Went snapping in Tocil Wood yesterday. I love the way that no matter how busy the campus is, the wood is always quiet. Mostly I don’t meet anyone at all when I’m down there.

The bluebells are out in places – where there’s more sunlight they’re mostly up, although not at full strength yet. I’m going to be away in Brussels next week, which is unfortunate because I think they’ll be perfect for photography then. Oh well, hopefully it’ll still be looking good the week after.

Writing about: QuizFarm.com :: What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” – Jean-Paul Sartre

OK, so I’ve provoked some discussion about what people are getting from WB at the moment. My list of things that would make this a more useful tool for work (and reflection/PDP) is:

• Excerpts in all the aggregate lists.
• Trackback to and from external blogs.
• Multiple categories selectable per-post.
• Multiple references (writing about) per post.
• Notify when a trackback is created on my blog
• Some less corporate designs. More ability to personalise.
• A more human admin. Needs to be more transparent, perhaps
• Display commenter IP. “Report a Comment”
• Take external RSS feeds. It’s all very well being able to harvest the RSS that WB puts out with bloglines or whatever, but that’s of limited use because it can’t authenticate as you. If you could parse RSS on the site (as software such as Drupal does), it’d become useful. Yes, I know bloglines does it well already, but I want to read posts that are restricted.
• Export entries.
• Search restricted stuff. At the moment the search only works for public entries. This is utterly useless. If I want to go back and find something that I noted in a restricted entry, I have to guess what category it was in, then just read back. Not helpful, especially since most things that I may need to refer to are in restricted posts.

• Scrapbook – favourite posts. I’d quite often like to just note an interesting post to come back to later.

  Most of these are other people’s ideas, and some have been discussed in great detail. There are probably already JIRAs for some of them. I remember having a long discussion here or in forums about how categories should work, perhaps a year ago. As it is, it’s just not enough for me at the moment, not if I want to try and organise my thoughts using WB.

Writing about:John Cross is innocent, 16/04/05, Tim Retout’s blog

Yet again, our esteemed president is alledgedly riding roughshod over procedure and protocol, and trying to force the proles to just let him get on with running the union the way he wants.

I’ve had discussions with him before about this kind of behaviour, and it’s sad to see people having the same kinds of problems now.

In my first year here, one of the sabbs was removed by a vote of no confidence. I wonder if there’s sufficient support to force a vote about Simon?

Writing About: Similar to the books thing…, 18/04/05, Big Brother Towers

Bold: own it
Italics: Have listened to it properly

1. RADIOHEAD – OK Computer
2. U2 – The Joshua Tree
3. NIRVANA – Nevermind
4. MICHAEL JACKSON – Thriller
5. PINK FLOYD – Dark Side of the Moon
6. OASIS – Definitely Maybe
7. THE BEATLES – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
8. MADONNA – Like a Prayer
9. GUNS N’ ROSES – Appetite For Destruction
10. THE BEATLES – Revolver
11. R.E.M. – Automatic for the People
12. THE BEATLES – The White Album
13. QUEEN – A Night at the Opera
14. COLDPLAY – Parachutes
15. OASIS – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory
16. ALANIS MORISSETTE – Jagged Little Pill
17. LED ZEPPELIN – Led Zeppelin IV
18. THE VERVE – Urban Hymns
19. JIMI HENDRIX – Are you Experienced
20. THE SMITHS – The Queen Is Dead
21. JOHN LENNON – Imagine
22. RADIOHEAD – The Bends
23. BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS – Exodus
24. THE STONE ROSES – The Stone Roses
25. SIMON AND GARFUNKEL – Bridge Over Troubled Water
26. BJORK – Debut
27. THE DOORS – The Doors
28. ABBA – Arrival
29. MICHAEL JACKSON – Off the Wall
30. DURAN DURAN – Rio
31. SEX PISTOLS – Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols
32. DAVID BOWIE – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
33. THE BEACH BOYS – Pet Sounds
34. JOY DIVISION – Closer
35. THE ROLLING STONES – Let It Bleed
36. BLUR – Parklife
37. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Born to Run
38. BILLIE HOLIDAY – Lady Sings the Blues
39. THE WHITE STRIPES – Elephant
40. BLACK SABBATH – Paranoid
41. THE SPECIALS – Specials
42. THE ROLLING STONES – Exile on Main Street
43. FRANK SINATRA – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!
44. THE CLASH – London Calling
45. THE PRODIGY – The Fat of the Land
46. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – The Velvet Underground and Nico
47. DIRE STRAITS – Brothers in Arms
48. PIXIES – Doolittle
49. ARETHA FRANKLIN – I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
50. THE LIBERTINES – The Libertines
51. HAPPY MONDAYS – Pills ‘N’ Thrills and Bellyaches
52. PATTI SMITH – Horses
53. THE WHO – Tommy
54. LOU REED – Transformer
55. BOB DYLAN – Blood on the Tracks
56. PRINCE – Sign ‘o’ the Times
57. DIDO – No Angel
58. AIR – Moon Safari
59. ELTON JOHN – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
60. THE JAM – All Mod Cons
61. JEFF BUCKLEY – Grace
62. FLEETWOOD MAC – Rumours
63. MOBY – Play
64. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – Blood Sugar Sex Magik
65. THE POLICE – Synchronicity
66. JONI MITCHELL – Blue
67. CURTIS MAYFIELD – Superfly
68. ELVIS PRESLEY – The Sun Sessions
69. OUTKAST – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
70. PULP – Different Class
71. KRAFTWERK – Trans-Europe Express
72. MASSIVE ATTACK – Blue Lines
73. BECK – Odelay
74. STEVIE WONDER – Songs in the Key of Life
75. KATE BUSH – Hounds of Love
76. TALKING HEADS – Fear of Music
77. EMINEM – The Marshall Mathers LP
78. MARVIN GAYE – What’s Going On
79. GEORGE MICHAEL – Faith
80. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER – The Original Movie Soundtrack
81. PRIMAL SCREAM – Screamadelica
82. JOHN COLTRANE – A Love Supreme
83. LOVE – Forever Changes
84. PAUL SIMON – Graceland
85. NICK DRAKE – Five Leaves Left
86. MEAT LOAF – Bat Out of Hell
87. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – Dusty in Memphis
88. DE LA SOUL – 3 Feet High and Rising
89. THE STROKES – Is this It
90. MADNESS – One Step Beyond�
91. ROBBIE WILLIAMS – I’ve Been Expecting You
92. NEIL YOUNG – After the Gold Rush
93. PUBLIC ENEMY – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
94. BLONDIE – Parallel Lines
95. THE EAGLES – Hotel California
96. JAMES BROWN – Sex Machine
97. THE STREETS – A Grand Don’t Come for Free
98. DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS – Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
99. ROD STEWART – Every Picture Tells a Story

1. The HUMAN LEAGUE – Dare!

... Seems bleak. People are leaving, left right and centre, for various reasons but it seems primarily due to issues with moderation and ownership ( link , link , link ).
The amount of PDP going on here is trivial.

The amount of directed academic work seems to be similarly low (only one response to a question about who uses blogs for academic work – there are examples, but I’m sorry Submitting essays via blogs is a bizarre use of the medium).

We may have 3192 blogs, and lots of entries (~150/day) but probably less than 15% of those blogs are really being used (link). The presupmtion seems to have been “make the tool, advertise it, and it’ll be a success”. Has WB been a success? Really? for a few people (such as myself) who don’t really write anything close to the edge, the issues with moderation are lessened, but I don’t like being so strongly tied to the university. In common with most bloggers here, almost nothing that I post is directly relevent to my uni life.

Rob O’Toole recently presented at a conference some of the ‘key characteristics of the “blog phenomena”’ (all emphasis mine):

• A blog is a personal website, it has an ‘owner’;
• But it is much more – the extension of the owners mind and life onto the web – journaling;
• An extension of their personal identity;
• But also a way of trying out different identities;
• A sandbox or demilitarized zone;
• A place for reporting experiences;
• A place for making sense of experiences, or not as is sometimes the case;
• A place for just recording experience (a “bucket”);
• A place for defining what is important;
• A place for combining disparate experiences;
• A place for expressing ideas and opinions about the world;
• A place for testing out theories;
• Develops ideas and themes over time;
• A way of developing writing and communication skills;
• Not necessarily serious or authoritative;
• Sometimes quite scurrilous, close to the edge of the acceptable;
• Dynamic and changing;
• Snapshots of points in time;
• Ephemeral (but archived);
• Public and private;
• Networking – a means for advertising oneself and seeking like-minded friends;
• A place for developing or criticising each other’s ideas;
• Democratic;
• A simple but powerful tool that anyone can master.

My emphasis is on those statements that may be true of blogs in general (and I don’t agree with all of them), but are not true for WB. And these are some of the most important concepts of blogging, on the net in general.

I like WB. I like the way that everyone here is from the same environment. But I’m not sure it’s either fulfilling the role that “normal” blogs fulful, nor is it fulfilling the lofty goals in terms of helping with PDP (link). In fact, it seems necessary to persuade people of the value of PDP fullstop. The question has never been answered as to why someone should want to use a blog to do personal reflection.

So I don’t know what the future for WB is. I shall continue along here for the time being, but I’ve got my own separate site with duplicate posts on it. I’m going to start linking to each post there from here, to help with the google rating.

Writing about: While I’m at it…, 14/04/05, Casey’s Blog

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Your actual outcome:

Labour –10
Conservative –53
	Liberal Democrat 69
UK Independence Party –25
	Green 26

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long–term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Writing about: my world, 14/04/05, every nightmare begins as a dream

create your own visited countries map

Apparantly, Mam Tor is the most popular ridge walk in the peak district. I can certainly believe it. There’s a wide footpath along the top, and it’s crowded with walkers (including those walking in trainers), and paragliders and so on.

It’s a nice walk nonetheless, but certainly not somewhere to go for some isolation :-)

I would certainly suggest doing the walk in this direction, rather than clockwise – otherwise it’s quite a grind up Cave dale, and that can be pretty slippery.

Start: Castleton (SK151830)
Map: OS Explorer 1:25K OL1 Dark Peak

Head NW out of Castleton, along Hollowford road. At the conference centre (SK148853) follow the footpath NE. From here, you can follow the signposts to “Lose Hill” (SK153854). Then it’s a nice ridge walk along a real path (sometimes with fencing on either side!) to Back Tor (SK146850), Hollins Cross (SK136845) and then along Mam Tor (SK128837). Descend from Mam Tor, then either follow the footpath marked on the map here, across a field, or descend through the car park, then double back along the road for 200 m. Head SSE along the footpath, then follow the big path SE until you can turn L onto the Limestone Way (SK135813). Make sure that you stay on the path that leads to Cave Dale (it’s the main path), and then walk back to Castleton in the dale.

Me looking hardcore on Back Tor

Back Tor

Along to Hollins Cross

Paragliders over Mam Tor

Perevil Castle

I love looking through the random images in blogs. There are a few sites that do this for livejournal, I think it would be a nice feature for WB – photos give a snapshot of something that’s going on in someone else’s life.

In the meantime, here’s a selection of the randomness. Anybody you recognise?