Code of conduct for bloggers?

I've only recently discovered the joys of blogs and since I did have spent a lot of time browsing through various variations of these. Everyone seems to be very friendly and it can be a pleasant way of whiling away the lunch hour.

When I read about Kathy Sierra and the comments that had been posted on both her blog and others it made me angry. Why oh why do people have to be so abusive?

I do not understand the mentality of people who feel the urge to do such a thing. It's not big and it's not clever. It doesn't make you look cool. If you don't like what you are reading go and read something else.

Anyway, rant over for the day.

Edit: Having ranted and knowing some of you may have followed the links I posted I thought I ought to add a bit here. Chris Locke who is also known as RageBoy has a response on his site. He seems a reasonable guy, who admittedly doesn't like Kathy. I don't believe he has posted any of the extremely derogatory comments that can be seen, and he has done the courtesy of taking down the sites where stuff was posted. I just feel that overall it's a shame that the only way round this seems to be some sort of censorship such as applying comment moderation on all blog sites. I also have to say that that wouldn't stop the site hosters receiveng abusive comments. What can be done?

Spit in the Rain

Just been playing old tracks very loudly. This is kind of going back to the Getting Older post. It's a bit noisy upstairs so I now have my stereo on full blast and am going through old CD tracks (the turntable is burried under a pile of junk so can't dig out the vinyl).

Anyway, it resulted in me digging out old CD singles and I eventually got to Del Amitri and Spit in the Rain.
What a track!

You can grin but you can't hide
All the emptiness inside
Since she left you like spit in the rain

Without doubt it is true
She was the only love you knew
Now she's gone it fades away
Like spit in the rain

And you can try to find her
But youll be looking in vain
Because love disappears like spit in the rain

You can try to figure out
Why you mean nothing to her now
But you might just as well
Go spit in the rain

Maybe then you will find
Her sweet memory in your mind
Washed away, and out of sight
Like spit in the rain

Without doubt it is true
Without her there's only you
But with a little luck and with a little time
You'll pull through


This track is just so ironic, but true, you do pull through. It was played over and over when I split up with one of my exes. It seemed appropriate and I used to love walking in the rain. Love it.

How do I de-clutter?

It's got to me again! I've spent most of tonight (whilst intermittently getting distracted by other peoples blogs or skim watching TV) clearing a tiny corner of my living room, lounge, or whatever else you might want to call it. I do this periodically and never finish the whole room. In fact I do it in every room and never finish any of them. Having moved (years ago) from a very small house with a very large cellar, to my minute (but could look good if I didn't smoke in here and got rid of all the clutter) one bedroom flat with no extra storage space, I still haven't managed to get rid of enough stuff to have room to move about in here.

Anyway, to waffle on a bit more, the reason I started this time was so that I could move my shiny new widescreen laptop (it might be a laptop but it's not an overly portable one) off the chair that I'd moved directly in front of the sofa to somewhere a little bit safer. I've managed that now (it's still right by my favourite sofa spot), but on looking around I've got a very nice laptop space but have just moved everything else onto the floor, table, old PC desk (with the old PC still there) and various bookcases. In fact I haven't really made a whole lot of difference!

The problem is I find it really difficult to get rid of things. Over the past year I've managed to move out 20+ black bin bags of old clothes, and get rid of other stuff, but as fast (well, probably not that fast) as I do that, I replace it with even more stuff.

Books are one big problem. I never used to be able to get rid of any. In fact I abandoned a load at my mum and dad's many years ago (and they're still there, and I keep adding to that collection), I also took a load to one of the local market stalls at one point. I do still however have 3 bookcases full that I can't bring myself to get rid of. As an avid reader the collection kept growing so last year I joined the Read It Swap It site thinking that I could stop adding to the collection by getting rid of a book every time I got a new one. That doesn't work, I still buy new books and will often swap the ones I don't want to keep for ones to add to my favourite authors collection. I think I need a new job that pays enough for me to be able to buy a huge house so I can have a room set aside as a library!

Anyway, I've started again, and told people here this time, so let's see how far I get. If anyone has any advice on how to let go of things (I always think they might come in useful at some future point even though I will happily acknowledge that I haven't used, looked at, thought about, them for ages), please let me know. I really do need to just dump loads!

Sorry, not an exciting post I know. Maybe when I do manage to declutter I will find more interesting things to post about...

What flavour ice cream are you?

While browsing through some other blogs I came across one where someone had done this and thought I'd give it a go. Here are my results. I have to say I wouldn't have described myself like this.

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Dancing on Ice

Well - I admitted to my sad reality tv addiction not that long ago. I'm also a regular frequenter of various Digital Spy forums. Wasn't sure if I was going to be home on time tonight so I set the PC up to record Dancing on Ice. I was home in time but left it to record anyway. Then I visited the forums. People do get very involved with who they support. Anyway, tonight Kay and Fred left and at the request of a forum member for pictures of Fred I posted some. Here they are.

Getting old?

I think I'm getting old. I remember the days when I used to get home and whack up the volume on the stereo. If I had the TV on it was at a loud volume. (Admittedly a lot of this probably arose from when I was still living with my parents and had to battle with my dad's stereo noise. He's deaf in one ear and had his speakers almost directly under my bedroom floor!)

Since moving into my flat I've been a lot more aware of disturbing the neighbours and now tend to have the TV on at a low volume, and very rarely use the stereo without headphones as I have no way of reducing the bass.

The flat above me was owned by a lovely girl when I first moved in. She was a perfect neighbour. Unfortunately, a few years back she moved back to Scotland. Since then I've had a few changes of neighbours as the girl who bought it rents it out. I now dread new neighbours, I've had some battles in the past where after telling one guy that I didn't mind loud music sometimes, the constant bass throbbing through the ceiling was a bit tough. He just smiled at me and ignored it. I then lost it and started retaliating by staying up late with my stereo at full blast with high bass tracks playing in one room while I shut the door on it and went in the other room. It didn't work, we just ended up hating each other and nothing was ever resolved. In fact it ended up with them chucking stuff out of their windows trying to target my cats. I did complain to their landlady who told me they were moving out that week. Phew!

Anyway, things haven't been too bad since then, but I've now got a new couple upstairs. All seemed well at first, but now, every now and again I get home in the evening, switch on my PC to nose through peoples blogs, have the TV on low, then it starts. The constant bang bang bang of the bass. It started when I got in tonight, about 6:45 and has been going on since. My TV has got louder and louder trying to drown it out, but I don't like loud TV anymore.

I'm contemplating saying something to them, but don't want to end up with another running battle. Hmmn, maybe I'll just leave it, don't want them to think I'm a whingy old cow!


Edited 22:54 - Sorry, a bit of a whinge there, the second in not too long, and this was meant to be where I sorted out my old photo collection, not somewhere to moan.

Edited 00:17 - They really clump around slamming doors and chucking things on the floor as well...