So I’ve been working on what hopefully will be the only redesign of plasticbag.org for this half of the year, and I’m going for a more expandable design, and one that hopefully will give me scope to inject more personality into the pages, and I’m busy testing out something when Blogger seizes up and collapses on me, leaving me for several minutes convinced that over a year’s work has been lost in an instant.
That makes two Sundays in a row that I have been stood up for a movie by the same friend, last week she felt ‘ill’, this week she ‘didn’t think we had an arrangement’ and had already organised to go and see a movie with her flatmate who had ‘a bad foot so can’t go far’.
It begins. The full on green with jealous-rage fest has started to consume me as webloggers start to talk about SXSW: “Speaking of SXSW, they put up a listing of this year’s panels for the Interactive Festival. Among the more interesting ones for me are the interview with Scott McCloud, Interface, Weblogs… Unfortunately, three of those panels have a time conflict with each other, and two more of them take place at the same time as the Microcontent: Beyond the Web Page panel I’m moderating. Dammit!”
As February approaches, and I have just over a month to find myself a new, satisfying and well-paid job to occupy my time, my mind is increasingly turning to SXSW. I’m desperately pining to attend – I don’t know that I can cope with everyone writing about what a laugh it was – but I just can’t see how I could do it. The cost is just too severe – there’s airfare for a start, which alone I could probably manage, but then there’s transport to Austin, hotels for three or four nights, the cost of the conference itself, and that’s before I’ve even started drinking. It seems bizarre to me that I can afford to go and visit Kerry and Sean in LA next month (flight only) for a week, but I can’t scrape together the money for Austin (which is nearer) for three days.
• (to David Gentle): I don’t think you come across as a dork in e-mail at all, although you sure do send a lot of it! And the reason that Waterstones don’t have a proper comics selection seems clear to me – the image of the shop is built around popularising reading as a cultural rather than purely entertaining activity, and as ever with people with pretensions, they are unable to tell the difference between what they find interesting and thrilling and what they think they should find interesting and thrilling.
• (to Zenith): Christ alone knows why you find the Underground so intoxicating, old chap, but it’s happened to a lot of other apparently intelligent and creative people, something that I feel tremendously happy about.
• (to Darren Shrubsole): Yes, on occasion I have been heartily pissed off with weblogging. These things ebb and flow – when you are writing stuff that you find entertaining or important or interesting then it all seems instinctive and satisfying. At other times it seems like a grinding drag – fighting to find words to say. It’s worth sticking at, though, because it’s become such a staple part of my life that I can’t imagine being without it. As to your other question, my plans for barbelith.com seldom get implemented because of time restraints, but at the moment it goes something like this – a webzine on the front which integrates completely with the discussion forum with attached weblogging columnists. From that stage, an anti-advertising server (joint project with Matt, and then free web-mail with barbelith.net addresses. Or something like that.
Next!
I received a referral today from Google via Yahoo!. Someone had typed in “load urge rectum girl”. I was, of course, the first result. Which fills me with worry. Am I fulfilling the needs of the Load Urge Rectum Girl community? Are they satisfied with the information on my site? How can I turn their initial browsing into a recurrent user pattern? Will they become a repeat visitor? Oh, user behaviour analysis is so very tiring…
Art Collective Sues Dot-Com For Trademark Infringement
In what might possibly be the most superbly postmodern twist to a wonderfully subversive story, etoy is suing the arse off etoys.
“Etoy, which may be the world’s only artists’ collective with a business plan, alleges that because it was around before eToys, the toy retailer should not be allowed to use a similar name that could be confused with its own.”
• (to Nick Cornwell): No, dear chap, I was not ‘pulling your pisser’, and should you wish to know what the conversation was about, then merely scroll further down the page.
• (to Whalen Toni): Yes I have indeed read slash fan fiction. Back in the mists of time I used to spend a lot of time over at alt.tv.er, uk.media.tv.er and alt.fan.noah-wyle, which is where I first stumbled upon the phenonemon. I have to confess that I find the idea of women getting turned on by writing about men having sex with each other slightly strange (I assume this is the point). Most of the women I talk to swear that this does nothing for them. Well it certainly does something to me… There is a particularly interesting (and well written) series about Dr John Carter (from ER) and Skinner (from the X-files) which everyone should read immediately. If anyone has the URL I’ll link to it ASAP.
• (to Marshall): Until this point, my feelings of inadequacy did not apply to Furbies, but now you have pointed out that said creatures can launch into a thousand languages while running on an Energizer battery, I feel crushed and pointless as a human being. Thanks a lot.
Spread the word. I want it on all of your sites by the end of the day: “Backslapping Wank for the 21st Century: Vote plasticbag.org for Anti-Bloggies ‘Most Banal Content’!”
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Campaign Supporters: Not Enough Of Me