Tuesday, 23rd November, 2004

Time flies by when...

When I was a little boy girl, I wanted to be a train driver. Much as I'd like to go into my reasoning behind that, I think I'm candid enough already in this diary without revealing too much about my private life...

I'm mentioning this, because this morning we're on a really shitty train, rather than the relatively modern one that usually takes us to Leeds. And the driver's cabin is in very close proximity to me.

I tend to sit near the very front of the train, for two reasons really. (1) I have a vaguely provable-by-physics theory that being in the carriage that's doing the pulling means that the journey won't be so bouncy. (2) It's like sitting in the front seat of a car — I feel more in control nearer the driver.

While I was on the platform, squeezing in my last cigarette for the next 2 hours, I could see right into his cabin. Werid. Totally different to what I would have expected — although, thinking about it, would a train driver really need a steering wheel?

I guess all he'd need is a 'go-fast/go-slow' switch. Although none of the trains I'm ever on seem to have a 'go-fast' option

Interestingly enough, there's a couple of men sat down the carriage having a conversation about commuting to Leeds every day. One of them is explaining to the other how he sometimes stays with friends, and how it knackers him.

Honey, I know how you feel

...

I doubt this will be one of my mammoth Tuesday entries today. Numpty here left her charger at Beth's at the weekend, so I'm on 42% of my battery, and fading fast. I know I can increase the battery life by slowing down the processor — but I think I'm at the limit. Maybe Emer will hold up for the journey, probably not

...

Something I did last night, that I've been meaning to do for ages, is do a page that has every single diary entry on it. I'm rather proud of it really — it looks very pretty, and you can see the months that I made little patterns The only thing that's bothering me somewhat is that the first year is pretty sparse. I think it's only at the 13th of October 2002 that I wrote the script and started, well, blogging really. The stuff before was hand-done, and a pain in the arse.

Funny how the minute things become easy, the more likely you are to do them I know that sounds obvious — but I think there's something quite important in that in relation to what I've been researching recently.

How we interact with the tools of any medium has a great deal of influence on the outcome — or at least the proficiency of the outcome.

I've become quite excited by blogs recently. I know they're probably the latest and greatest buzz-word, but I do believe they're having a great impact on the way the web is developing...

[one second — the conductor, who checked my ticket already, just came back to check me again. He looked at me confused and said "have I already seen yours?" pfft I had hoped I was a bit more memorable than that...]

...I mean, aside from their actual content and ease of use, they're radically reshaping Google's results for example. There was a bit of a hoo-ha recent;y about how Google was becoming infested with blogs and personal opinions, rather than the usual trusted resources. People were trying to think of ways to exclude blogs from search engine results.

But, I digress. THe great thing about the is that they (generally) allow anyone to publish stuff easily. I'm not sure of some of the bells-and-whistle features that a lot of them have (I still can't quite get my head around what 'trackback' is ) — but within seconds, you can have a good looking, easy to use, publishing tool at your fingertips, and you can have a pretty polished looking website without having to have a PhD in HTML

So today, I'm going to show a couple of people the stuff I've been developing for the course. A lot of the time, students come to me asking if they can have a website — and up to now, I've approached each one seperately, done some code, struggled with some kind of content-management system, and generally been a bit of a failure to be honest. By giving all of them blogs, I'm hoping that it will really take off — without too much hand-holding from me.

Not because I'm lazy or anything you understand just because I physically can't cope with the amount of time it would take to teach them how to code markup.

One thing I find quite interesting is the assumption that in order to publish stuf on the web, you have to be a 'web designer' (whatever that is ). You have to know Dreamweaver, you have to be able to use Flash ... bollocks. The most important thing, IMHO, is that you have something interesting to say or do. How many times have you seen a fantastically beautiful website, that uses the most bleeding-edge technology out there — and is completely boring as fuck?

So yeah, my current theory is that Blogs Are The Answer

Not so much as an end to themselves though — but as a tool for generating more interesting things...

...let me explain

OK, so I'm dead chuffed with the way this website here of mine has developed over the past three years. I think it looks pretty, there's a lot of stuff on it to read and do, there's a ton of pictures — some of which I'm actually quite proud of. yay

But I don't think it ends there. As well as being an entity in itself, this website is part of a larger amount of online communicating that I do — email, chatrooms, mailing lists, instant messengers ... and all of that communication goes into creating this (and I need a much better word here) 'online-me'.

It's a bit of a performance really. Maybe also a large bit of character-establishment, like in a novel.

I've spent years 'creating' Siobhan — and I'm not sure where to take her next.

...

It's highly possible that none of that made any sense — or maybe it reads as pure crap. Apologies — I'm thinking out loud here.

Really — I have no idea what I'm talking about today. Just typing what's in my head

...

OK, change the subject: We've just pulled out of Helifield — my favourite [sarcasm] in the world. And there were two trainspotters stood at the end of the platform, videoing the train. Can someone explain that to me?! What on earth is the point of filming a rural train (that makes the same journey every day)? Why on earth get up at stoopid o'clock, grab your video camera, and leg it to the station?!

What's the motive for these guys?

I read once, that the point of train spotting is to get a notebook and sort of 'tick off' all the numbers of all the trains there are. Then when you've done that, go out and buy a new notebook and start again.

Maybe the need for a hobby is more the reason?

I'm sorry, I shouldn't knock trainspotters, especially after what I wrote at the start of today. I just don't understand them. But then again, they probably wouldn't understand me...

"So let me understand this: you shave, you put on makeup, you spend about 1-2 hours getting ready and dressed, you take half a dozen photos, then you take all the makeup off again? Where's the point in that?!"

"Isn't that the 6.15 to Carlisle sat over there? Shouldn't you go get a picture?"

"And do something about your nose hair..."

...

Hey, the battery seems to be holding out. 20%, and falling

...

For some reason, the conductor of this train (who seems very nice to be honest, despite his inability to recognise me earlier) is making a great deal of fuss in announcing that there are "saftey notices which you are all advised to read"

They seem to be doing this more and more on trains — I wish they wouldn't. Pointing out safety instructions of what to do in the event of an emergency only serves to make me consider the possibility of an emergency happening. I think I was happier when I was ignorant of danger.

It's like when I'm in a cinema, and the words "Patrons are reminded that this is a no smoking theatre" pop up just before the film. Thanks a bunch!" I'd forgotten — now you've reminded me, I really want a cigarette pfft

Speaking of which, as well as the battery, the Nicorette gum is hold up too

...

Tell you what though — there is an extremely hot radiator, just by my feet. This was nice when I was just out of the cold in Lancaster — but it's really uncomfortable now

Ack well, we're nearly there. There's a whole heap of stuff running through my head today — things I have to do, things I want to think about. But I think I'm just going to drift off into Siobhan-World for the rest of the journey.

Sorry for rambling so much. I know I don't make any sense sometimes. I just need to get things out of my head and into text every now and again.

...

9.38 Arrive at work.

Office warm, take off jumper. Realise that without jumper, my suspender belt is visible.

Put jumper back on.

Davew writes:

Just love the very last 3 lines of your blog today, its so you.

Mikee writes:

I totally agree with views on websites and web designers. It is content that counts. I think you mentioned last week about making something look good first and then making it work second when you should really do it the other way round!! Further to that though is the fact that I (and obviously others) totally connect with you and no matter how fancy your website that is ALL that matters. Big Cuddle. xxxx P.S. thanks for the link to megatokyo, it is awesome