Notes from a Small Café - new bit of writing

Just uploaded my last bit of writing from the current run of the Creative Writing Course at the Media Museum. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed this course, mainly because it has forced me out of my lethargy and made me actually put fingers to keyboard.
This latest short piece, Notes from a Small Café is about such a place in the early morning. I took a few notes from a visit last Saturday and then dramatised the scene somewhat.

Go Gotem

The more I’ve worked on this Rapidweaver theme called Gotem from seydesign the more I like it. In addition to changing the look, it has also encouraged me to put more of my writing onto the site. As mentioned before, I used Weebly to make another site called icklestories so I could put writing there. Strikes me now that this is a bit stupid seeing as I have established a perfectly good site, subtitled ‘graphics and writings’ right here. As yet there is only a story, The Curious Case of Terry Perry and the Flat-Screen Telly, a couple of other short bits of writing and a poem. I aim to add more in the near future.

A New Look

As you can see, the look of the site has changed. A bit more subtle, I hope you’ll agree. Using the Rapidweaver Gotem theme from the excellent SeyDesign, I am currently adding writing to the graphics so the title of the site is something nearer the truth.

Tweeting the Today Programme

Lying abed yesterday (Friday morning), listening to the first hour of the Today programme on Radio 4, I happened to hear the excellent Ed Stourton interviewing the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, via some communication system. Unfortunately, as often happens, the link broke down mid-interview, at which point, Ed asked Mr Milliband, ‘Can you hear me?’ and Milliband replied, ‘No?’
By no means the funniest thing ever heard on Today, but mildly amusing nonetheless. Today now Twitters and so, thinking that some listeners might not have heard the early interview, I fired off a quick tweet, asking if it could be played again. Within the hour, I received a reply to the tweet containing a link to the interview, including its interruption.
For me, not only another example of the growing wonders of the internet but also perhaps testament to the immediacy and usefulness of Twitter.

Safari 4 Beta

Much excitement this week regarding the beta release of the latest version of Safari, Apple’s web browser. Along with many others, I excitedly downloaded and installed, and first impressions were something of the Wow variety.
Perhaps most impressive, along with the increased browsing speed, was the Top Sites feature. This allows one to see the home pages of one’s most visited sites arranged on the screen at once.
Unfortunately, on opening my Mail app I discovered something was causing it to crash repeatedly. Also, the RapidBlog plug-in I use with Rapidweaver had ceased to work. The Mail app blamed Growl but the superb Rapidweaver support forums attributed the problem to Safari having changed some protocol or other.
No prolonged worries as RapidBlog was rapidly updated and I was able to use the Safari 4 uninstall app which Apple had been kind enough to include in the original download folder. So, having got a sneak preview of what it is going to be like, I think I’ll just wait for the full release.

Welcome to Chi.mp!

I first heard about chi.mp on the excellent FruitBytes blog. Chi.mp is an online service which enables you to access all your networking stuff in one place and let others know where you can be found on the web. It also allows you to have different profiles for each aspect of your life: public, work and friends. You control exactly who sees what information about you.
Chi.mp is still in beta at the moment and therefore can only be joined by invitation. Originally FruitBytes had some invites on offer but when they ran out I signed up on the waiting list. Didn’t need to wait too long as I was invited to join a week or so ago. Now I have 5 invites to give away - so if you want one, get in touch.

Various Bits of News

Been a while since the last blog so this one is to do a bit of catching up.
Firstly, I’ve decided to put this blog back as the Home page. It makes sense that people see my most recent bits of information on first entering the site.

I’ve also been developing some Twitter content with icklestories and icklememories. The former I’ve mentioned before - a place where I can put fictional thoughts without causing confusion on my main ickledot twitter. This has led me to starting a new website using Weebly. I really like the simple format of this online web tool - and I’m a sucker for a site that looks friendly and … well … cuddly. Weebly is still in its developmental stages and its creators say they have many more ideas to improve functionality. I’ve also put a page of icklestories on this site, mainly to take advantage of the Stacks plug-in for Rapidweaver described previously.

icklememories is just something created on a whim. Might work, might not. Every so so often a jingle or lyric or bit of information comes into my head, or is heard and I thought it might be quite good to place these nuggets of pure nostalgia online. Might just kick-start a series of recollections for someone out there. We’ll see.
Also enrolled on a writing course at the Media Museum in Bradford. Bit unfortunate that the first session clashes with another meeting but I hope to get there in time to discover what it’s all about. It’s fantastic to have the national museum of media so close but as is human nature, when something is so convenient the tendency is not to take advantage.