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Simplify The Site

Time to take stock – what’s this site all about?

Last night, while pounding the treadmill for thirty minutes and trying to avoid watching about crime and disaster on the news, I got to thinking about a couple of things I have written here over the last few days.

In Tuesday’s Link Dump, I noted that I thought I was lacking some passion. I don’t believe that’s true. I am still passionate about many things and, particularly, personal publishing online. I just don’t get to write about it or discuss it. I do seem to write a great deal here, though.

In yesterday’s post about Portion Distortion I mentioned something about re-designing this site and, after some consideration, I have decided to do a little bit of housekeeping here. This site has started to get a little out of control. I need to rationalise: keeping it simple will involve removing pages that I don’t think serve any worth and getting rid of some sections. I will also re-work the design. I suspect for some time there will be things in several layouts, but I don’t think anybody will be too upset.

The first casualty will be the gallery section – it’s hard to maintain, and it’s not where I store pictures that I want to share with people anyway. Perhaps Movable Type will incorporate some new image controls in a future version which will allow me to bring it back.

Britain’s Railways

The whole saga of the upgrading of the West Coast main line is outlined in today’s Guardian.

A very interesting item it today’s G2 about the ongoing saga of the upgrading of the West Coast Main Line, one of the key railway routes in Britain:

One of the most disturbing facets of the west coast saga is the failure of democratic government that it represents. Not just of a particular party, but the whole system of government.

and later,

And yet we cannot accuse our elected representatives of looking the other way. In mid-February and early March of 1995, after the consultants had delivered their report but while Railtrack and the government were still mulling over it, members of the House of Commons transport committee questioned Edmonds, Horton and the heads of some of the big signalling firms about the WCML project … Members of parliament had done what they were elected to do, conscientiously and thoroughly scrutinising a big plan by an unelected organisation with power over the lives and purses of the public. It had pointed out its weaknesses. And nobody paid any attention.

What the article does highlight is that, today, projects of national importance and public good like this one come second to short-term profit, power and – to some extent – ego. I wonder if we will ever see a situation where transport planning is for all our good rather than the few?

Portion Distortion

Perils of portion distortion, or why Americans don’t know when enough is enough.

Catching up with the excellent writings of Chris at prosaic (whose new design is simple and elegant), I was directed to an article at sfgate.com (The Obesity Crisis), which is fascinating and rings true. I am sure that, over the last ten years, the amount of food I have consumed has increased massively as a result of the size of the portions that I eat (rather than eating more meals). Anyway, methinks I should head off to the gym now and resist the urge to simplify the look of this site …

Add Listen To Musak’s Content to My Yahoo!

Now you can read me via Yahoo!

Add Listen To Musak’s Content to My Yahoo!

You will see, on the right-hand side of the page, a new link added so that you can add the content of Listen To Musak to My Yahoo!

Yahoo! has always been my favourite portal, and for many years,My Yahoo! was my homepage. These days, I tend to favour Bloglines so that I can read the content I am interested in. I think this is a great new feature for Yahoo! and it’s good to see them being inventive again.

As usual, when big portals roll out features, it seems they’re only available to users of the my.yahoo.com domain rather than those of us who have correctly set our country to the UK and are thus pointed to uk.my.yahoo.com. Still, removing the UK portion of the URL allows you to see this feature.

One of my usability gripes about Yahoo! has always been the way the switch you between localised domains. You can read some content at news.yahoo.com and then suddenly be shunted to uk.news.yahoo.com with no obvious way back. It’s one thing they have needed to address for a long time. On the other hand, I wait to see how good My Yahoo will become as a newsreader.

Anyway, add me. Thanks.

Gay Weddings

Link to Ultrasparky on gay marriage.

Of the many pieces of gay marriage – including some of my own –this is one of the most succinct, well-written and meaningful items I’ve found.

I don’t care if your religion approves or not: I’m not asking it to. But our government claims to function separately from religion, and it grants legal rights to married couples that have nothing whatsoever to do with the religious affiliations of married couples.

Ultrasparky

Go read it and spread the word.

Link Dump

A selection of things that deserve more comment, but won’t get it because time is a-ticking by.

Things I should speak about but there’s too much happening in the world:

  • The Tories are holding a ‘gay summit’, which is a shock to those of us who remember Margaret Thatcher’s rants. I am certain that, at one point, it was the Conservatives who wanted to round us all up and shoot us.
  • Andy points to a site for hot Brazilian men, which amuses me for some reason that I can not explain.
  • And over at Man of the Moment, I am receiving a lot of comment spam on Andrew Kinlochan, which means I need to find the time to upgrade this instance of Moveable Type to implement some of the spam-blocking features. In researching them, I notice there’s a whole raft of new functionality in the next release. I am, sadly, excited by this news.
  • Six Apart, the guys behind Movable Type, have grown phenomenally this year. Mena’s written something about it, which goes to show how difficult it can be to communicate when you’re a small company.
  • Lance Arthur has written 13 Reasons Why You Could Be My Boyfriend, and, as always, it’s a very well-written piece. But one of the items really struck a chord with me for some reason: ‘6: You Have Passion‘. It got me asking myself, ‘what subject am I passionate about?’ and, right now, I am not so sure (although I can go on about my newfound love of the gym and roller casters if I am pushed). I don’t think that’s healthy.
  • Dan Savage got legally married– but to a woman: ‘We emphasised to the clerk and her manager that Amy and I don’t live together, we don’t love each other, we don’t plan to have kids together, and we’re going to go on living and sleeping with our same-sex partners after we get married. So could we still get a marriage license?’ How fantastic.
  • And I learned a new acronym today: SPIM (spam over instant messaging). You heard it here first (maybe).

What a great day.

Straight Men Are Shopping Kings?

New research by one of the leading retail institutes shows men are beginning to get even with the queens of shopping.

I have never been one to consider myself well-dressed, fit or particularly over-groomed. Clean and tidy (I hope), but I have never been one to peruse the fashion rails at Selfridges for the latest gear. Therefore, I don’t consider that I fit any gay stereotype. However, it appears I now don’t conform to the male stereotype:

We surveyed a group of guys in Birmingham and they said rather than meeting down in the pub, they would now meet in Selfridges for a drink and then go shopping

The Scotsman

That’s it. Time to ditch the M&S shirts at once.

Recommend TV To Me

Television Recommendations via the web.

Oh dear, technology is really getting the better of me. Reading my selection at Bloglines, Matt at Hit or Miss pointed me to his TV recommendations page. One of his recommendations is Hedwig and the Angry Inch – which I have been meaning to view for a long while. So, a quick search at MyDigiGuide and I see it’s on Sky Movies 1 this Thursday. Now, when Sky+ implements some kind of web interface, I will be away.

Gay Weddings This Week?

According to The Observer today, the Civil Partnerships bill will be published on Wednesday

According to The Observer today, the Civil Partnerships bill will be published on Wednesday. Certainly I am in favour of the bill as I think my relationship with PY deserves some recognition of the 12 years we have spent together. But it’s not marriage and, therefore, there’s no equality. Still, as they say, one small step at a time.

The same paper is also reporting that the Irish parliament is about to be facing the same debates. Shame Mr Bush doesn’t look too Europe for more than just hired guns.

Live From The Red Carpet

Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s Bloggie awards.

Did I miss much while I was away? I know I missed Tom winning a Bloggie or two – congratulations to him. plasticbag is always interesting reading but ‘Why do bloggers kill kittens?‘ must be one of my favourite posts of recent times. His idea of ‘a representation of a person online’ is a good idea about what a site is – including mine – but I have to say that I just plain enjoy his writing – regardless of if I agree with it or not.

Reflections on Florida

Having enjoyed Florida so much, I wonder how many more times I will go back.

I am back in London now and missing Florida. Last week was very different from many holidays I have taken before because it was so packed with things to do. I tend to prefer the kind of holiday that lets you relax rather than fill the days with more effort than you would usually put in at the office. Orlando, however, was very different. Although the days were filled, it was thoroughly enjoyable and felt like no effort whatsoever. I’ve really found a new love of roller coasters, and it’s awoken a childlike interest in theme parks. I think the enjoyment of the theme parks was the element I was most surprised by. Perhaps all these years of believing I wouldn’t enjoy them meant I found them all the more entertaining. Of course, there was the added fun of six people to holiday with. It’s a time that I won’t forget easily.

What also struck me was that the ‘have a nice day’ mentality/philosophy, which I often find saccharine and insincere in other American cities, was so right in Florida that it made me readdress my thoughts on that whole approach to life. It adds to the whole experience and really proves that just being nice to others can help make somebody else’s day all the brighter.

So, please, have a nice day, and any suggestions of alternative American locations for a holiday would be most welcome.

The Florida Adventure Continues

This holiday just gets better and better.

Where every island promises thrills at Universal’s Orlando playground.

Today is our last day in Florida. On Saturday, PY and I left the villa for the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios, Florida.

I thought Epcot and Busch were good, but this has been fantastic. Jaws, Earthquake and Back to the Future at Universal Studios were fantastic (Terminator and Men in Black not so great). In particular, I have to say how much I enjoyed the Jaws ride, which is entirely made by the actors who are the guides on your boat tour, and they really do make it fantastic.

Islands of Adventure has also been wonderful. Given my newfound love of roller coasters, I have ridden the Hulk and Duelling Dragons several times, and I can heartedly recommend them. The most amazing ride, however, isn’t an actual roller coaster. The Spider-Man ride is an indoor ride with projected 3D imagery, offering the most superb ride I have been on while here in Florida. I am thankful we were staying at a Universal hotel, because the hotel keycard works as a Fastpass as many times as you want, so we’ve done Spider-Man a number of times. If you go to Universal’s Islands of Adventure, don’t miss it under any circumstances.

And we managed to see the Black Eyed Peas at Universal Studios Mardi Gras on Saturday, which was a fun bonus to the whole adventure.

A Florida Friday

Ever since I was a child I’ve tended to avoid roller coasters because I was a little scared. Now I am addicted.

It’s Friday when I am writing this, but I am not sure when I will get around to publishing these entries from Florida. I am on the verge of applying for a green card so that I can stay here in the sunshine and ride roller coasters all day.

Wednesday was Epcot day. It was the first Florida theme park that I have ever been to, and it was amazing. Last Tuesday evening, we went to Downtown Disney to eat. As we drove past the large Disney World signs, PY was grinning uncontrollably. He has been here several times before and was excited to be back. After twelve years together, I have to admit that I have never seen him like that – it was a fantastic experience. Oddly, by the time we drove under the same sign on Wednesday morning on our way to Epcot, I was – similarly – grinning. We made our way to Test Track and got our Fastpass before seeing Ellen’s piece on energy (which is a little simplistic and to be seen in the context of being sponsored by an oil company). We then went round several of the other experiences, which I won’t list here as there are many good guides to them. 

Eventually, it was our time for Test Track, but it kept breaking down, and we waited an hour to ride (the non-Fastpass queue was three hours by this point). This is where I admit I have never been any good at rides, roller coasters and fairgrounds. I get nervous, so I tend to stay away. Anyway, after all the waiting, I was very apprehensive about riding Test Track, only to be a little disappointed. The screams that you hear as people hurtle around the side of the building do lead you to think you are going on the ultimate thrill, but it’s really just an amusing diversion.

Then I went to ride Mission Space (which PY wouldn’t ride because it, apparently, spins you round to generate the weightless experience, and he isn’t any good at those kinds of rides). The build-up to this ride is incredible (all the warnings about motion sickness managed to put two of our crew members off at the very last minute, leaving only two of us in the pod). It was great, but it wasn’t fantastic, and it was over very quickly. And that’s when I realised where the fear comes from. It’s the clever build-ups and staging. The rides themselves seem quite tame to me.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Epcot rides were great. World Showcase is fun; a lot of imagination has gone into the park, and the fireworks are impressive. It’s a great day out, and it’s the place where I overcame my fear of these rides.

So by yesterday, when we went to Busch Gardens, I was happier to ride the roller coasters. And I did – even the one where your feet hang down. And I would ride them again and again. I’ve discovered that I am thoroughly enjoying the rush of riding. It’s not something I had expected to get out of this trip, but I have now uncovered a whole new world, and I fear I’ll become addicted.

Go now and ride them all.

Florida, USA – First Impressions Count

My first impressions of Florida – warm and wet with long security queues, big cars and slower drivers that at home. And lots and lots of food.

Well, PY and I arrived in Florida yesterday afternoon. Security at Orlando International Airport was quite strict: they re-scan your baggage on the way into the country, and you must walk through the metal detectors again. I find this really odd (it happened to me in Raleigh last December), and it’s so time-consuming. Don’t the American border guards trust the security measures at Gatwick? It took nearly two hours to get through the airport, and I don’t want to mention the bizarre situation where you pick your bags up and then place them on another conveyor belt to appear elsewhere in the airport sometime later.

One of the things that had been concerning me was the drive. I have never driven in the US, and I have never driven an automatic car. And with less than 24 hours since I picked up the car, I am a convert to the automatic, but not to this side of the road. Don’t you people know that the left is the only decent side to drive on? We didn’t pick up a fancy car (because I wanted something small, but the Avis guy’s idea of small and mine are very different – this is a big car), but it seems to drive well (the ABS may be a little over the top), and I like this whole one-foot approach. We got a little lost (by which I know we took the wrong road, but – somehow – that meant we missed the toll roads, so it worked out well). But it poured down with rain. It was torrential. I was quite shocked by the power of the rain, and it might have put me off the drive, but it was OK because everybody drives so slowly here (even though they’re all breaking the speed limit). I have been quite amazed by that little fact. Six wide lanes and everybody popping along at sixty miles an hour. Of course, I shouldn’t complain because it’s safer, but what must American drivers think of the M6 (when it’s running)?

So far, we’ve been pretty lazy: shopping, the pool, and eating. Tomorrow, I will visit my first Disney theme park in the US. We’re off to Epcot, and I am quite excited. One thing has become very obvious, though – Gym Buddy isn’t going to be happy with me. There’s so much cheap food here (a great deal of it fried), and I want to eat most of it. Oh dear.

My first impressions of Florida – warm and wet with long security queues, big cars and slower drivers than at home. And lots and lots of food.

Unexpected Saturday Racing

A party in a hotel in Wolverhampton that turned into a fun day at the races.

at the races

Sometimes, things you would least expect are the most interesting things to happen to you. Yesterday, my parents celebrated their wedding anniversary by holding a party at a hotel in Wolverhampton. They invited friends and family to the hotel and avoiding mentioning that it was actually at Wolverhampton Race Course where a day at the races was planned for all. I’ve been to the races a few times and can never remember what on earth I am to do when it comes to placing a small bet. There are so many variants that I need a course in how to do it. But it was a thoroughly entertaining day seeing family and friends that I haven’t seen for several years. I think I ended slightly up on the day (in monetary terms) but only just. I hadn’t expected to be so enthusiastic about watching my horses win and fail. Let’s say nothing about the recent controversy about the sport.