Five Years! No Way.

Well I’ll be jiggered. I received a notification from WordPress yesterday telling me that it was the fifth anniversary of my signing up to WordPress. I could hardly believe it. I suppose it does not seem this long since I only actively started blogging about one and a half years ago. Initially a blog with no plan, okay that hasn’t changed much, I only rarely posted, and by rarely I mean much more rarely than now, if you can believe that.

I am sure that all of us have different reasons to be appreciative of WordPress, be that the opportunity to express our views, promote our work, meet new people, etc. For me, I have the ultimate reason to be grateful to WordPress as it is through WordPress that I met the love of my life, Ionia Martin, as most of you know. In fact, that moment feels more like the time that I first started blogging, hence my amazement at the fifth anniversary notification.

So it appears that I have made it to five years. Will I still be here in another five? Well, that remains to be seen.

Careful what you Write

It is with a heavy heart that I address you today. It appears that one of my blog posts has been misunderstood and it troubles me somewhat.

I was looking at my stats for a moment earlier, and saw a couple that interested me. The first was a referral from an erotica site that I am assuming had linked to my erotic poem She Enters the Room (Adult Content). That is fine, rather cool in fact. No problem with that at all. It is at this point my mini rant shall begin.

The second referral is the one that disturbs me. It is from the Enid Blyton Society. Regular followers of this blog will know that I am an ardent Enid Blyton advocate and that I find the assaults on her works in applying so called political correctness an affront. The changing of the original stories and characters to conform to what are supposedly acceptable modern day norms is in my eyes a disgrace. So to find that on a closed forum, as in one where I cannot defend myself, that I am being held up as an example of prejudice and bigotry against Enid Blyton is, to say the least, a little disconcerting. I was a member of the society at one point, but unfortunately have let my membership lapse.

Now I am sure that the original poster in that forum has judged my words and expressed his honest opinion. It is likely that my words may have been misleading and easily misinterpreted. There are however numerous other posts,  including my ‘Collection Book of the Week’ posts on this blog that highlight my opinion vehemently opposing the amendment and changing of Enid Blyton’s works and my love of them in their original form. I guess that is what happens when somebody just looks at a single post without any greater overview of the whole.

Still, I am sure that it is my fault for not expressing myself in a sufficiently eloquent manner. I imagine it is my simplistic use of the English language, and my lack of appreciation that people unfamiliar with my blog as a whole, and unaware of my views concerning Enid Blyton could be reading a single post, that has led to this misconstruing of my views.

Anyway, I guess I will just have to be more guarded with my use of language in the future. I am certainly not wasting any more of my time worrying about the misguided opinions of a couple of posters on a closed forum. I have wasted too much time already. Mini rant over.

I must apologise to one and all for this post. This is not something that would usually bother me, but it’s Enid Blyton, an author I hold in the highest esteem. You can see how this has affected me, there doesn’t appear to be a single expletive in this post.

154th Post

Just having posted my last ‘Collection Book of the Week’ post I noticed that I had completely missed my 150th post. Fuck! I was looking for that opportunity to mention this monumental landmark in my blogging adventure. I guess I must have missed it with my erratic posting schedule, and of course the excitement of WordPress informing of my four years of blogging. That however now seems a little sad that I have only just managed over 150 posts in that four years plus.

So a mini, very mini post here to mention the leaping of that 150th post hurdle. Long may it continue and I look forward to the 200th post.

Four Years of WordPress

So the other day I received an email from WordPress informing me that I had registered with them four years ago.

Shit, I thought, that seems a long time, four years. No way! I looked and am only just coming up to my 150^th post. What the fuck have I been doing all this time? 150 posts in four years. That is less than 40 a year on average. Yes, I am quite sure most of you could have done that insanely, complex piece of  mathematics yourself, but I have been used to living in a nanny state, where spoon feeding everyone has become the norm. So why so long, and why so few posts? When you take into account that nigh on 130 of those posts have been made this year, you may ask yourself why I even had a blog in those days. You and me both, believe me.

This blog was started, in the main, as a vehicle for work. My original intent was to use it to write about current hot topics in environmental chemistry and analysis. This would then be used to drive traffic to the company website, in much the same way I envisaged twitter working for us. That turned out to be so boring and uninspiring that I almost never posted, and certainly not on topic. Over time, the blog morphed to become a little more personal and then I made one of the most important decisions of my life. That decision was to start to blog on a more regular basis, and on something I actually cared about, books and literature, although as you all know, I am also partial to the occasional lewd comment.

It has been amazing having somewhere to share my thoughts regarding the things that I am passionate about. Literature, books, and reading, in particular. Having somewhere that there are other people willing, and able, to discuss those passions has been so immensely rewarding.

I have met many wonderful people here since making this change and I would like to thank everyone that has made blogging such an enjoyable experience. I hope that readers of this blog occasionally find some value in my posts. Of course, I never expected to find love through blogging, but that happened too. Like I said, it was a pivotal moment in my life, when I started blogging again, although I didn’t know this at the time.

So here is to another four years. Who knows what I will be doing with this blog then, or indeed if it will even exist. Thank you once again, to one and all, for being part of my extremely enjoyable WordPress experience.

Comments, especially lewd ones, (see the tagline above), are appreciated, as always.

I Like You

I imagine that the topic of the like button (or icon, or call it what you will), has been covered before, probably many times, but I don’t remember seeing anything, so I am going to discuss this and ask some questions.

What are you doing when you click like on a blog post? What exactly is it that you are liking?

So by liking a post are you providing support to the poster, are you saying that you like the message of the post, or that you think it is well written? I guess that it can mean different things on different occasions. It is a multipurpose like button. It can mean different things to different people and different things in different contexts. Surely I am not getting philosophical about the like button on blog posts, whatever next? Am I just over thinking this?

I know that I sometimes find myself feeling strangely guilty when I click like on a post where someone has revealed something bad or personal about themselves, or that they are sick. I know I am doing it as a means of showing them my support, but I always have that strange nagging feeling of guilt in the back of my mind that I am saying that I like the fact that they are sick.

Another related thought I was having was about how real is the number of likes that we receive for a particular blog post? How many people just go to a post and click like in support of the person that has written it, rather than actually having read the post? How many people go to blogs and click like with the expectation that the blogger will return and visit their own blog? Strange the thoughts that run through your mind at work, where incidentally WordPress never seems to work properly.

I wonder what other buttons I can pick on, or press. What is it with me and buttons, and particularly with pressing buttons? I seem to vaguely remember a post I did not so long again regarding the reblog button, or was that just about reblogging rather than the button itself, I forget. I do hope I haven’t developed a WordPress button obsession, that would be kind of sad. I prefer my fetishes to be a little more exotic than that.

So how do you view the like button, and in particular your use of it? Should I say ‘How do you like the like button?’, or is that altogether too many likes in one place? When do you click like? Do you always click like if you go to a post?  I must like questions – Is there a button for that?

Perhaps there should be some alternatives, maybe I support you or I’m thinking of you buttons.

Oh, and remember, you can always leave me a comment or click my like button.

Blog Christening

As many of you know I have been taking suggestions for a new tag line for my blog. Well, when I say new, I mean actually replacing the default one with something more meaningful. It has not been long since I started my blog, a mere five years, but I think that it is time to change it. My blog has taken a number of different directions over the years, each one usually consisting of a couple of posts before boredom struck and no more updates for months, sometimes even years. I feel that I finally enjoy talking about my love of books on the blog, and even other topics, as and when they pique my interest.

So, hopefully, now that I have sufficiently whet your appetites, I can reveal my new tag line. Firstly though, I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions and opinions on the different suggestions. In particular Green Ember’s suggestion ‘Through the Reading Glass of a Mad Englishman’ was well received, as were ideas linking my nationality with different degrees of insanity, accompanied by a healthy smattering of expletives.

Being contrary though, I have decided upon the following:

Life, Literature and Lewd Comments

I feel that this covers a bit of everything that I may want to write about, and more importantly adds a subtle warning as to the sort of language that may be encountered.

Any comments and opinions are always appreciated, and I am as yet undecided whether to extend this tag line with further embellishments, such as my country of origin and mental state. Thank you all for your input into the decision making process and for making me get off my arse and make this change.

Another Complaint

I received another complaint about my blog yesterday from Ionia. This has begun to become rather a common place occurrence. Sadly it is another legitimate comment, as usual. This one was regarding the tagline associated with my blog. Essentially I have been far too lazy to have ever bothered to change it from the default of ‘JUST ANOTHER WORDPRESS.COM WEBLOG’.

This led me to thinking about what I could change it to that would be more descriptive of either the content of my blog or of me in general. I had a few ideas, but I am really quite undecided about what to change it to. I thought that I would get the opinion of you guys to help me out. I have put a few suggestions below and would like to get your comments on which you think would be the best line to use. Feel free to suggest alternatives in the comments also.

So a few crap suggestions from me, I do hope you can come up with something better:

 

My Reading Experiences

This, that and the other

The F!*?ing Englishman

The Ravings of a Madman

 

Please help me!

The Always Here If You Need Me Award

I was especially honoured to be nominated for this award by Kevin over at Creative Mysteries. To be made to feel that people are reading what you write and enjoying it and that you have in some small way had an effect on someone’s life and been of help to them is fantastic and I think that this award indicates this, at least it does to me.

The rules of the award are as follows:

Post a picture of the award somewhere on your blog.

List 5 things that make you happy.

Choose 3 people to nominate who have been a virtual shoulder to cry on, checked in on you when they knew things were rough, or have always been there for you.

Comment on their blogs and let them know of the nomination.

 

So first of all five things that make me happy

That strange little sound on my mobile phone that means a message has arrived, and that strange buzz of excitement

Watching the waves crashing on the rocks at the coast on a summer’s day

Finding an exciting bookshop somewhere you weren’t expecting it – in fact any little independent book shop really

Seeing my friends happy

Talking about books and literature with someone that feels the same way about it as I do

and as a bonus something that makes me both happy and sad:

Finishing a good book

 

I would like to nominate the following as they have all been there for me and in particular they have made me feel extremely welcome in the blogosphere commenting on my posts and being supportive.

TamrahJo

Ionia Martin

createdbyrcw

 

I would also like to mention Charles Yallowitz as he has always been one of the first to comment on my posts, since the beginning. He has always been there with a funny comment or to provide support. I do however know that he has retired from awards so I haven’t nominated him, but felt that he deserved a special mention due to the nature of this award. I do hope that none of the others have retired from receiving awards yet.

Thank you so much to Kevin for nominating me and congratulations to all of my nominees, I hope that they will all accept this award as they have been a large part of making blogging such an enjoyable experience for me.

So Who Missed my One Hundredth Post?

So who missed the momentous occasion of my 100^th post? Come on, admit it, you did, didn’t you? Well, don’t worry, it appears as though I did too, since it looks like this will be my 101^st post. I wonder if that includes reblogs or not. These little landmarks, although they do not really mean anything, do help to make you feel good and motivate you a little. The way I consider it is that if anyone is still reading the drivel that I come out with after one hundred posts, that’s kind of amazing, and I should continue. I admit I have been a bit lax lately with the blog, I have had lots going on. I am going to try to do better and start to post regularly again.

My reading goals haven’t changed, and I am progressing slowly, but surely. I have been supposedly working on an assignment for the creative writing course that I subscribed to a while ago, but in reality I have not gotten very far. This weekend I intend to get the main part of it written and then I will just leave it a few days, check it over, probably change most of it and submit it. Since this is the first assignment I have not got a tutor yet, but one should be assigned when I get the results of the first assignment back. Mostly it is providing them information about your goals and what you want to achieve from the course. Of course, there is the obligatory personal questionnaire to fill out too.

So these are my plans for the weekend. Reading and writing and playing with my new phone. I have finally acquired a phone that allows me to read my emails easily away from home. So after a little fun trying to get the wi-fi in my house working everything seems to be fine. Now to explore the wonderful world of mobile apps.

Useful Distractions from Writing

So you have been writing for an hour or so, when you find yourself just sitting staring into space, or out of the window. The ideas have stopped, the flow of words has been halted. It is time for a break. What do you do to try to clear your mind? How do you try to return to that position of constructively writing again?

I like to go and do something different, although I favour something with a creative bent to it. I will usually go and play the guitar for a bit. Others may like to go into the garden and pull up a few weeds or do the washing up. Usually after a few minutes my mind is clearer and whatever was stopping me from writing has resolved itself.

I guess what I am really asking though is, what do you do when you are lacking creativity and need a boost?

As a follow up to yesterdays post, I have reblogged something and written this today. Best of both worlds!