Tag: blogging

Brian is back again, but he’s still not a Real Photographer

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I was delighted to note that Brian Micklethwait, my favourite UK blogger, had decided to end another of his self-imposed hiatuses (hiatii?) and start up his regular blogging again. And so far this week, we’ve had a couple of wonderful photos [here and here] of Anish Kapoor’s Olympic sculpture, a Shard update from the 1950s and a link to a wonderful South African blog post about London.

And then today: geese.
And this quote, after a close encounter with a gander (while having a gander at his missus):

A real photographer would have advanced again, made him angry again, and got a shot of him being angry, while very slightly risking death, again.

I don’t know, hey Brian? If a swan can break a man’s arm (anyone ever seen this happen, by the way?) surely a goose could at least take out a finger…

Take care out there.

My kingdom for a post…

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A post, a post… My kingdom for a post. According to Mr Shakespeare, so speaketh Richard III back on Bosworth Field back in 1485, although in the throes of battle, he was misheard and his request was mistakenly thought to be for a horse. Looking back, just speakething (albeit boldly speakething) about wanting a horse would be a  rather short-sighted thing to do when one considers that if he were to blog about it his need, he could then tie it in to Facebook and twitter, reaching a much wider audience and hugely increasing his chances of securing some equine transport.
Richard III was a canny fellow and what he really wanted was a blog post – and through that, a horse, escape, freedom and the chance to fight another day.
Sadly, Richard III was with MTN and had failed to activate his roaming option before arriving in Leicestershire. Thus, there was no connectivity, no chance of any blog post, no horse and – as history tells us –  no chance to fight another day.

So it is with me. Because of my enforced bed rest, I haven’t been doing anything and moments of inspiration for suitable blog post topics have been few and far between. This explains why inspirational blog posts have also been few and far between.

However, there is some good news: @JacquesR came to the party with some inspiration via Facetube earlier and a link to some very interesting long-exposure pics on design milk:

The pictures are taken on the New Transit Yurikamome – a rail system in Tokyo, Japan and are by Flickr user AppuruPai and there’s plenty more Yurikamome goodness in her Yurikamome set.

Theatresports

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As this post publishes itself (via the magic of WordPress), I will – if all is going according to plan – be lying on a bed in an operating theatre in a hospital deep in the Southern Suburbs (no, not that one – I want a decent chance of survival) with a highly accomplished and highly expensive surgeon delving inside me like they do on Grey’s Anatomy.
I’m not particularly looking forward to this. My last “proper” op was when I was 7.
The aim of this one from my point of view is twofold: it will hopefully sort out the medical issues I have had recently and it will give me a chance to flirt with the nurses on the recovery ward.
In addition, I’ll be handily placed for the local A&E department when my wife reads this.

Pre-posting this is a bit of a risk: previous pre-posts about big events backfired spectacularly. I can only hope that that incident was a one-off. I can’t afford similar disasters with today’s operation.
Although the thought has occurred to me that it would be unlikely to be cancelled because of heavy snowfall.

Anyway, I digress. Often. And this time it’s probably because of pre-op nerves. See, much like when one reads a newspaper story about an event that one witnessed and one  realises just how inaccurate the papers are, so it is with being a patient in a hospital when one has, for much of one’s life, worked in and around the medical profession. That smooth veneer of cleanliness, knowledge, professionalism and caring that you see as an outsider actually often covers a multitude of sins. I would prefer to be ignorant of these things for the next few days.
Indeed, the run up to this op has been plagued by poor service, misdiagnoses and ineptitude at virtually every step. It doesn’t fill me with confidence.

Still, it should all be plain sailing as long as the bloke with the knife has had his morning coffee (maybe the pre-op nil-by-mouth thing goes for surgeons as well).

All being well (but most especially me) I should be back blogging “soon”.
Maybe  even sooner than that if I manage a couple more pre-posts before Thursday today.
You’ll never know the difference.

Missing

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I decided to take the weekend off from blogging and all in all, it went quite well, aside from the monumental guilt I felt for not blogging. I know that when I don’t blog, I lose readers, but equally, I’m aware that when I blog badly, I also lose readers.
It’s at times like this that I have to remember why I am blogging here.

Posts which get the most feedback are those which tweak people’s metaphorical nipples: those being the political ones, the environmental ones or the ones taking the p… mickey out of the Cape Times letters page. Sadly, recently the local political scene has been hugely depressing, the local environMENTALists quiet (aside from occasional petty and pointless stunts) and the Cape Times letters page unusually sane.

It’s no wonder it’s been so quiet here.

It was much louder this time last year…

Brings a tear to the eye…

On this blog

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A regular reader mentioned today that he checks this blog 6 times a day for updates. He went on to say that he can remember a time when I used to write once a day “but then something happened and it slowed down”.
And he’s right, of course.
Not on the checking the blog thing – that’s just silly – that’s what the RSS feed is for.

But things have slowed down and life has changed. After the excitement of the 2009 election and the 2010 World Cup, things have become much more settled in SA. And added to that, while there’s always the local newspapers to write about (letters pages especially), I’m so busy lately that I can hardly even afford the time to annoy local cartoonists with my entirely justified personal opinions on the latest political issues. Although that’s not so much the writing the actual post as much as always getting the last word in in the comments.

Or “replying” as I like to call it.

Still, at least I’ve never thought of taking a summer break, as some bloggers do. But maybe that’s just because it’s not summer.

Sometimes, I find myself wandering through the internet, looking for inspiration or something to plagiarise. But I’m beginning to get the idea that the internet has shrunk and I’ve seen all the good bits already. I could always fall back on quota photos, but that was really only acceptable during the “post a day” era. Although I’ve done unacceptable things before.

Maybe it’s time to relive those days. Not the unacceptable ones, but maybe it is time to head back to a post a day. I’ll consider it, because after all, those heady times were rather taxing, but the regular reader seemed to enjoy them.

But even he is going to be disappointed 5 times a day.