A Dingo's got my Barbie!!!

The diferrence between TypePad and Booger.

We are all well aware of the spam fiasco that happened here over past couple of days, I'll repeat that last bit "over the past couple of days". Bearing in mind that I've been listening to people complain about Booger® for a year and a half (and personally, I'm at the point where commenting on Booger® blogs is almost more trouble than it's worth), I guess two days of stuff ups on an otherwise unblemished service record from TypePad isn't all that bad.

But here's where they really shine. Not only did they listen to their customers, and not only did they treat it as a priority, they took their customers' advice and backed out the change. When was the last time that you saw Booger® overcome it's arrogance and do that? But that's not where it ends, here's something else you'll never, ever see Booger® do.

The following is from the "Everything TypePad" blog, which keeps customers up to date on product development (as opposed to the 'Six Apart Status' page that constantly informs users as to the availability of Six Apart products. What? Booger® doesn't have one of those? What a shame).

December 20, 2007

Spam update: We messed up, but we’re back on track

We’re sorry. We messed up, the anti spam system got way too aggressive, and we were trying to dial it back in small increments instead of what we eventually did, which was flipping all the way back to a setting that we know works for most people.

The truth is, making a system that learns from spam over time is tricky. we've been seeing a lot of success overall, but that doesn't make up for the fact that the overzealous spam filter has been interrupting your conversations over the last day or two. Put simply: We're sorry, and we think we've got it fixed now.

Just as importantly, we're putting in place some processes to make sure that if the anti-spam system tries to get too aggressive again, we can dial it back more quickly. Please do let us know how we're doing, and get in touch using the help ticket system if you need any assistance.

Sincerely –
The TypePad Team

I appreciate that Booger® is free, but as they say "you get what you pay for".

I'll show you what was in Gawilli's box later today.

The POst MOrtem

Before I start, I must make it clear that this is not about NaBloPoMo itself, but rather it's my feelings about it, yours may be completely different, and that's a good thing.

"Why did I even sign up?" That's a good question and it deserves an answer. Last year when I I was a relative newcomer (I had been blogging for about 6 months), it seemed like a big deal, but being fairly newish, I was too shy sign up. I did however post every day for the month, but it felt like even though I put on the uniform and turned up for every game, I simply wasn't part of the team. So this year when Melissa joined up, I got all swept up in the excitement and signed up too.

But signing up in itself was a real pain in the arse! And it almost caused me to rethink my decision, "Do I really need another fucking account, on another fucking social networking site, that I'll never be able to delete?" Hell I can't even count the number of damn accounts I already have but never use, and can't delete. And who the fuck is Ning anyway?

However I forged ahead and signed up, set up my page, and waited for the the big day to arrive. And arrive it did, with a flurry of mediocrity! I think that MaBloMe's major contribution to the blogosphere was to lower the overall quality of posts by a factor of 3. By this I mean that there are a lot of clever, witty and insightful bloggers out there who post around every three of four days, and their posts are well worth reading. However, given the onus of posting everyday, there was a sharp spike in the number of "I've got nothing to say" posts, which means that when you apply the law of averages, we move from 100% of posts being good to around 35% (the rest being filler posts to comply with the post a day requirement), resulting in a lowering of the average quality of posts from very good to not so good (I hesitate you use the term poor). While it's OK to say "I've got nothing" every now and then (hell I've done it myself), saying it every couple of days is not.

Which brings me to BloMe's second contribution to the blogoshpere; the flooding of feedreaders with posts that would have been better left unwritten. It's already a struggle to keep up with genuine posts, it was painful having to wade through mountains of "I'm only writing this because I joined PaBloMa and I have to post every day" posts. Now I'm not saying that all my posts are winners, in fact far from it,  I think I have a strike rate of about one if four being a decent post (but at least this is a constant on my blog, not a spike for a month)

Then there were the groups. What the hell was that all about!? People joined groups just to be in them, for example, Robin created a Fun Monday group that had thirty-seven members, fourteen of which had never posted a Fun Monday post, but better yet, didn't post in any of the four that were held during NoMoPo! But hey, I even joined a group myself, something about dog lovers, it had over 40 members and despite my visiting some and leaving comments, I didn't see one of them on my blog. And as for the friends list, mine was just a duplication of my sidebar links anyway.

So why am I so gripey about it? Well the answer is fairly simple; I post Monday through Saturday anyway, so the extra four posts shouldn't have been a hassle, yet the mere fact that I had to post everyday (and believe me, I'm OCD about commitments) made me feel like all of the posts for Nov were an imposition, particularly since I had to go to the Coast three times in quick succession during Nov. That coupled with the sheer weight of unreadable posts in Bloglines, sucked the fun right out of blogging for virtually the whole month of November.

Given that I don't advertise, and that I already have the best, most intelligent bunch of commenters on the net anyway, I wasn't looking to increase my traffic, which as it happens, was just as well. Out of interest I checked my stats and found that for the month of November my traffic had actually dropped by 20% compared to the previous three months. I put this down to the huge number of extra posts people were having to deal with.

I'm not saying NaBloPoMo was a bad thing (but I have deleted my profile and the link on my sidebar, but I still can't delete the account itself). I'm sure a lot of people got a lot out of it (and good luck to them), I'm just saying it didn't work for me. And no, I won't be doing it next year, in fact I'll be holding a NaBloPoMoBo (that's a National Blog Posting Month Boycott) and will not be reading posts written by participants while it's on. It's not sour grapes, it's just too much work.

Wow! See how many words I can write when I don't have to?

Mofo pet update

Before I begin, I'd like to reinforce what Molly said in her comment about yesterday's mofo delurk post, I'm not telling anyone to do anything; a) because I have no right, and b) you wouldn't obey me anyway. It's just a list of some things that in my experience I've found useful, and Claudia, yes they are all my own thoughts.

Ok, on to the post...Man I just have to tell you this!! I have just had the best blog hopping session ever! I went all over the blogoshpere and only came across two Word Verifications, it was heaven on a stick! Now I'm not suggesting that WV should be banned forever, occasionally you will write a post that attracts a lot of spam, I once wrote one about all the spam vi..gra emails I was getting and got flooded with spam for a few days so I just turned it back on for a couple of weeks until it died down again.

To show my appreciation to you all (well at least to the pet lovers out there) for putting the fun back into commenting, here's a couple cutesy clips. They are a bit long (both are around 2 min) and the first one is pretty boring, hmm long and boring, I could be describing my life so far.

Anyway, please take your seats, the show will be starting shortly (oh, and before I get the obligatory fart reference, that was a leather recliner making that noise towards the end)...

Just to show it's not all peace, love and harmony around here, this clip was taken the day before the one you just saw...

And finally, for the bandwidth challenged out there, who can't see the videos, here's a photo. This will show why it's so important for you to make it as easy as possible for me to comment, as you can see I'm already battling against significant inconvenience when it comes to typing...

I actually took this photo just now while I was waiting for the videos to upload. If you're trying to read what it says on my sweater, it's Cooperstown. Oh, and don't make fun of my pudgy little hands, it was the camera angle.

Attracting Comments 103

Today (Oct 3rd) has been declared "the Great Mofo Delurk" day, hmm kinda strange name if you ask me. Even if they just lost the 'the' it would sound ok, losing mofo would be even better. Anyway, in keeping with the theme (hey I just noticed that theme is the and me, cool!) of the day, I'll be giving a short lecture on attracting comments. (not that I get that many, I'm on the low end of the scale)

Comments are the lifeblood of blogging, and despite lying, delusional, narcissistic bloggers claiming that they only blog for themselves (yeah sure), no-one would continue to blog if they never received any comments (except for an certain unnamed wannabe comedian, who's blog title is similar to the title of this post except for the Attracting Comments bit, and who has had only a half a dozen comments in a year of blogging).

In an effort to help those of you who wish you had more (or even some) comments, here's what I've learned over my period (he he, you said period) of blogging.

*Update thanks to Melissa. I knew there was something else that I wanted to say (and this is where I had intended to put it) but I couldn't remember what it was, kinda like when you pack for a trip and you just know you've left something out of your luggage. If you think any of these points are about to you, it's because you think they apply to you, not because I've written them about you. Thanks Melissa.

1. Don't start all your posts with "I hate it when" [fill in the blank], or just plain "I hate" [insert peeve here]. People are looking for a diversion, a story that lifts their spirits, or something they can relate to, not tales of how the world is always against you. There are a lot more positive folks around than negative ones (and the positive ones are better commenters). Plus we've all got our own problems anyway.
2. Avoid being insulting or judgemental. It's really hard to come up with a comment to a post that has just insulted an entire demographic, particularly of you are part of that demographic.
3. If you are going to do a rant, make sure you get across fairly early in the piece that it is a rant. You do this by saying something that is so unbelievably outrageous that it's almost impossible to take seriously. (I say almost as there's always someone who will think you're for real)
4. Posting too many pictures in the one post, will lose all the dialup people, and there's still quite a lot of them out there. If you do need a lot of pictures for the post, try reducing the size so they will load faster.
5. Now pay attention, this is important...Get rid of your damn Word Verification! You may stop 5-10 spam comments in a month (I don't get more than one or two), but in the mean time, you've pissed of 100 bloggers (read potential commenters). Take it off for a month and see how many spam comments you actually do get. Most spam is on older posts anyway, so why not just close the comments on anything older than, say, three weeks.
6. Try not to post about the same thing all the time, your kids and your pets are fantastic, no-one is suggesting otherwise, but it's hard to come up with new comments when the posts are consistently the same, just with different dates and titles. (I know I'm guilty of this)
7. Be as regular as you can manage, you want to become part of peoples' routines. There's over 80 million blogs out there to choose from so no-one is going to keep coming back if there's rarely a new post. This doesn't count for blog buddies, they will always come back, I'm talking about new(ish) readers.
8. Where possible, write posts that appeal to those who lack in social skills and have few friends, they are more likely to try to communicate through the ether.
9. Keep your posts to a reasonable length, too short and folks won't think it deserves their effort to comment, too long and they've forgotten what it was bout anyway. Blogging is more like reading a magazine than a book.
10. Acknowledge your commenters, I prefer to do it in the comments section, but others like to send an email.
11. Periodically offer prizes, bloggers must all be descended from Native Americans, because they sure like shiny trinkets. (ahh WT, please refer to Point #2) I have seen a blog get 1500 comments on one post because the prize was way better than I've ever offered.
12. Don't refer to non commenting readers as lurkers. This is a derogatory term that goes back to the alt.binaries newsgroup days when people who only looked at the dirty pictures and didn't post their own, were called lurkers. Although it has taken on a less sordid meaning these days, but it's still a bit rude. They are all readers, some comment, some don't. Don't forget, you're trying to get them to comment, and insulting them may not be the best way achieve that goal.
13. Don't try to guilt anyone into commenting, no-one likes to be pressured. Tell me what you think.
14. Finally, try to refrain from calling non commenting readers "mother fucking lurkers". Specially if you are designing a button for an international day devoted to getting people to comment.

Now if you would like to read more about the mechanics of blogging, you might like to read this post, but before you click the link I have to warn you it's not for the faint hearted, and it's definitely R rated.

Sorry, it's all my fault.

I have an apology to make. After posting the spam emails about the sex pills, I've been inundated with spam comments trying to sell me, guess what? So it is with much regret that I've had to turn on Word Verification. I'm truly sorry for this, WV really pisses me off, but then most people seem to have it on anyway.

Why do idiots exist??

A first attempt.

Ok, here my first attempt at posting a video (Mark, I didn't say I couldn't figure it out, I just said I hadn't done it yet, I only got broadband yesterday arvo). I think the annoying clicking sound in the background is the autofocus, I've since disabled it. In case your interested, that's an AFL game on the TV that you can hear. Also, it gets a little boring towards the end, but I couldn't edit it as I don't have Quicktime editing software installed yet. Anyway, by the time you finished reading this crap, the clip should be ready to go.

Well, what you you think?

I'm getting there.

It's about 2:00am Sunday morning and I've finally downloaded just about all the stuff I need to be able to get back online safely. I had to download around 180Mb of Windows updates and virus definitions, and on a 56k modem that's just not fun.

I've been around to a lot of blogs but I'm not leaving comments at this stage because I've still got a few bits of software to get to make that a bit easier. Tomorrow I'll spend most of the day re-installing drivers and software for my peripherals.

I thought I'd give SeaMonkey a try for a change, but so far I've found that there aren't as many add-ons and themes available as there are for Firefox and Thunderbird, plus it's eerily similar to Netscape so I'm wondering how up to date it really is.

Anyway, time for bed.....

Looks like mass hysteria.

Warning: Rant Alert.
Opinion Expressed Alert.

Read at you own discretion, you have been forewarned.

(Don't bother trying to click on the links, they are not links they are just underlined for readability.)

Let me start by saying congratulations to everyone nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award, but let me add that I still think they are full of shit. As well as a little presumptuous. As I wove my way through the Fun Monday posts, I came across a blog that had so much bling in the sidebars that I got tired of sitting and waiting for the picture of the bad hair to load. While it loaded I went and made breakfast (toast, eggs and coffee). Before you jump all over me and tell me it's my fault because I can only get dialup here...I know that! This is not about all the garbage that people load their blogs with, its about this...

When I came back after eating breakfast (no shit!) the picture still hadn't loaded so I started reading the previous post as it was text only and was already there. I was sort of amused to see this " [Redacted] has been nominated for the oh, so very prestigious and highly coveted Blogger's Choice Awards.  It's like the bloggy Pulitzer.  It's that gold ring hanging out there that we all recognize as symbolizing greatness, but will always be out of reach for the likes of me". Exsqueeze me?! Are we talking about the same awards? Now If I had written that, you would know that it was hyperbole, but this was written in good faith.

Prestigious and coveted? How can they be, when they have only just been unleashed on a naive public for the first time this year?  Always out of the reach of the author? I doubt it. As far as 'always' goes, who knows if it will even be here next year? As for 'being out of reach', not so! All you have to do is nominate yourself then spend countless posts cajoling people to vote for you; just like all the blogs I found (while doing background for this post) were doing. Unless of course you were a catholic blog, then you rabidly harangued your readers with the threat that some heathen might win if you don't vote (ah, brought back memories of when I used to go to church).

This whole award thing is getting out of hand, it's fine if it's just a simple show of appreciation, like the Thinking Blogger or the Perfect Post type awards. But this is just rampant commercialism and does no great service to the blogging community as a whole. If you don't believe me, why don't you look at what is written about it by supporting sites. I found these while looking for verification that this was the first time the awards have been held. I had to look further afield than I first thought, as Bloggers Choice had removed the reference to it being their first year from the 'About' page (which I had previously read), possibly in an effort to make them look prestigious and coveted.

From the Bloggers Choice itself: 
"This awards competition is sponsored by PayPerPost and our other advertisers."

From Quick Online tips:
We all love blog awards, and Blogger’s Choice Awards is another opportunity to showcase your blog to the world and get some free traffic and subscribers.
You can nominate your own blog or other favorite blogs in a range of popular categories, and also vote and comment on others blogs that have already been submitted. There are no restrictions to nominations, votes, or comments.
Make money online - Sign up for AdSense.

From Bloggers Blog:
PayPerPost has launched the Blogger's Choice Awards. Blogs can be nominated in dozens of categories including Best Blog of All Time, Best Animal Bloggers, Best Geek Blog...There's also a bunch of badges available for nominated blogs.
We buy compelling stories, both original and reprints.

So please, spare me the bullshit about this crap being a reward for excellence.

Oh, and why am I taking this so personally and getting so steamed? Well because the second paragraph of the post in question said this:  "Which is why I really want [Redacted] to get it!  I think it's time someone who doesn't use profanity or go to extreme lengths to make other people look like complete idiots, someone who doesn't intentionally set out to break every one of the ten commandments...every day...should win this thing.  It would be a message to the world that it doesn't have to be vulgar or caustic for folks to find it funny."

Speaking as one who is both vulgar and caustic with a side order of profanity and commandment breaking, I naturally took offense (not at the author mind you, but at the sentiment). Take a look back through my archives, I have never spoken badly about what anyone believes or how they choose to live their lives (you may think I have, but you'll be surprised to find that I don't do that), so why do some people find it necessary validate themselves by attacking others.

And I never did get to see the photo.

And you thought I was kidding.

Yes that's right, I was nominated, but I graciously declined. It's "Best Everything in the Universe" or nothing, as far as I'm concerned. Who wants to only be the Best Blog of all Time? Hell I already am that!

The other day I mentioned in passing that I wasn't nominated for anything in the Blogger's Choice Awards (well, okay have it your way, I wrote a lengthy post about it). You may recall that there was absoposilutely no rancor involved, in fact I fully supported the situation, and further, I said that if I was nominated that I would decline.

Well it turns out that I did get nominated, and while I would probably have been chuffed if it was a real nomination (more on this later), I said that I didn't want to be nominated and I'm nothing if not stubborn to the point of stupidity a man of principle. So, that being the case, here is the reply I received from Jamie Gillespie this morning in response to my request to him:-

Hi!
Thank you for contacting the Blogger's Choice Awards! I have removed your nomination at your request.

Jamie Gillespie

Developer, Blogger's Choice Awards

See, it wasn't simply a ploy on my part to garner sympathy in the hopes that some kind soul would nominate me for something (anything). As I told you, I actually I don't want to be part of all this gratuitous award giving that seems to be plaguing the blogoshpere of late, and it's not just because I don't get nominated for the girlie stuff either.

Now back to the nomination itself...

Given that it was for the "Best Blog of All Time" (a rather humble title don't you think? and one that neatly fits my self image), I would have expected a somewhat flowery and complimentary description, along the lines of... "This well written blog is full of wit and wisdom. The superbly crafted essays manage to capture the essence of what blogging is all about. Readers are randomly regaled with side splitting observations about life, transported to a world of adventure through startlingly descriptive anecdotes, or shown the sublime joys of pet ownership with some of the most expressive pictures seen anywhere on the internet. The cast of characters are as endearing as they are amazing. You owe it to yourself to read the Dingo!"

Well, at least that's what I would have liked to have seen, however you may prefer what was actually written... "If angrily ranting against nothing was an artform this guy would be Van Gogh.  He's a bellowing, angry, raving lunatic and I fear for the safety of the world if he doesn't win this award.  Seriously, the guy is a total nutjob.  You should totally vote for him."

Two guesses as to who nominated my blog and lavished such high praise upon me. My two guesses would  be Melissa or Jenny (Marnie is way too nice to say such hurtful things about me, yeah sure).

Here's a clue..."Alright, you roguish hooligan.  You've just been nominated for Best Blog Ever In The History of the Whole World.  And not only did I nominate you, but I also voted for you.  Why?  Because you're annoying.  Also, because you do crack me up on a regular basis". - Jenny.

That was from the comments of the post that I wrote about not being nominated. I thought she was just bullshitting so I didn't even bother to check out the site, it was only when Marnie told me about it that I went to see for myself. Turns out she was telling the truth! Ha ha ha ha!  Jenny you wascal! Touché.

Arrrgghh! Not the Thinking Blogger!!

Of all the awards in all the blogoshpere, this one has to come in to the "Dingo's got My Barbie" (apologies to H. Bogart).

Thank you Swampy, and I suspect there may be more of you to thank later. My readers (yes I mean you) are a rather witty bunch of individuals and I suspect that I'll be nominated again out of sheer perversity. In the past I have griped about not being brought into the fold and awarded whatever the current award was, and for the most part I've be vilified publicly and privately (mostly privately and sometimes anonymously), but still didn't get awarded. I think that it might have had something to do with he whole "Hey you darned women, I'm the best there is, give me a goddamn award too!" approach not being all that effective.

So this time I accepted the fact that those who were nominated actually deserved it (something that I still believe), and that just this once, I didn't qualify. I was happy about missing out on this honour not because I stood up to pee, but because I'm about as shallow as a petri dish, and I can live with that. So of course now I get nominated!

Ok now for some housekeeping:

The rules for accepting this award are:

1) If you get tagged, write a post with links to five (5) blogs that make you think.

2) Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact location of the MeMe.

3) Optional: Proudly display the Thinking Blogger Award with a link to the post that you wrote.

1) Ok, so I guess this is the post and these must be my five nominations:

• Marnie, the very first person to ever comment on my blog, and someone who always makes me laugh.
• Melissa, talk about snarky! but she needs the traffic since she stopped blogging a while ago and the numbers dropped of.
• Mark, because like me he doesn't like to be thought of as a thinker and I'd like to see his response.
• Simply Jen, a relative newbie but writes some good stuff and she could use some support.
• Heather, one of the most profound writers I've come across. You won't find glibness, but theres plenty of thought provoking going on.

(Obviously there are many more, in fact every blog I read regularly (I wouldn't read them if they were fluff) but most of the ones I could have picked have already been nominated so I tried to pick the award virgins.) Anyone know the rules on grammar? Is it like maths where you can nest parentheses? If not ignore the innermost set in that last soliloquy.

2) Done.

3) Huh? Link to this post? Oh I get it, put the award in the sidebar...see I told you I wasn't a thinker!

Updated** Sorry Swampy, I should have linked to you.

The Anti-rant.

Over the past couple of weeks as I have been traveling around the blogosphere, I've noticed an increasing number of my blog buddies being presented with the "Thinking Blogger's Award".

As usual, my name is nowhere to be found...relax, I'm not about to launch into an incoherent rant. In fact, far from it. While not knowing all the recipients, I am familiar with a good many of those who have been awarded this honour, and all I have to say is 'Congratulations'. I agree with everyone that I recognised.

Despite my being a closet philosopher (and you were wondering why I posted this photo, see the cat?), this is one award I do not want to win. I don't say that to diminish it in any way, quite the opposite, my being nominated would diminish it, as I am not, nor have I ever sought to write thought provoking posts. It just doesn't work for me, the few times I have written posts that made people think, I made them think alright! I usually made them think I was a fuckwitt.

So on to something more my style; pet pics.....

Looks like I'll be calling her Beeper (which stands for BPR or Birthday Present Rejected), it's also the noise she made non stop for the 3 hour trip here today. Yep, that's right, MDW flatly refused to reconsider, citing some bullshit about 12 to 14 hour days and trips away to conferences at least once, and more often twice, a month. Personally I think she's still grieving over Tigger. Oh well, her loss is my gain.

Looking at this photo I'm almost tempted to call her Baskin (and Robbins) because it looks like she's got 32 different cats in there. Hey do you guys know that it's common for cats to be inseminated by multiple toms?

An interesting quandry.

My good friend Susan posted about an issue she had with keeping her children safe. It concerned her taking her young son into the ladies' lockers to get changed for swimming, rather than have him use the men's lockers unsupervised (ok I mean unguarded).

Now that's not the issue, as far as I'm concerned it was a no-brainer...of course you protect your children at all costs, end of story. Or is it? Pamela (as usual) offered some very good advice and a personal example as to why it's not as simple as I first thought.

So now we come to the crux of the issue. I got to thinking about it and I'm not sure if I have a double standard, an innate distrust of humanity or I'm just being stupid.

So here's my dilemma: While I believe it to be perfectly acceptable for a woman to take her (say, 8 year old) son in to the women's lockers, I don't think it's acceptable for a man to take his daughter of the same age into the men's lockers. What do you think?

I'm not being silly, I actually want your opinion, but feel free not to contribute if you find the whole thing too weird (it's not meant to be). Bear in mind that as I don't have children, this is purely academic on my part. I'm just interested in finding out what the perception is.

Fun Monday #6

Well here it is, Monday again and time for some Fun. The full list of participants is in the sidebar on the right.  I've listed them in reverse alphabetical order so that the ones who are normally listed at the end aren't disadvantaged by Fun Mondayitis, and only get those tired, perfunctory one line comments caused by the comment burnout that is common when you're at the end of the list. It's been said that Fun Monday can be exhausting, and I agree.

This Monday it is "My Blogging Environment", this can mean any number of things, such as which group of bloggers you hang out with, what weekly events you participate in (like this), what the general tone of the discussions are (no comment), even what platform you use, or in my case, "what does your desk look like?" 

It would be remiss of me to write a post about my Blogging Environment and not include at least something about my ISP (Internet Service Provider), so here's a picture of their main communications center in Tamworth.

Now back to my little piece of the blogosphere. Standing at the door to my computer room I took these four pics in a clockwise rotation, you'll notice that I have made no attempt to tidy things up...

Update**: It just occurred to me that you might be interested to know that if you click on the second picture above, you can get a better look at the 'big picture' of my blogging environment, as the big picture the hanging on the wall is two aerial photographs of  my place.

The keen eyed among you will notice that the dogs are doing a "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" deal in the basket. Actually, in the first picture I took of the wall with the window I had the blinds open, but that made it seem very dark inside room due to the bright light on the automatic camera sensor (if you want to see what I mean, the last picture in this post shows what I'm talking about, plus it shows the view from the window). The picture I ended up using (blinds closed), which I just now took, is actually more representative as there is always at least one dog in the basket while I blog.

If you look closely at the four pics of the room, you'll see a bag with kangaroos on it and a green and yellow hat (actually there are four hats there but they're stacked up), these are all prizes for the Vegemite competition.

Now, the desk itself...

I thought it would be a buzz to take a picture of my Fun Monday Post while I was writing it, so that's it on the screen. I have been asked before if I was left handed because my mouse is on the left side, the answer is 'No, I'm right handed'. When I was a programmer, I worked with a guy who lost his right arm in a motorcycle accident. He was probably the most brilliant programmer I ever met, and he helped me out on occasion (I'm an average programmer, I'm a better as an analyst), so to make it easier for him to help me, I switched to my left hand, I've just never gone back.

While the room is mostly for my use, it can be used for other things if I move a few things around, for example, this...

Becomes this...

Now that's versatile, don't you think?

I added this photo as an afterthought when I was just about to publish the post. If you aren't familiar with these sewing cabinets, the two previous pictures don't make much sense.

And a couple of lame pictures to finish off with...

Nothing special here, I just like toys.

Oh, Geez I almost forgot, this is what the desk looked like when I bought it, and that's the computer room before I filled it up with crap....

So there you go, a bit excessive on my part, I know, but after all, this one was my idea so I had to make a decent fist of it.

Now for next week's Fun Monday, I think it's about time we stepped out of our comfort zones and took a walk on the wild side, and what better way to invite the unexpected is there than to appoint Mindy as the boss of next week's Assignment. So Min, it's over to you.....

Meet my new friend.

We all blog hop occasionally, and I've been doing a lot more lately than I would normally do (actually, until now I rarely blog hopped). The reason for this newfound interest in blog hopping should be obvious to most of you who read the Dingo (ok, for those of you who are saying "what the hell's he talking about?", it's because I don't get abused by people who don't know me, well at least not as much anyway).

So now, I'm not quite sure how I met LMM..."wait just a minute while I check my comments for clues" he says as he opens another window to carry out his investigation. "Hmmm no help there...I must have found her via someone's blogroll and she paid me a return visit". I thought it may have been through Fun Monday but it wasn't. Anyway, I'd like to introduce Little Miss Moi, her blog is Nezalezhnosti. Kyiv. Ukraine..

"What's the big deal , you got a new friend, so what?" I hear you ask. Well, LMM lives in the Ukraine, and how many times do you get the chance to read about life in the Eastern Bloc. I bet you're thinking that I must be really clever to be able to read a blog written in Russian. Well here's the thing, if it's not weird enough that I'm reading a Ukrainian blog, it gets even weirder. Little Miss Moi is an Aussie who was born in Gosford! (where our house on the coast is, remember?) What are the odds?

And already I have seen huge benefits from this new friendship, as I may one day return to Russia and help with the lingo would come in handy. Yeah sure I could find one of those translation sites but all I'd get would be something like...Насколько для Вас дочь?  which won't really help me much because I can't read Russian. (I hope I don't get too many strange offers from that, you'll know what I mean in a minute).

What I needed was phonetic instruction, or if you like, Russian written in English. Like this...

1) "Babushka! Skolka vasha doch?"
and
2) "Zradstvuytse. Oo vas yest nukes? Da?! Moozhna pazhalsta!"

So not only did she give me the translations I needed to make my trip a memorable and profitable one, she gave them to me so that I could read them, as well as being the way they'd say it over there. Thanks to her, it's possible no one will even realise I'm not a local.

Here's what I mean, what I asked her to translate was "how much for you daughter?" but she gave me the more correct "old bag, how much is your daughter?" Likewise with the second translation, being naive I simply asked her for the translation of "Do you have nukes?" and again she went the extra yard to give me all the Russian necessary, her translation says "Greetings. Do you have nukes? You Do?! I want them please!" and thanks to the first translation, I already know how to ask how much, so I'm all set!

So go on over and say hello to  Little Miss Moi., and don't forget to tell her I sent you.

LMM, this photo's for you....

President's Hill, Gosford.