Blogcon/nyc deliberations:
Downside: no one wants to share a room with mein Vegas.
Upside: The Neville Brothers are playing that weekend, and I'm sure I had "hear Aaron Neville sing just one more time" on my big list of things to do with my life.

I'm supposed to be working (at home on freelance stuff, today's a public holiday here), so I'll be quickish; but we went and saw our potential housesit place this afternoon. it will only last for 10 weeks, which is annoying, but otherwise it's perfect - a good location five minutes' drive from here, a backyard for Mr B, a gate onto the schoolyard at the back, a nice sunny back room with a decent gas heater, and a relaxed owner. now all we have to do is get the building project started on time.

cool. I don't have to go to New York. I can make it.
(boingboing again)

ps: If I can/make it here/I'll make it/anywhere (sorry, worst paraphrase-of-a-Broadway-song-pun ever.)

look closer. it's not what you think.
via BoingBoing.

went to see a report on a survey danced last night. it was good. funky chunky. must blog fully...busily working on a presentation I have to give on blogging in a few months; if I go to BlogCon maybe I can give it there too? it all contributes to the tax deductibility of it all. if I go.

want to know what really goes through a losing gameshow contestant's mind when he's smiling and saying "thanks very much?"
via Looby Lu, who is partly to blame.

and speaking of rap, here's a shout-out o' total disrespek to those nuthin' types at Hotmail, who changed my (and everyone else's) preferences to allow them to sell my email address. I changed it back as soon as I could, but it has caused me to get a lot of spam straight into my inbox, bypassing my highest-level filter settings. this has happened on an address that is not listed anywhere on the Web and formerly got no spam at all. if you use Hotmail, you need to check your personal profile settings.

I admit it. I typed the phrase "R.Kelly XXX" into Google. shame, Jenny, shame. But I didn't go so far as to install Quick Time just so I could see the video. I'm not that depraved.

hmm. maybe the old link worked by pointing to something, which is no longer there - and of course it wouldn't work on my offline versions. still...OK, enough of this.

too weird. I've just looked at my archives (as in the files I keep on my computer) and they are missing the link, too; and this when I view them offline!
there is no reason for this. the template I was using last year has hyperlinks. and I'm sure that up until a couple of weeks back, the link worked. what, did the magic expire on that trick or something? including retrospectively? weird, weird, weird.

heh. I feel pretty clever here. instead of doing all that, I grabbed an archive link from another template and used it instead. took a few goes to stop it creating a huge narrow box at the top, and I still have my daggy "life, vegemite" description up there in text, but my archive links are back. something must have changed at Blogger; I wonder if everyone using that template has that same problem? must be driving them MAD. did me.

yeah, it's ugly. whichever one you're looking at. turns out the fault seems to be with the actual template I was using; whether or not I renewed it from "choose template".
so now "all" I have to do is pick a new one and reinstate comments, blogrings, pic links, sitemeter, etc, etc. draw your own little icon of a little man at work.

.

look, I have to sleep. so you'll just have to do without archives for a bit longer, OK?
it's weird; there isn't even a link to them now, just the word "archives".
and no, I have not touched my template. at least not near the archives bit.
I can feel another reconstruction job coming on....

that didn't last very long. this week's blogon:

Lifestyle choice? Born to it? These blogs may answer the question: are bloggers born, or made? (and by the way, the authors are gay.)

Little. Yellow. Different.
"Like Speed Racer, only gayer," trumpets the site of Ernie, a Bay Area (San Francisco) gay geek with attitude.
"I wanna be a geek, you see. But not just any geek. I wanna be someone like Chris, who can crank out XML editors and Java RSS aggregators and spreadsheet emulators using nothing but javascript the way some people brush their teeth before going to bed, and yet is still cool enough to play in a pop band. Or Leonard, who can spend hours discussing the
nuances of CSS and DHTML using big scary words that fly over my head, and yet still gives a pretty good lightshow if you give him a pair of glowsticks."
He's firmly embedded in the West Coast blogging culture, and tells illustrated tales of his crazy offline adventures - such as crashing a car in a creek last New Years' Eve - but not so badly that he forgot to take digital photos for his blog.
There's a touch of the Dilberts about Ernie; his stories ring with familiarity to many contract workers, like the struggle to get back in the building when he forgets his security pass, and the time he was sacked with half an hours' notice - he still suspects it's because he bitched about a coworker on his blog.
`If someone read LYD and left the page thinking that my weblog was nothing but a big mass of yellow gayness, they really weren't getting the point." Not much chance of that.

DykeWrite
A whole lot of diverse bloggers looked around one day and realised they had something in common; not to put too fine a point on it, they were all dykes.
So they formed DykeWrite, a kind of uber-blog where selected posts from members' blogs and posts especially written for the site form most of the content.
This ranges from "what's it all about" stuff - "What is Dyke? What does the word "dyke" mean to you? Do you consider being a dyke different from being lesbian (I do.)? Is it a lifestyle, a political movement, or both? How do you feel about people who jump on you for using the word "dyke"? Which do you prefer, dyke or lesbian, or do you care?" - to individual tales
of what it's like being a woman's woman in a man's world.
Lots of links to some unusually thoughtful and emotionally open personal blogs, too.

Gay News
Gay News is an automated news service linking to media reports on gay issues worldwide, from Egypt's anti-gay laws to the latest on HIV treatment to what young Elton John is up to these days.
It picks out the best articles for a "spotlight" segment and despite its United Kingdom-United States bias, gives a lot to think about.


Swish Cottages
Clubbing, pub trivia nights and Michael's fabulous party on Saturday night: just another day in the life of London-based blogger David. His favourite hangout is the Vauxhall Tavern; he's even written an A-Z of what he loves about it.
"F is for five o' clock, four quid, full, fags, fashion, Fred Perrys, footie kit, fraternising with friends, fancying, flirting ..."
When not socialising madly, he complains about middle management meetings and lets you know what he thinks of the latest CD releases.
For that uniquely British touch, heoffers the London Sun's "real story" on British soldiers in Afghanistan: ""Troops were shocked when they were targeted by frisky fellas wearing PINK LIPSTICK, NAIL POLISH and PERFUME."
A photographs page gives the impression of random moments from a day wandering around London.
Follow the link to his friend Marcus's site, where you'll fine reviews of Kylie Minogue's London concert and another perspective on David.
Swish Cottages seems to lack an archives link; enter the word /archives/ after the main URL to step back in time.

I may never post here again. I may just add links to the sidebar with blogrolling. who needs redundant descriptions and opinions anyway? plus, when I come here, I am compelled to click on "view web page" and then to check my stats, which usually sets me off on some random surf. bad, bad, bad.

I would just like to say that Hoopty is a sweetie and that Blogrolling, where he sent me, is a fine site if you want to run a huge and well-updated links list. and don't we all?

just ignore this post; sometimes the only place to keep your bookmarks is on your blog, especially when you work on three different machines.
(thinks: would Ev incorporate a permalink blog function that didn't require template coding? like a toolbar button that opened a special "sidebar" window where you could blog as normal but it would stay on the page? or is that making it tooeasy for the newbies?)

Richard Woolcock r/e

towns shearing r/e

peter lees


roberts

domain

"latex suit garden hot rain pain small men work"
now that's a search string!

waah! JeanNine is more Jedi than me!