Tag Cloud: State Of The Union
The State of The Union in tag clouds. Just to pick two, the first and last speech of mr Bush. And no, I am not surprised at all, i'ts all so obvious, a president in decline.
Other tag clouds of us presidential speeches can be found here.
Design Police
Should I be alarmed?
I mean Bring bad design to justice sounds a lot like a personal attack, not?
And of course they are right, a better visual attractive world, I am all in for that. Nothing wrong with to want push things further (while looking at my site, nodding with shame). So a big hurrah for the Design Police who tries to accomplish the destruction of poor quality and irritatting grapic design. And for us mortals and consumers, they have a neat Visual Enforcement Kit.
Be part of this sweet graphic crusade, sticker.
Freelance Switch
Ah, the amazing world of backlinking.
Last week I participated in the Freelancer Survey held by the excellent Freelance Switch site. This survey (which is still going on, just click this or the logo to have your try) aims to compile the collective knowledge for the benefit of freelancers everywhere, and gosh, as big as that sounds, they even give away some prices, like a desksitter screengazer dream the wii. Anyway, it took, just as promised, about 10 minutes. After that I put the logo in my sidebar, and then sort of forgot about it.
Until this morning. Sipping coffee, doing my regular blogs, getting my brains to work, I also went through my Google Analytics, and wow, the visitor count had skyrocketed from an average of 10 to a stunning 84! All of a sudden the Himalaya showed up in my usual Dutch mountain graphs. What happened? Did a busload of fans crash down on my site? Did I write something funny, remarkable, unique (all as in stupid)? Well duh, brilliance as ever a faraway dream, as it turned out Freelance Switch had linked back to my site on it's blog. I got a present, a reward for the effort so to speak, that's what happened.
So how does it feel you may wonder, visited so many times? Well, I had a good laugh. And, as important, I finally had a not so beside the point subject for this blog. That's something, not?
43 Things And More
The sun is slowly breaking through, another pleasant day is looming with a lazy shrug of recollection, 'almost summer, again...', and sure Sir Bob Geldof was right, monday mornings are the worst mornings, but then you also have to realize, this one hit wonder was sung by a bored teenager in his twenties, all babble without a sense of purpose, well before he started this celebrity crusade against poverty with his pal Bono.
So Bob is doing fine today I guess, having some great sir-hood lunch while gossiping over last non event G8 adventures, and I, despite the fine weather ahead, am again as clueless as on those I don't like mondays days, just kinda pleased with my latest visit to 43 Things where 4 of the wishes exactly mirrored mine. So yeah, tempted to squeak 'can you guess which ones?', but as things go, Bob and me know those wasted years are gone, and well sweet dreams, I don't believe in wishing trees.
Does China Love Me?
No, it doesn't. Thought so. But then I read in the disclaimer: 'this version 1.0 may report sites as being ‘blocked’, while there are only technical reasons for their unavailability'. Now I am really worried. Sure I can live with rejection cause my of my twisted personality babble, but of technical reasons? Ough, that hurts.
Procrastination
Ok, ok, the last 10 minutes I was all zen but sure wasting my time with this kind cute but pointless music-paint site, but no it's not true I spent all my time surfing the days away. Really, necessities aside, there are other ways I kill this uhm... reluctancy to have a good look around in this local world (and by that I mean, here not there, anywhere), cause well, ok it sucks big time but I absolutely, for example sake, adore the little sparrows, blackbirds and starlings (for some reason i dislike that fat pigeon) frenzy in my backyard. For the last weeks I am feeding them high fiber bread crumbs (only one day old, so not mouldy at all my dear pet friends) and today my favorite couple, the sparrow family that is living in the gutter just left of my bedroom, started hopping round my feet even before I finished my cigarette, chirping and jumping in the latest craze. They were lucky, the ciga didn't taste at all (do they ever?), my mood was one of cheerful acceptance (just awake and the weather needed only one layer of fabric, lush jeans an a T-shirt, to keep me in shape), and yes i had a slice of pumpkinseed bread ready. Aha.
And then later on I read this: 10 simple ways to save yourself from messing up your life. It's a lotta blah but I quite enjoyed the last point of the list: 'Don’t worry about about your personality. You don’t really have one'.
Life is bliss.
Flickr Flunks
One of the perks of my lazy nature is that second thoughts don't ask for some boring (and sometimes embarrassing) turn arounds when i actually sort of do change my mind. Take for example this. For a while I was thinking to post some of my pictures on Flickr but then this topic to my attention that makes me rather think twice. Not going into the story itself (you can read it much better here) I just wanna say 'censorship' makes me always feel a bit quirky.
To see what the fuzz is all about here the censored page (from the yahoo web cache) and then start thinking why would Flickr react by this, and ok ok, censorship may be a too bold statement, but it's def a blunt act of self-interest. Very Yahoo like (the owner of Flickr nowadays) in fact too think of it.
Anyway, whatever happened, lets not forget Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir makes some really excellent pictures.
*Edit. Flickr have acknowledged that it made a 'mistake', and have restored Rebekka's blog. There is a nice discussion going on about what happened on the Flickr forum
Mothersday
Well lacking any inspiration lately (and the discipline to make the most remarkable entries) I might as well point you to some of the sites I regularly/so now and then visit. One of my favorites is Foundmagazine, 'a collection of love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists (love those, makes me feel less of a lost island of stagnancy knowing there is a whole archipelago out there!), ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles - anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life', many of them found on the street, an elevator, in a library book, your wallet, anywhere where it ended up, gotten lost or forgotten.
The picture above is the Find Of The Day, how appropriate, all sweet mummy words. Did she write back? I guess she did, some nice words of appreciation, posted or send with some fresh apple cake, and then neatly folded up, locked up in a plated box, thrown in a drawer or accidently (or not so, she could be a bitch after all) in the bin, still out there, perhaps...
*ps. Of course here is a whole past of making little notes by myself but thank god for a decade long lack of vivid thoughts and flamboyant expression i think i am quite safe. Still, may you find a small green notebook somewhere in Krabi Thailand (lost in a bar, where else), please be the gentleman/lady you are, have a sneak peep (random things anyway, email swaps) and return to sender, me.
Digit revolt
Capturing The Tick Tock In The Clock
So instead a musical intermezzo, Bright Eyes, a fav fab.
Firefox
Safari
