legitimate comments, and an overall accuracy rate of 99.882%.

I have no idea how that compares with other blogs of a similar size (i.e. very low readership / traffic) but it seems like an awful lot to me. Sadly the actual one hundred thousandth piece of comment-spam was one of those “loads of question-marks” comments — indicating, I suspect, that it was submitted in a typeface my browser can’t process. This is given further credence by the fact that it links back to an Israeli website selling cheap “Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods”. So I’m guessing that my 100,000th piece of spam was in Hebrew.

Try explaining that to someone from the 19th century.

The 99,999th spam was also for cheap drugs. In English this time. So if anyone needs any amoxicillin, I can send you the link.

The 100,001st spam, on the other hand, was an example of my favourite kind. The classic nonsense poetry spam… “I so understand, in last paragraph just whole salt and is stated”.

This can be reformatted thus…

I so understand,
in last paragraph just whole
salt and is stated.

Ain’t that the truth.

Meanwhile my incoming traffic is still heavily google-based. I’d say at least 60% of my readership is of the “search, click, glance, back” variety. I’d like to think that I manage to snare one of those a month as a regular reader… but even that may be optimistic.

And there are three topics which, via a variety of different searches, account for the majority of those google hits. First up (and this pleases me) are people searching for “CO2 per barrel of crude oil” or some variation thereof. The next largest group are those who come looking for the techno-viking video. I’m not even in the first 10 results for that. Which means people are skipping over 10 perfectly good links to a video in order to watch it on this site. Ten or fifteen of them a day. Which is odd I think. And the third biggest draw is the “Dublin to London by bus” post. Like the CO2 emissions thang, that’s quite a useful post, I guess, so it’s nice to see it getting readers.

Some questions that — according to google — people thought they’d have answered here. And, in case they return, the answers…

Is psychoanalysis harmful?
In general I would say, “no”. But it rather depends on the analyst.

What is the authority principle of Freud?
I have no idea. I suspect you are referring to the ‘Reality Principle’ (though I’ve never heard it referred to as the ‘authority’ principle). The definition provided by Wikipedia is nice and concise, while there’s a longer extract from the Dictionary of Psychoanalysis over at answers.com.

Why is windows genuine advantage suddenly popping up?
Don’t ask me, I gave up trying to understand Windows a long time ago. “Weird stuff happens”. I suspect there’d be a measurable drop in global stress levels if Microsoft used that as the tag-line for Windows. Kind of like a big “Don’t Panic!” sign.

Who has the biggest balls?
In Britain it’s clearly Lord Goldsmith. As for elsewhere? I really couldn’t say, but if you turn off google’s safesearch filter I suspect you could have an unforgettable time trying to find out. Or for a slightly different take on the matter, you could check out Flight of the Conchords and their sugarlumps.

What are 3 countries besides the usa that are have placed bans on smoking?
There’s a whole bunch of them, each with slightly different levels of prohibition (though only in Bhutan is the actual sale of tobacco illegal).

I think my favourite search term of late, though is “marijuana found in the antarctic“. I’ve searched myself and can’t find what the person might have been referring to.

4 comments  |  Posted in: Announcements


22
May 2009

Some links and a video

Here’s a round-up of some of the blogging that’s caught my eye lately…

I’ve known Merrick for about 15 years now (a fact that makes me feel terribly old… were the St. Rock’s Day Parties really that long ago!?) He’s a good enough friend that I’ve been able to overlook his psychotic hatred of donkeys. A hatred I brought to public attention here, and which may well merit a blog-post of its own some day. His sustained attacks upon one of the few champions that these poor, downtrodden animals have in their cold world of suffering, are essentially the equivalent of eating donkey steaks every day, washed down with a nice warm mug of donkey blood. Vegan? Schmeegan!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending Chris de Burgh as an artist. He’s really not very good, but the first couple of albums have nice tunes on, which is more than you can say for Huey Lewis. Am I right?

Anyhoo, Merrick’s writing (except on the subject of donkeys) is wonderful. And his blog really is one of the best out there. I want more people to visit it as his posts deserve nice long chunky comments threads. While most British bloggers have been having a pop at the British National Party and their leaflet campaign, Merrick’s post on the subject is the one you need to read (British jobs for Polish workers). His post on the MPs expenses brouhaha — Levelling the expenses playing field — is also excellent (and I’m not just saying that because it quotes me a couple of times) and contains the best solution I’ve heard yet regarding the controversial Second Homes Allowance. Just make MPs eligible for housing benefit in London. It is, after all, enough. Isn’t it?

JG Ballard. 1930-2009

JG Ballard
Although it was a wee while ago, I’d like to take a moment to mark the passing of JG Ballard. He had a huge influence on my intellectual development. The Atrocity Exhibition hit me like a freight train in my first year at university. I went on an all-Ballard diet for a while and, having read pretty much everything he’d written up until that point, emerged somewhat freaked out… my dreams, ever-after, have often taken me to landscapes that could only be described as Ballardian. Or would “Ballardesque” be better? Have we established that yet? Anyway, another person who was profoundly touched by Ballard’s work is my friend Gyrus. His short piece, Ballard dies, is worth a clickthrough.

Other thoughts

Also worth your clicks are David Byrne’s musing posts on the internet, resource depletion and socialised medicine (Senigallia — You Get What You Pay For) as well as his latest post… on… well… buildings and food (The Best). OK, so it’s mostly just “food” but the line was too good to pass.

Oh, and in the spirit of my recent, Where’s Scully when you need her? post, check out Sellafield robots stealing nuclear waste. Is this the end for humanity? over at Nuclear Reaction. Run for the hills!

And here’s something for the weekend. Enjoy…

NONE more funky.

9 comments  |  Posted in: Media » Video, Opinion


21
May 2009

It's not your brain, it's just the flame

Fame is weird. It makes very little difference whether 10 people know you or 100 people know you. But when a million people know you, everything changes. And nobody can remain unaffected by it. Though some carry it better than others.

I’ve met a fair few people over the years who have attained, or had thrust upon them, varying degrees of fame. Mostly, due to circumstance, musicians. I was struck by how there is a palpable burden associated with it. I’m not talking about wealth or talent or anything like that… I’m talking specifically of fame. Of being known (or more accurately, having a specific, and more than likely distorted, version of yourself known) by a significant proportion of the strangers you meet. Needless to say, for most, there are compensations that ease the burden and they can achieve some level of balance as individuals.

But the downsides are there and sometimes can’t be ignored. The biggest downside is paranoia. Fame breeds paranoia like rabbits breed… well, smaller rabbits. And it can breed arrogance. Serious, megalomaniacal arrogance. Which is a really crap combination. As a result, some of the famous people I’ve met have been extremely difficult to like.

And no. No names. It’s one thing to comment upon the public work and utterances of a person — that’s as much up for grabs as any other part of culture — but blogging behind a real person’s back seems wrong to me. On the other hand, it’s probably fine to say positive things about the people you meet.

Take Eric Clapton for instance. On the two occasions I met him back in the 90s, he was just about the nicest person you could hope to spend time with. His music isn’t really my cup of tea, and the media has made him out to be a bit of a right-wing reactionary. So I was — unjustifiably — expecting him to be a bit of an arse. He wasn’t. And I — quite rightly — felt like a bit of an arse for my prejudice. He was like the coolest uncle you could possibly have. Someone who’d seen a bunch of stuff that you were unlikely to ever see, but could communicate it to you without ever seeming condescending or aloof.

Of all of the well known people I’ve met though, nobody carries fame half as well as Julian Cope. I’ve no doubt it’s caused him his fair share of problems, but he’s worked hard to put it to good use. Most don’t. He’s getting radical, idealistic and subversive messages out into the hands of — well, he’s not selling like Coldplay, but his voice carries further than most. And at the same time he’s remained one of the most likeable, decent people you’ll have the good fortune to bump into. Intelligent, funny and frighteningly well-informed.

A description that also applies to Dorian Cope, his wife and recent addition to the list of bloggers. Her blog, On This Deity, sets out to be

An alternative “On This Day”, On This Deity aims to bring light to and celebrate culture heroes, outsider icons, beloved immortals and symbolic events in history. I might not be able to commit to a daily entry, but will attempt several-times-weekly!

So far it’s been excellent. A wonderful blend of the personal and the analytical. Writing filled with insight and humanity (e.g. 18th May 1980 — the Death of Ian Curtis or 13th May: “Poetry is in the Streets” as One Million March in Paris, May 1968). I recommend it as a worthy addition to any discerning blogroll. See also Merrick’s shout.

1 comment  |  Posted in: Opinion