Category: Random

In which Tom pretends to be a proper weblogger, by linking to actual sites rather than drone on about the misery and angst of human existence:

First things first – I’ve been thinking of training myself to be able to write in more languages than simple mark-up like HTML. I think I’ve finally found a site that’s good enough at teaching to help me do so: W3Schools Online Web Tutorials. The site includes some stunningly useful examples, cut and paste code and intelligent commentary for everything from XHTML to WAP, DTD and SOAP.

Secondly, there’s an article at USAToday.com called ‘Internet needs immune system’, which is on the analogies drawn between computer viruses and biological viral entities and suggests a new approach to anti-virus technology. [via Tomalak’s Realm]

And finally, after tiring of Neilson’s rather earnest approach to web usability, I picked up a copy of Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think while I was in LA. I read it on the plane, and was astonished by how intelligently written and well put together it was. If you’re building any size of site either professionally or semi-professionally then you should read it. There’s more information about it here.

I am, of course, an astonishing dancer. My groin can ‘get jiggy with it’ at such a rate that I have, on occasion, experienced friction burns merely from the contact of my skin against the air. Man was not meant to dance this well, but god is it a beautiful thing to watch.

Some of you may wish to emulate my astonishing prowess in the medium of dance. Well you can’t, I’m afraid. You have to be born with a talent like mine. But if you want to improve your skills, then the place to go is DancingPaul.com. Watch as he reveals the secrets of the modern mambo through the medium of flash, and with the help of some of his less dance-enabled friends…

This is just a recommendation to anyone who is relatively new to running their own weblog – go and register yourself with Weblogs.Com – it’s my first point of call every morning and by far the best way that I know to keep up with the sites you like.

So you’re in Golden Gate Park with a camera and some friends, and Jason and Meg suddenly walk directly past you – so you grab a snapshot. Is this kinda cool, or really creepy?

I started working at timeout.com just over a week after starting this weblog, and now – nearly a year and a half later I’m about a week away from leaving it. I don’t think that ‘apprehensive’ really covers my state of mind at the moment. Certainly I’m scared of what is to come next.

I’d just like to say thanks to Ralph and Simon for respectively trying to knock some sense into me and cheer me up. Despite their valiant efforts I remain, as ever, your obedient miserable narcissist.

I don’t know when it came out, but the new edition of Naomi Klein’s No Logo is now available, and should really be required reading for everyone who is sick of being sold to all the time, or resents the human rights violations of multi-nationals in the developing world.

In February of 2001, shortly before running screaming from my job at Time Out, I ran away to Los Angeles. My hosts Kerry and Sean reintroduced me to the wonders of the west coast.

There was a series of ads running on billboards all across LA – this one particularly amused me. The thing I can never get over about Los Angeles is the sky. After a while in London you completely forget it’s there.

On the left we have the immortal Kerry Bailey, looking a little the worse for wear. He also looks like he’s barely tolerating my photography. Which is almost certainly true. On the right we have the Texan Sean Nadeau. The picture on the right is most notable for the small street sign that appears to be hovering permanently by Sean’s right ear.

Just in case you haven’t realised, Kerry and Sean are gay.

LA isn’t really the kind of place that you just go wandering around in on foot. But I didn’t have a car, and to give my hosts a break I wandered off every so often. This picture pretty much encapsulates LA for me -the sky, the tress, the grid of cables. Maybe I’m missing the point. Perhaps the following pictures are closer to the reality of LA life…

One of the best days I had in LA involved meeting up with some of the freaks from Barbelith. It wasn’t an entirely easy meet to arrange, and when I finally found the bar that we were to meet at, there was no one there. I wandered off and sat in a net café for a couple of hours. When I returned there were several weirdos to talk to. Excellent. These pictures that follow are from the rest of that day…

And here’s Anna and Ralphy:

Also on that day I saw this store:

Near the end of my stay with the Bailey-Nadeau’s, Kerry took me to the Sony lot to spy on what was going down. On the way back to the car I took a couple of photos that I love, but can’t really explain why…

Further to the Signal to Noise post I made earlier in the day, Ian from Blogadoon has pointed me in the direction of xrefer.com‘s definition of ‘Phatic language’.

The best band the world has ever seen release an album of their b-sides. It must be nearly a decade since they split up, but The Pixies still heavily occupy my mental landscape.