Blog and more blog

"But you're very young in that picture," Herself says, looking askance at the new Avatar image I've posted.
"So?" I ask.
"What about the one I took of you in the garden? That's a better picture."
"Yes, but I have that as my Social Networking avatar at the moment."
"Why can't you have it on your blog as well?"
"Because someone might visit here and recognise themselves in the story of the Smelly So-and-So on the bus and give me a slap the next time they see me."

She's not convinced.

Anyway, I went and started another Blog, called Our Daily Junk Mail which is going to have nothing except unsolicited items from our letterbox in it. I started with a Clothing Collection Label. In some years time I am sure it will appear quaint and interesting. There's an inexhaustable supply coming in our letterbox, so it will have more material if you check back later.

Three years old and 43

This aul' blog got to wear an "I am 3" badge on February 6th, 2009 (I accidentally notice).

(As I write this, Herself tells me Leonard Cohen is very loud for next door. There's Leonard Cohen irony in there somewhere, I bet. "He was blogging, but poor Leonard, he had to go down, down, down....")

Anyway, as I turn off Leonard, here's a Happy Birthday to you, aul' blog!

Me, I get to be 43 on 20th February, a considerable achievement in the life of... well, an-almost 43 year old.

My sister happened upon a photo of the Big Snow of 1982 while clearing out the very last items of my father's house, which shows what "real snow" looks like in Ireland (as distinct from the shallow stuff, comparitively speaking, that we've had over the past couple of weeks.... or was it days? I can't remember, really.) Left to right is Spider O'Toole, Whacker, and me. The calendar would make me about 16 or thereabouts, and zooming in on the blurred image of us (we were standing quite far from the camera as the shot was more to do with the snow than with us), it's hard to believe that in that year Spider and I started being served beer in pubs. Small wonder it only took two pints to put me on my ear.

Night, night.

Thank you, the folk behind the statistics

I don't thank my visitors enough. I'll try to make amends.

"Thank you", the 1,307 visitors who have looked at my profile. "Thank you, too", the 14,426 (including me) who have visited the blog. You have looked at pages here 22,120 times, which is great.

I'd like to thank all the people who lost their instructions for erecting a gazebo. On quiet weeks, at certain times of the year, you form the majority of visitors and you tend to spend up to 15 minutes here. I suspect you're running in and out from the computer sticking lots of little metal tubes together. Fair play. I was doing the same only this afternoon.

Special appreciation goes to those who find the blog by Googling the phrase (sometimes in ALL CAPS, sometimes not): "I PEED MY PANTS." I hope you're feeling a bit drier now.

For everyone who is looking for a solution to a puzzle, "Hello!" and "Thanks for dropping by!" I've no puzzle pieces except the individual blog posts you briefly examine.

"Hi!" to the Laurel & Hardy fans who find the blog by clicking on the toothache photo. And to the occasional person interested in the George Best five pound note, I'm glad you stopped by.

"Cheers!" to those who use a saved version of an old email to come here, or have bookmarked my profile, or who otherwise use an old visit to make repeat jaunts. Your calling cards are dutifully noted by the hit counter and gratefully received.

And to anyone using the various blog aggregators to which this site is connected, I hope you're not disappointed in your visit here.

I'm not forgetting those using links from other blogs: I hope your use of those links so kindly provided by the thoughful authors of their own sites proved worth the effort.

Lastly, those who find the site by random or misdirected hyperlink: "Thank you" and I hope you, like all of us, find what you're seeking soon.

There are many people who think that blogging is an idle, futile, even embarrassing pursuit. They wouldn't do it themselves and they certainly don't understand anyone who does.

If you're one of these uncomprehending people, then please just move along. I've no great words for you, except that one of us, either you or me, has missed the point entirely. We should get out more. Probably.

Or something. Definitely something.

Using Windows Live Writer

I've been dabbling about with Windows Live Spaces (all bow) this morning, mostly to see what can be done with their version of blogging. It kind of looks like a Microsoft version of Facebook. It has a profile section and a facility to Add Friends and so on. And it has a Live Writer application to download which allows one to add to one's blog by writing the blog while offline, then uploading to the blog later. It works for non Windows Live blogs too.

I am presently typing on a background similar in appearance to that used on WIDFIPOTP, which is a bit odd, because the usual Blogger interface is simple black text on white. I'll have to see if it can upload to more than one blog at a time later on.

I like the spelling checker and the familiar Windows stylee menu systems. Tags seem to need a slight bit more research. Blogger isn't included in the default values in the "Insert Tags" menu.

Update: Yes, it is possible to use the Writer to publish to two or more blogs, if not simultaneously, at least consecutively.

Links: Windows Live Spaces; Facebook

10,000 hits

Congratulations to the airspeed.ie customer who became the 10,000th visitor to Writing it Down fills in Pieces of the Puzzle on December 27th 2007 at 11.40am.

I am sorry I don't have a WIDFIPOTP tee-shirt in your size to present to you, or a jaunty bumper sticker with an appropriate slogan. You will have to make do with my heartfelt thanks for your visit, which appears to have lasted..... 0 seconds.

Ah.

Let's move on then, shall we?

Simplicity of Blogging is Good

I recently converted the parish Website from a page by page html drudge to a happy new blog. I hope the parish approves! I have kept the original pages on the server in case an about face is ordered, but I think the archiving of old posts, the flexibility of the blog format, the ability to subscribe to the blog and (of course) the pitch I made to them about how much better it will be to manage, will persuade the powers that be to adopt this new-fangled way of doing things.

I'm presently running three blogs now, including the newcomer. Writing it down fills in pieces of the puzzle is by far the apple of my eye at the moment, but I also pop in from time to time to post something at the Dublin South-West Blog.

If you've not tried it before and you have any sense that you might be able to post on a subject on at least a semi-regular basis, then why not try one of the blogging services out there? It's fun, free (although sometimes expensive in time) and it's now become trendy to have a blog!

Hello Los Angeles!

Twenty two visits from Los Angeles today to the blog. I'm not sure if that's 22 people who suddenly decided Writing it down fills in pieces of the puzzle is a prime example of a school project on how not to maintain a blog, or one person who reappeared 22 times.

If it's the latter, does your boss have an Irish office? I want to work there. Reading a blog all day instead of doing work seems like a plan to me.

Of course, I have no idea if you are in the middle of the day when I am having my breakfast or brushing your teeth for bed as I poke the canteen scrambled eggs experimentally with a spoon. Maybe you are a dreadfully insomnia-afflicted individual, seeking the means to put yourself to sleep. If you came back 22 times, I'm glad it hasn't worked. Maybe I'm doing something right after all.

Another one stuck in my head

"Pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka...!"
"What?"
"Sorry. Tune stuck in my head. Pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka-pukka...!"
"Which tune?"
"That Van Halen song from the 80s.... 'Why can't this be love'..."

Since I joined up the blogmusik.net site, (also known as Deezer), I've been enjoying a nostalgic re-listen to the soundtrack of my mis-spent youth.

"Whee-whee-whee-whee-we-we....!"
"ZZ-top...? 'Legs'?
"Right on...!"

"Dee-dee-de-dee... de-de-de-dee-dee...!
"Europe...? 'The Final Countdown'?
"Definitely."

"You're talking to yourself again, aren't you?"
"Yes, we are."

Next week I'm making my second First Communion to the sound of T-Rex. Be warned. It may be quite a conversation.

Irish Blogs let-down

I run (or have run) a couple of sites in the past in which I know other browsers (the people, not the IE/Firefox thingies) have felt they've invested some time and energy in supporting. And I know what it's like to feel a need for change, modernisation, a revamp of the whole set-up.

I've also been a frequent visitor to an online site or service over which I've had no direct control but have enjoyed and made a part of my browsing day.

Irish Blogs.ie is one of those sites that has insinutated itself into that contented part of my online mind. It is usually the second or third stop on my browsing schedule. This blog is listed there and it shows up when I update. Love seeing the title and the first few lines of text among all the other, more popular blogs. And, of course, enjoying the read of interesting topics that comes up in the list by other bloggers.

Over the past few weeks, the Irish Blogs site has been radically altered and is no longer the plain but beloved destination it once was. Instead of a no-nonsense list of fairly-recently updated blog posts, the aggregator is now divided into "Popular" and "Latest" and "Other". It also doesn't appear to update towards the end of the week at all. And the "Popular" posts don't cater at all for the likes of me: a non-conformist, erratic who likes to pick and choose what he finds interesting, as opposed to being told what it is he should be reading.

I hope that the tenent of "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" will sink in and some of these changes be reversed. I'm all for changing things about and I know one cannot please everyone. But this is just a bit too radical a change.

Elephants. Yeah.

"What," Herself asks me, "What do any of those movies on your blog have to do with... well, your blog?"
"It's my blog. I can put on it what I like," I reply, with a right snoot on.
"Fair enough," she says giving me a A Look.

In this multi-media age, "Writing it down" isn't always enough to fill in pieces of the puzzle. Movies on my blog are of things I like or which strike a personal chord. Simple as that. I even have a list of things which won't ever see the light of day on my blog, either because their copyright is too tightly held or because there isn't a technical way I can figure out to put them here.

For example, I roared the other night like I haven't roared laughing in years at Pavarotti over on the rathergood.com site. You may not find it amusing -- I'm looking forward to seeing it again as soon as I click on the "Publish" button.

Titter too at the Beatles video.

WIDFIPOTP is not responsible for the content of other websites. The links offered above are family friendly. Others on the third-party site may not be. Consider yourself warned.

So I dropped me choccie bar... Big deal.

Thought I'd post something humorous about how God hates me cos I bit a chocolate bar this evening and hurt an already broken tooth (emphasis on how eating sweets is well known not to have an effect on tooth decay, of course). Then to add insult to dental injury, I dropped the rest of the chocolate bar on the floor.

In search of a suitable judgemental God image I could find nothing. Then I thought about a weeping image and found this website.

How peculiar.

Link: Weeping Gallery Dot Net

This ain't no stinkin' zombie...!

Yes, I've been busy, so the Blog has been idle. I mean, time flies when you're not having fun, so I suddenly find a whole lot of time has passed since my last post. Sorry, gentle readers, for the infrequent updates.

I spent today walking at a 45 degree angle into the wind and sleet on the Greenhills Road in the name of Work. Work involves inspecting certain areas from time to time to see if the general environmental condition has improved, disimproved, or has stayed the same since the previous inspection. This was a definite disimprovement, as the temperature gauge in the electronic gizmo in the car said it was 3 degrees Centigrade outside. I can vouch for the fact that it was considerably feckin colder with the wind.

Environmentally speaking, in the world of Litter, you may be interested to know that after a fall off, crisp packets are making a comeback, although cigarette butts shall probably never be toppled as a number one litter item. You don't think they're litter, Judge? Well, try counting them in the cold. You'll soon get a sense of the number of them.

Our bus driver this evening made no special announcements and didn't (unlike the bus driver of another evening this week) take a shortcut over unsuitable speed ramps to the rattlement of various spinal cords. A Muslim lady at the bus stop had trouble getting a buggy to collapse though, so she solved the problem by boarding, thrusting a child bagged up in pink eiderdown into the arms of a startled passenger and alighting again to wrestle the damned thing onto the bus. I occasionally offer help in such circumstances, but was too far back in the bus to have gotten there in time. She spent the bus journey trying to eat the child. I note that Herself's daughter also tries to eat her baby at every opportunity. It's a definite Mammy thing.

I really have occasionally asked persons staggering under the weight of shopping if they would like a bit of help boarding a bus. They invariably refuse. I don't know why. I could not run further than five steps with someone's Heinz beans and Coco Pops without being caught or having a coronary. It may be the ponytail that puts them off. They may think I will sell the groceries for sugarlumps.

I am also intrigued by the lack of passengers willing to sit beside me on a bus. Perhaps the fact that I am trying to make room on the seat by scrunging up into a teensy corner and holding my breath dissuades them. A large blue-faced man clutching a manbag and peering out from under the kind of hat only the thick kid at school used to wear may not be conducive to risk-taking. They may think I will take something unspeakable out of the bag or worse -- talk to them. I have seen one-legged women coming from a session with pliers and files at the Chiropodist preferring to stand rather than take the only remaining seat -- beside me.

Bread and butter pudding was forced upon me as a treat this evening so I politely ate it, even though it was covered with hot custard. You have to be polite in the face of such sugary goodness. The fact that I love bread and butter pudding and am fond enough of custard does not detract in the slightest from the ordeal.

Apart from these few hardships, not much is happening. I am to undergo Overtime next week, so transmission may again be interrupted. I may be drunk on Friday. Most likely Saturday though.

Anyhow. Talk to ya.

If I could only combine George Best with pants peeing I'd be on a winner

It's the gloomiest of glum days here today. I fetched myself out into the drizzle to go pick up some items I'd reserved online in the local Argos store, missed the bus by a long spit, and stood like a clam at the bus stop for 45 fruitless minutes before giving up and going home again to dry off.

About 3.00pm, it was as dark as full night, so I turned on all the Christmas lights and room lamps as well as the electric, flame-effect fire, to try and cheer up the general ambience of lonliness, with some measure of success.

Now I've just had the doorbell rung by the local pre-teen oiks, whose original invention of ringing or knocking at doors and running away is giving them no end of fun. Hope the newspaper they bring home from the shop for upstanding citizen Dad is properly soaked.

My other visitors today -- the ones to this Blog -- are making for interesting statistics. The majority are responding to the "George Best €5 Notes, only €10" post from way back when. It seems to be in the top 3 Google results for those seeking a footballer souvenir. I am intrigued to find the "Peed my pants. Again" post is attracting a steady stream (pun intended) of occasional visitors. It appears I have inadvertantly hit on a fetish subject. Fair play to ye, lads (and presumably lassies). I'm just glad I don't have your cleaning bills.

Ah! The doorbell again. They must be on the way back from the shop. What fun!

The obligatory Welcome post

I've not used a Blog before, though I've browsed and been entertained, amused, bemused by many I've read in the past. One thing which bothers me is the necessity to update. It feels like work I'm unlikely to do regularly.

My name is Willie Walsh. I live in a place called Dublin, which is on the east part of the island called Ireland. Ireland is the island to the west of Britain. Britain includes England, Wales, Scotland, and is also known as the "United Kingdom of Britain & Northern Ireland." I live in the southern portion of Ireland, not Northern Ireland. So I'm in the east part of the south of Ireland, not in the U.K. Okay?

I know. It's confusing. To add to the tale, Ireland is part of the European Union, which means we live in Europe. But as an island, we're not part of Europe. This kind of thinking is common on islands, I'm told. "Island mentality" they call it.

You may find other forms of mentality in this Blog as we go along. I have yet to decide on its direction.

I am certain, however, that part of the reason for starting this Blog is to transfer some writings, either previously published or relatively "new", to a home where people might actually get to see them. My old website is in a backwater and is seldom visited. Unfortunately, I have to number myself among the majority who do not visit there very often. This may bode ill for the likelihood of my updating the Blog so let's hope we're pointing at this post and laughing this time next... whenever....

A few pointers to my friends and future friends who may have visited here without having seen the workings of a Blog before: The posts are dated, and usually the newer posts appear at the top. You can add a comment by using that handy "Comment" hyperlink at the foot of each post. I think you may have to register, though, before you can post.

Enjoy the Blog. If you do, please use that handy hyperlink.