plasticbag.org

Will the Weblogger User Group have the same triumphs, friendship-creation and back-biting components of UK weblogging? I can only hope so.

Movable Type launches on Monday, and I’ll be one of the first inline to download it and try out an installation of it. I’m really quite excited about this – partially because I’m interested in any system that allows me to import files from Blogger. It’s not that I would choose to leave them, but that the ability to do so protects nearly two years of writing from possible destruction. I would have a copy that I could back up in a way that would be accessible to other CMS’s. I’m also interested in it because I’m interested in Content Management Systems full-stop. Seems to me that the world needs a low-cost / free / multi-functional CMS and Movable Type could be it. [MT interviewed at WriteTheWeb]

I’m going to a press preview of The Others with Davo. I will, of course, let you know what it’s like.

Review time: In which Tom reviews The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My favourite part of this review is my taster for it: “Lo-fi, terrifying, remorseless horror with its tongue firmly not in cheek, but instead cut off with a power tool. Watch at your peril.”

Of course we all love Cal. He’s all clever and … technical. And his work is in the Guardian today – the astonishing Web Trumps has been mentioned once more. And I’m delighted to say that I appear on one of the cards. What a guy…

So the project that I’m doing editorial work for is beginning to look quite exciting. It’s very much in a beta-phase – final design and functionality is still being resolved, and I’m still scouting around to find the best tone for the place. But there’s still something here that all of you can play with.

The site is called thecelebnetwork.com – and it’s essentially a community site – its heart and soul is the messageboard. The site is there for people to post to when they see celebrities, to talk about the latest trashy celebrity news, and to find out all kinds of useless information that they’ll be able to show-off with down the pub with there friends. Examples: Over the last few weeks I have found out that Madonna’s just recoved from a hernia, that Sharon Stone’s brain blew up and that even Calista Flockhart is fed up of Ally McBeal being such a whiny old bird.

So now I’m directing other people to come and play on the message board – come and discuss the latest absurd celebrity news, find out where Sade gets her Jamaican foodstuffs – seek out celebrities on push bikes. And give us all the feedback that you can manage (do it on the board if you want – we’d all love to hear it), so that by the time we launch it properly, it will be the best it can be. And in the meantime I’ll leave you with a little piece of my most recent news:

Scientologists look forward to a future of ponies, children and global thermonuclear war While stars like Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kelly Preston and Jenna Elfman preside over the opening of a San Franciscan Scientology center for children, their ‘church’ elders are busy building a vast underground bunker just in case of nuclear war. Should a blast incinerate much of America and bring about a global winter lasting decades, those few that remain will have the company of the Pulp Fiction star, his wife, that guy that was in Mission Impossible and some bint off TV. Our future is clearly safe in their hands. Jenna Elfman is reported to have said, “We are not one to be caught off guard.” [discuss this item]

Two of the cutest and coolest things you’ll ever see in your life, courtesy of Denise Wilton: Rabbit and Monkey. There are more but they’re too good for you and you’d blow up if you had them all together. Be patient. I’ll make her put them all online. Link lust on!

What’s going on? Have I missed something? When did everyone start taking all this stuff so seriously?

I’m not sure that the design for The Hermit’s Tower is supposed to look like it does on a Mac – but it’s an enjoyable read, so I’ll forgive it quite a lot.

Weird stats from Metafilter. I joined the site in July of 2000 – over a year ago – and knew about it for a good four or five months before then. I first posted about the site in March 2000 – a full eighteen months ago. If I remember correctly, I was whining about SXSW – which I really wanted to go to and couldn’t – and which I don’t think I’ll be able to make this year either. I love Metafilter – I just wish there was some way to tell in advance whether I was going to be interested in a thread…