Vlogging onto a holiday…

I Vlogged! Rah!

A nice St George’s Eve

So, in case anyone missed out on the obvious, today is the feast day of England’s patron saint. But as yesterday, the sun was shining, essential as our esteemed Chancellor had a lot of bad news to deliver in his budget. So you can see, with these two factors firmly in people’s minds, no one gave a toss about getting out a flag for George, or other jingoistic tat. There was far more important things to think about.

Really, I have no opinion on the budget. The government is shafted no matter what it does, although all that bailing out has screwed us for generations to come. As a nation we are heavily in debt, and that it is a millstone around our necks. Interestingly, something I thought I would never see in my lifetime, is the re-introduction of the Super Tax. With state intervention occurring everywhere, I think it is safe to say that Thatcherism is pretty much dead in the water at the moment…to be honest, although the headlines scream out 50%, that figure is not going to affect the bulk of us (although I disagree with punitive tax rises). What is a shocker is to see how much as a nation we are borrowing. Oh well, will the last person in Britain please turn out the lights?

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All right, the blogs have been pretty thin on the ground this week, and all for good reason. Jay and Kay Save the World. Yes, very busy editing that little number…

Twitter – my new obsession?

Okay, so I ’spectacularly’ gave up Facebook at the beginning of February and have not looked back since. My social life has not changed. In fact, I have got a little more sociable, but that is probably due to Spring finally kicking in on this weather forsaken isle. However, it is not as if I was completely alone from everyone while surfing the web. Yes, that is right, Twitter has taken over my online obsession. In fact during March, my Twitter updates shot through the roof (but that could also be due to the fact that there are other people twittering through the same account). And unlike many, I jumped on this bandwagon last year, before any of this celebrity nonsense hit twitter!

Interestingly (from a tech P.O.V.), not all my tweet posts come through twitter itself. As you can see from the pic, there are updates via various tools including the TwitterBar, TwitterFox and TwitterFeed as well as regularly signing in and saying something quite useless via my twitter homepage. And that little Twitterfeed links into both my blog, the CWP Blog and CWP’s video feed. In other words, it does my updating without me even having to lift a finger, or copy and paste, ideally allowing me to procrastinate even more!

Twitter is this year’s facebook. We will laugh with it, spend far too much time admiring it and pimping up our twitter statuses, only to flee when the next big thing that comes along. We will pretend to love the people we follow, while actually ignoring what they say, only to revel in our own self importance. Whether or not I will reluctantly hold onto it like I do with myspace, enjoy it like I do with my blog or just come to regard it as a menace like Gimpbook, is something for the seers to predict…

Five Minutes…

I have set myself the target of writing a blog in five minutes. So what shall I talk about? Something Londonesque and exciting such as a new circle line? Or should I talk about something newsworthy such as the blatant assassination in a part of Southern Africa or yet another government bailout? (we are f**ked as a country) Should I talk about my projects and what I am upto? Or should I look towards the heavens for inspiration?

Sometimes it is very easy to write a blog in five minutes, when I am inspired to do so, when life is grand and full of surprises. Sometimes I am not, when life is dull and filled with travesties, when I have blatantly been loosing sleep due to shifts. On some days, posts appear out of the blue, on some days they are inspired by by what I veiw online and on some days are intricately planed out with meticulous detail.

I’m sorry, but our five minutes are up…

‘Online’

Okay, this is really a response to Dom who was ‘rambling’ about the people he has met online.

I would definitely count Dom as one of my good friends who I happened to meet online. It is funnny, becuase after all, we were brought up on The Net. However, I have met people online who are just like me, ordinary guys expressing themselves in their own unique way, interacting with each other and of course, maintaining friendships.

Anyway, sorry about the lack of bloggng this week on El Director. It has been one of those ‘busy times’. Normal service ’should’ be resumed next week.
Of course, if you are looking for something to read, then walk right this way…

Procrastination strategies in the 25-30 age group

I blame one person for giving me that idea. But now, if I am ever short of blog ideas, all I have to do is click this and hey presto, a random blog idea will be generated to continue my procrastination.

Actually, yesterday was not a procrastination but a carefully planned blog based on the conversations of that day. I was also terrifically happy as I finally re-dd te two websites of mine.

The Babarouge website did not get a major change, just a clean-up. As a ‘corporate site’ it does its job well and so only needed minor updating.

The big job was the CWP site. That was a complete redesign of the site. I wanted to simplify it. The first CWP site was very complex featuring links, photos, forums, the whole lot. But in this incarnation, I decided to simplify the site. I also decided to reduce my reach and so while all the social networking accounts are still active, I have limited myself to advertising only four of them. This version of the CWP site is simple, functional and also concentrates on what I am doing next. ‘Jay and Kay Save the World’.

So take a tour of the new CWP site. Tell me what you think and of course, if there are any mistakes, message me ASAP!

F**k Facebook?

And this is one of the many reasons why I wanted to jump the facebook ship. Plus the fact that it is so fake. ‘Oh yes, we must meet up for a drink’ bulls**t. Anyway, that is it, I am off Facebook…or am I…

Help, I forgot smeone’s number/e-mail/blog/address/convinient stalking point/ Help, I need to see that one naughty pic of the friend who poked me last weekend when they were staying in and while I was at work. Help, I NEED facebook.

Must wean myself off it. Yes, must do so…somewhere else to get my kinky thrills…

What the Flock?

I have three web browsers on my computer, and I only just discovered, after being on version 1.2.something for umpteen weeks that I needed an update. So bang, I visit the flock website and find out that there is already a version 2.

Well, what do I think. Flock is not my main browser, but I use it to manage all my CWP biz. It is simply convenient to have all the listings up on the side bar with all the accounts remembered for me.

I also like the way that the newsfeeds easily line up on the side. In the ‘morning’, with my tea and toast, I like to read the news on my compie and so flock is a good way to wake up. And flock does look nice. Things like posting a blog or uploading photos are pretty easy and there are some great firefox tools that come with it.

However, for pure ‘business’, I prefer to go with other, faster browsers and ones that, to be honest, are simpler. For me, Flock is great as it appeals to my sense of frivolity and fun, and using flock is an enjoyable way to surf the net. However, you do need a fast computer in order to truly appreciate it and the bundle of uses you can get from it. However, if I want to write an e-mail or do official things, even (sorry flock) online shopping, I prefer to use something with less clutter. Also, it would be great if there were auto-update reminders that would appear. Updating my browser is something that is not entirely painful, but it is no something I do automatically. Luckily, my other applications do them almost automatically, but Flock did not tell me of its Christmas gift to the world.

Well, do I recommend Flock? If you are simple net user who just reads the news and checks e-mails then no. You do not need it. However, if you love your social networking, gotta have the latest news, ‘goss’ and blogfeeds streaming in, and enjoy mucking about with online gadgets, than I heartily recommend it. One thing however, make sure you have a powerful machine. It takes up a lot of juice to run this particular browser.

Bye Bye Facebook!

This is probably going to be the lamest blog this month and that includes the fact that January has had a pretty low word tally per post. But the fact is that I have been reviewing my online lifestyle (how gimpy is this blog going to sound) and I really have to ask myself, is the big blue yonder from California really worth it?

It was fun at first, and the stalk factor was always amusing. But now it is just tedious. And like friends reunited before it, this fad is slowly dying out. Less photos are being uploaded, I have not been poked in ages, and even the recent friend request from another gimpbook virgin has failed to titillate me.

Now that my status updates are done through twitter, the beauty in being able to communicate in 140 characters or less appeals to my sense of wasting precious bandwidth. And the honest truth is that people who I really want to communicate with, I already do on a regular basis, through e-mails, on their blogs or via their own twitters. I probably have their phone numbers and, shock horror, I also meet up with them!

But, as we’ve always known, gimpbook is just a waste of time. So I have decided to attempt to erase my profile off the internet’s greatest stalk engine. Note that this is an attempt, as the actual process in deleting a facebook account is fraught with more stress than a commute from Morden. So while Jan 31st is the target, do not hold me up to it if I cannot actually rid myself of this disservice.

Now before you think I am an internet naysayer, I am not. I love the internet. Okay, I don’t. I despise it like the plague and in fact all things with a microprocessor should be destroyed. Do not even try and get me with the irony of my near daily blogging, the fact that I run two websites or the fact that I use digital cinematography rather than film. The fact is that I love what I do, but I despise the process. Does that make sense? I suppose it is akin to enjoying a hot bath, but I hate waiting for the tub itself to fill up. Facebook is like filing a bath with a pipette, an exercise in sheer futility.

Now, the deletion process is fraught with hazards. Firstly, I will loose contact with all my friends. Well, it has happened before, so what the hell. My attitude to life is that you always manage to keep the important ones close. Secondly, and more importantly, it is damn near impossible. The genius in Facebook is that it is parasitical. Like herpes (you need to get to the 18 minute mark to enjoy the joke or you can click here for the dialogue), you just can’t get rid of it. You can do it superficially, but ultimately, your details are still there, floating in cyberspace. Oh well, it has been mildly amusing, and so until the next social fad, I bid you all, farewell…

Ethiopian Staples 2 – Frankincense and Myrrh

The Origins of Incense and Myrrh are not often thought of as the Horn of Africa, but this wretched part of the world grabs us every Christmas with stories of Three Wise Men, but also reflect a greater past of this corner of Africa. The art of aromatherapy can be traced to this part of the world and even today, the Ethiopians are rightly proud of their Ancient Traditions.

But it is amazing that something as simple as the incense stick that is now seen from Brazil to China, originated in the Horn of Africa. And for me, particularly fascinating as an Archaeologist, to see the historic links generated by this trade. Humans have always looked beyond for their needs and the people of the past are no different from us today. We often forget that the Red Sea was a highway not a dividing line and in fact it can be seen in the closeness of the cultures between Southern Arabia and North West Africa. We may not see the full extent of such links in my lifetime, such is the seemingly inherent instability of this part of the world. But yes, it is a dream of mine to travel here one day. To recreate a little bit of the spice trade. I may be over in the UK a lot more now than I used to be, but that does not mean the travel bug has diminished in the slightest…