richardirvine.com

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  • Bloody focus

    You should read Merlin Mann’s Better post. It’s a superior articulation of my goal this year: to contribute more and consume less. I’m the world’s best procrastinator. I also love the net. That’s a very, very dangerous combination, and I’m trying to redress the balance.

    I have this blog and sportreview.net.nz – I do them because I want to improve my writing, make cartoons, it’s a lot of fun, and because you never know what opportunities will come. I get a lot out of it, and I think (hope) my sites are getting better.

    With a new baby my time is a lot more valuable than it used to be – I’ve got stuff I want to get done – and not much time to do it. I really want to crack on at work, too. So all you non-blog digital activity – it’s time for a review based on a) what I get out and b)time suck factor

    RSS reader – My ideal RSS feed is a post every other day or week or even month, as long as it’s one I want to READ. That’s your barrier to entry, team. Rands in Repose is pretty much the model. I’ve had times when my reader is showing over 500 items – not going to happen. Public Address, 43 Folders, the Onion and AV Club stay. Out go Boing Boing (overrated) and Wired (I’ll just read the magazine online from now on, thanks) and all Gawker blogs, except Lifehacker’s top posts feed. Every other link blog is cut, except Jason Kottke and Waxy links, I like their signal to interesting ratio. Stays (with drastic spring clean).

    Facebook. With auto-decline of invitations, and blocking alerts and noisy people, you can be on Facebook quite stealthily and take advantage of its’ best feature – keeping up with people. On notice.

    Twitter. Deleted account – Yeah I tried it for a couple of months, but I still DON’T SEE THE POINT! Gone.

    Last.fm. Low maintenance. Plug in ipod and scrobble tunes. Check stats. That’s a useful tool (when it works). Stays.

    Del.icio.us. Invaluable. Low maintenance. Stays.

    Flickr. The best photo sharing site – and I’m kinda committed. It’s easy to use, so it stays.

    Next step goals would be having a crack at writing fiction – and more *actual emails*. Proper one to one emails are becoming as rare as letters. There’ll always be a place in my life for really some solid fucking around on the ‘net – it’ll just be a little more focused.

  • Web search

    From B3ta:

  • Sick. But I like it.

    Here’s the paragraph that made me snort on the bus today:

    I noticed a stuffed spaniel poised by the fireplace with a yellowed newspaper rolled into its mouth. Madeleine said ‘That’s Balto. The paper is the LA Times for August 1, 1926. That’s the day Daddy learned he’d made his first million. Balto was our pet then. Daddy’s accountant called up and said ‘Emmett, you’re a millioniare!’ Daddy was cleaning his pistols, and Balto came in with the paper. Daddy wanted to consecrate the moment, so he shot him. If you look closely, you can see the bullet hole in his chest. Hold your breath lovey. Here’s the family.

    The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy

  • Katz of the Incas

    Katz of the incas 280808
    Did pub quiz last night for the first time in ages – so here’s a Katz cartoon.

  • Me-ssa load letter

    Check out Fark.com’s best photoshop contest for a while – Star Wars characters in other movies. Probably not dial-up friendly.

  • Revolution #3

    So I decided to lose the hair. I sashayed along to the Barber down the road and browsed the fishing and trucking magazines for a bit while a Dad and both sons all got the same haircut. I got in the chair,  and asked for the #3 all over – the barber in the next chair leaned in and said “Hold your horses – have you got permission for that?”

    I’m happy with it – it’s an absence of a haircut, really. I call it the ‘given up’. The sideboards should be a bit easier to control now, I’d say.

  • Brains are go

    From B3ta:

  • Style

    I just stuck a 7 out of 10 in The Economist’s Style Quiz.

    In your face, a barely working knowledge of spelling and grammar!

  • Twitter:

    spent most of today catching up on email from last week. felt like what I imagine baby seal hunting is like

  • Dispatch from Dial-up hell

    I was trying to upgrade OSX when the shit hit the fan. Some big downloads meant I’d teetered over my 10GB cap for the month, and my internet connection, my precious, precious broadband was grounded – back to 56KBps I went. For two weeks. Bloody hell.

    Oh well, we survived for years on Dial-up – surely it’s not THAT bad? I hoped for the best, a kind of digital Walden, a nostalgic return to days of yore.

    Turns out, it’s as much fun as a Gameboy with no batteries.

    You can’t YouTube on Dial-up. You can’t do 23 Firefox tabs in Dial-up. You can’t do a cheeky Bit Torrent on Dial-up. It’s like swimming through shit, if shit took an age to download. Recently, I brazenly asked an older work colleague what working in the 80’s without the internet was like. Now I know.

    330 MB software updates, updates I used to laugh cavalierly at, were now timing out. I started thinking about page sizes. I started thinking about text browsers. I had a better web experience on my PHONE.

    Before, when I read hard-luck stories of people who can’t get broadband where they live, I’d raise an amused eyebrow. Maybe snigger, before popping open another 5 or six browser tabs just for the laugh. Now, I realise these people live in Abu Ghraib. Forget sponsoring a child, we need a Telethon for those lost in 56KBps. 56K? NO WAY.  That kind of thing.

    I’ve got a week to go, I *think* I can make it. I’m starting a list of things to do when I’m full speed again. I’m going to download that update and stand watching the progress bar barrel along, hands on my hips, head back, laughing in an overly hearty manner. I’m going to be me again.