Interviews, the conducting thereof

Much fuss overnight about how interviews should be conducted. Some journalists say that only a telephone or face-to-face interview is acceptable; some prospective interviewees would rather do things in a way that suits them.
And most of the time, the latter is fine by me. Of course I’d prefer to talk to someone, but that’s not [...]

Blog’s what you make it

I get annoyed by articles I see telling people “how to blog”, or advising them of “the rules of blogging”, or “what your blog needs to have”.
All of it’s bloggocks. A weblog is whatever you want it to be. Comments, feeds, bloody “blogrolls”, datestamps, none of it matters. Your blog doesn’t matter to anyone but [...]

Speed

It’s the job that every trainee reporter on a local newspaper has to do sooner or later, and it’s the one that every single one of them hates the most. It’s called the “death knock”.
Here’s what happens: word comes in, usually via the police or the ambulance service, that someone has died. Usually in [...]

Saving American online radio

This week’s internet column for PA:
American internet radio has been condemned to death.
If you’ve never taken the time to delve into the amazing world of online radio broadcasting, it’s about time you did. There are many hundreds of independent radio stations out there, most of them consisting of one person and their own unique personality.
Many [...]

Brain dumpings

I’m getting bored with the template for this site. I want to keep it broadly looking like it does (one column, minimalist, horizontal elements rather than vertical ones) but perhaps with a little more … you know … p’ching. Then again, maybe I won’t bother. The built-in Blogger templates make my eyes water, I can’t [...]

The harsh virtual reality of home decorating

I spent much of this morning decorating, and because decorating is the most boring thing in the world, I entertained myself by trying to come up with some ideas for a science fiction story. Needless to say (though I’m going to say it anyway) this is the kind of idle thought that has drifted around [...]

I want backspace in my pen

Today I had to do some editing of several lengthy documents. The only sane way to do work like this is to print it out, sit in a comfortable chair with good natural light and a hot cup of tea, and crack on.
But the downside was the need for me to make notes in the [...]

Happy Feet was rubbish

Nice animation, but blimey, they really struggled to decide which film they were making, didn’t they?
“Let’s do a musical, with dancing penguins!”
“Yeah! And! Ummm - let’s copy that scene from the wildlife documentary, where the whale played with the seal pup by flicking it into the air over and over again!”
“Yeah! And let’s put in [...]

Stagnant

I’m feeling creatively deflated, have been for a couple of weeks now. Work has calmed down a great deal since the insane busy spell I had from September to November, and I was rather looking forward to having some time in which I might indulge in some creative writing for my own pleasure.
But it’s [...]

Foons Direct

I’ve been a First Direct customer for years, but this week’s announcement about new account fees has put me this close to shifting my account elsewhere.
Thing is, I don’t think the fees will apply to me - only because I already have a savings account with them (which I think has a balance of about [...]