Yearly Archives: 2006

Sunday Roast: please god tell me I’ve not inspired something burgundy

This week has been an odd week, mostly marked me with feeling absolutely pants and wanting to do nothing but stay in bed and sleep. Unfortunately I have to work for a living so lots of sleep is just a pipe dream. This general feeling of malaise has affected my writing somewhat, making me overly grumpy and inclined to see the dark side – my apologies. I promise to beat whatever nasty virus is taking control of my immune system shortly. Till then, enjoy this weeks offerings.

The US House of Representatives has just approved the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) “tries to limit the access paedophiles have to networking sites”… How does it do this? By stopping the children using those sites. Um, am I missing something here? Surely it is the paedophiles you need to ban? I’m all for net safety but… This smacks very much of shutting that barn door after the entire herd has stampeded. That, and it punishes kids and is likely to make them rebel and me MORE unsafe rather than teaching them to be careful. That’s my original gut reaction any way.

In another attempt to combat this problem, a child online safety card has been unveiled This ‘NetIDMe’ relies on you, and the person you are messaging, both having a verified card, hence identity. More than that I can’t tell because the NetIDMe website is down at the moment due to unexpected demand… Yup, getting your story talked about on BBC News might do that if you aren’t prepared. Doesn’t bode well for the scaleability of the solution. Also, does it transfer to other sites, or do you have to use the NetIDMe site? Questions that will have to wait to be answered…

Good news – the BBC is supporting Top Gear’s current format. For those of you not familiar with Top Gear, it is a long running British motoring show that is, quite frankly, hilarious. Even my mother who freely admits she wouldn’t be able to pick a Jaguar out of a line-up, religiously watches the show each week. They have in the past determined that a car can get to the Alps faster than a plane, that it is possible to play football with cars, and that caravans (whilst the nemesis of all motorists) make a satisfying ‘kaboom kablooey’ when dropped from a height. A good chunk of what makes the program so funny is the interplay between the presenters, so it is reassuring to see that the BBC is standing by the team and the slightly… unorthodox… way they choose to do things.

Tara has a sweet post describing her fear of loosing readers which dovetails nicely with something Ben said this week – it should be fun. Yes an audience and technorati ranking is nice an’ all, but don’t get all neurotic about it (says the girl who goes into a fit of the doldrums when technorati slices two or three links off the total, or who went into transports when Feedburner reported a readership of 72! Yes, 72!) I think the point here is that whilst being ‘famous’ and loved is always nice, the most important thing is to enjoy what you’re doing. Passion shows. If you ain’t having fun, stop.

Which is exactly what Josh did. He dropped off the scene several months back after having the quintessential ‘what the frell am I doing here?’ moment. Now, refreshed, rejuvenated, reinvigorated (and all other good ‘re’ words you can think of), he is back. In fact he is back twice.

Women 2.0. No, not a new version of women (for starters you just couldn’t improve on the current model 😉 ) but rather Scrivs having a moment and realizing that women are a vast, untapped resource on the web. I leave him to explain it better.

I think I’ll leave the headline to speak for itself: Dog destroys £40,000 Elvis teddy. The photos of the carnage are really rather impressive. That was one pissed off dog.

Darren asks should blogs use the extended entry (more) feature? Personally I don’t like to use it – that extra click to get to the full content annoys me, but I can see the advantages to using it.

We’ve had the Web for fifteen years today. It’s hard to think I was 9 when Tim Berners-Lee released the software. I have, like the rest of my generation, grown up with the Web. I didn’t really start using it though till about 1998. So you could say I’ve grown up with Google.

Now I am something of a geek when it comes to chess. I love to play the game, though at the moment the only chance I have is on the rare occasions I go back to the Homestead – in fact last game I played was back at Christmas when I fought a long campaign against my brother and finally beat him 3 games to 2. I also have a small but growing collection of chess boards. I’m not sure what it is, but I just find them aesthetically so beautiful. So when I read this article the header image interested me almost as much as the text (it is an interesting read as well). This was a chess-set I had to have. So one email later, I was armed with the name of the company. Now all I need is $160, or an occasion to get someone buy me one… Hmmm, it is my birthday in just over a month…

And lastly, the weekly funny: Four men, eight treadmills… Some people have far too much time on their hands. (Thanks to Moose for forwarding me this).

BrightCast: Emergency Transmission

Before you say anything, yes I know this isn’t actually a podcast. I did try to record something, but I’ve drunk a glass of wine and the first thing to go is always my diction. You try saying “obligatory bigging-up of your blog” when you’ve downed a decent quantity of fine rose. So, because all appearances to the contrary I am quite easily embarrassed, I bring you the BrightCast in text form.

Well I was sitting here with a glass of wine, wondering what I would blog about this evening, when all of a sudden…

Hell no! I just realised it’s been 79 days since I brought you a new installment of the BrightCast. So much for my 2 weekly schedule… Um, sorry? I’d give you the usual excuses about how it’s time consuming to record and all that crap, but basically I’m lazy. I don’t like hearing my own voice so I record something ten times over till it is ‘perfect’, and I’m as uninspired as all mercy.

Any road, just the fact that a long period of time has passed should clue you in to one little thing – I haven’t the foggiest of an idea where to go next. Poor Colin has been left standing on the side of the road doing his best drowned rat impression for the past three months.

It’s time to admit it: I need help.

The idea always was that I’d write what happened next based on your comments and input. So far the comments and input have been… Slim on the ground. I do know that the limousine driver is called Les, and that he might, or might not, be a secret agent investigating global warming. This was Moose’s contribution. I seem to remember we were being very silly that evening. She did get penguins into her story-line though, so kudos.

Either way, lack of input from my readers means lack of ideas for Cas, and lack of ideas for Cas means nothing gets written.

So time for a change of tack. I’m throwing down the gauntlet to y’all – I’m looking for people to collaborate with me on this one. It could be you were providing the ideas. Might be you fancied writing an installment yourself. Maybe you’ve got a hankering to do some artwork that will inspire me. Something, anything, so long as I can get the BrightCast back into the ring for the next round.

What do you get for helping? Minionhood (if you aren’t a Minion already) of course. My undying love and devotion goes without saying. The honour of working with me and guesting on Bright Meadow should be a bit of a draw. I might even throw a surprise sweetener into the mix in the form of iTunes vouchers (or something) if it all works out. Oh, and there would be the obligatory bigging-up of your own blog as well. If you haven’t got a blog, well, tough – even I can’t big up what doesn’t exist!

So there you have it. Cas needs you. If you’re interested, drop me a line via the contact form, or on cas-at-brightmeadow.co.uk

And I’m not just looking for one person to help here either – this might be one of those times where the more is the merrier. At least till I work out if this whole playing with other people really works for me. I am honestly seeking your help here as I want Colin to have a story worthy of him, but I am doubting my ability to write that story on my own.

Please, I need some body. Not just any body. Help me get this story back off the ground?

I’m the passionate one

Let the games begin…

So the day is finally here. Bright Meadow is nestling happily in it’s appropriate communities and I’ve been formally introduced on the 9rules blog. Seems like it’s as good a time as any to introduce myself to any new readers who might stray this way.

Firstly, hello new people
*waves*
Welcome to Bright Meadow.

What can you expect to find here?

A lovely community of people.
Wonderful blog minions.
Um, other fun stuff.

I could go into depth but that would just spoil the fun of you getting to know me, and me getting to know you. Take yourself over to the about page for a bit more of the boring bio stuff.

It’s all fairly relaxed around here. I try and post at least once every two days – sometimes it’s more than that, sometimes it is a little less (life has a nasty habit of getting in the way) – but you are always guaranteed a Sunday Roast on, not surprisingly, Sunday around midday (UK time). In the past year I think I’ve missed like one, maybe two, and that was Christmas-time and right after I split up with the then-BF. Both good excuses I think 😉 I talk about whatever comes off the top of my head. That includes, but is not limited to, my life, my friends, and my job. I’ve yet to talk about my pets… no, wait, I have talked about my pets (houseplants anyway. I have no pets at the moment due to evil landlord issues). I also talk about all kinds of stuff that are only tenuously related in my febrile imagination. You know those long rambling conversations you have with mates on lazy summer afternoons where you start talking about how you like your burgers cooked, then end up by solving the drought in Ethiopia, with a detour in the middle to work out what is the coolest superpower? Yeah, Bright Meadow’s kinda like that. Fun, but I haven’t got a frelling clue what’s going to happen next.

And I have a tendency to ramble. Never been concise in my life.

Before I scare you off for good, I will just say Scrivs was right when he said I write for the passion. I love it. I’ve made stories up and played with words literally since I can remember. The first one I ever wrote down was when I was six and it was about a big blue sea serpent who was very nice and rescued the princess of the pirates from a horrible fate. And found lots of treasure. I said I enjoyed doing it, not that I was any good at doing it. You’re just the poor unfortunates who are on the receiving end – things were so much easier before the internet, weren’t they? 😉

I will leave you with what have been some of the most popular posts here on the site (list a mix of personal favourites, those with lots of comments, and what my stats package thinks lots of people have read).

Watch out for the penguins now!

I am an admin queen!

Just finished the first draft on a 40 page report – it’s been sitting around waiting to be written for three months. I finish it in three days. I rule!

(And I’m not making up that ruling part – apparently I am a ‘godsend’. Direct quote!)

Blog Club – Anime

The first rule of Blog Club is… Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

I started to write this post with an introduction to the whole ‘Blog Club’ idea, then when I was about three paragraphs in, Tammie beat me to the punch. Seeing as how this idea was her baby in the first place, and I don’t think I can explain it any better, I point you in the direction of the linked post for more information.

Basically it boils down to this: we have two weeks to discover a 9rules community and write something inspired/based on/about that given community. Simple. The aim of blog club is to discover the communities in 9rules and to highlight these communities. As a new comer to 9rules the sheer wealth of fellow blogs is a little overwhelming, so a little structured reading seems like a good idea.

So, without more ado or further gilding the lily, here’s my Blog Club submission:

The community for this round is Anime. After history, anime is the smallest community on 9rules with just three blogs. In one respect that makes it a good (and easy) place to start. At the same time my heart fell because the amount I know about anime could be poured into an egg cup and still leave room for a decent sized egg. So I apologize at the start of this post for any factual errors and confusions that are bound to rampage their way through my words.

Japanese movie and television animation, often having a science fiction theme and sometimes including violent or explicitly sexual material.

That’s the definition my dictionary widget provides me. A dig further using Wikipedia doesn’t exactly clarify matters in my brain.

In fact I could spend this entire post talking about what is and what isn’t anime, leaving both you and myself even more confused, and not talking about the pretty blogs I discovered, so I won’t. In my mind ‘anime’ is 1) animation, 2) Japanese. Let’s just leave it at that.

For someone who has held a life long love of science fiction and fantasy, has played one or two role playing games, and watched a fair few cartoons growing up, anime never really figured on my radar. You’d think I had geek credentials enough but clearly not. So when someone says “anime” to me I think straight away to the two Studio Ghibli films I’ve seen (and loved), Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. Then I remember that I got Appleseed out of the library on DVD on impulse and really rather enjoyed it. But that’s it. Three animes (is that an appropriate plural?) in near twenty four years. Ouch. My geek hat is clearly slipping.

As I pretty soon exhausted my own experiences of anime, my thoughts started to wander into territory that isn’t strictly anime: cartoons and graphic novels. In my brain anime, cartoons, and graphic novels all share something, and that is their artwork. It is the artwork that links them all together. I read V for Vendetta in the same spirit I watch anime – sometimes with the words, sometimes without. Each time I come away with a slightly different story because I’ve ‘read’ the pictures differently. For someone who is much more comfortable with words, this is slightly odd, but I can stare at this form of artwork (graphic/manga/anime) for stretches at a time and understand volumes.

With anime pictures really are worth a thousand words.

I love how meaning can be conveyed without speaking. I also love how drawn characters can be more believable and truthful than standard actors.

More than all that though, I’m left with the impression of how frelling pretty anime is. Even when portraying horrific war and destruction it’s… breathtaking.

Now, I’m not saying I’m going to rush out and empty Forbidden Planet of their entire anime stock this weekend, but if anyone has some anime they’d like to lend me (burn to DVD and post me, whatever), I’ll be more than happy to watch it. Look on it as a way to fill in what I’ve just realised is a big gap in my education.

blog club, blog_club, 9rules, anime