I could be RSS'd

You might not know it but, with luck, this blog is now strangely different.

As a consequence of getting in a tangle trying to log on to another site 'feed' (this word crops up a lot... and I am still not much the wiser), I ended up clicking a bunch of things and....

...the long and short of it is that I think I have now added an RSS 'feed' option via 'Feedburner' to by blog.

What's that mean? Well, to be honest I have currently no blooming idea.

I think what it means that if you like what you see and read here, and want to come back, you can click on something that makes it easier. It may even mean you get told when a post goes up, which means several a day.

Oops.

It's OK.... because I'm worth it:)

There is also a small Brazilian woodland's worth of print out on my desk to read in bed tonight as there were scores of links to instructions to do new stuff - all with odd names - that may make the experience better all round. So I guess I'll be playing a while. Icons. Twiddly bits. Audio. Video. Stats.

And of course between my Mac and PC and Safari and IE and Firefox, it all looks totally different in each browser. I can see a little button up there now on one at least (though not, oddly, FireFox, who are Google/Blogger chums), which is nice.

Hope it works out. For the best. For all of us.

Moments from a blog

While Junkk.com devotes itself to the unremittingly positive and 'nice', this blog at least affords me the luxury of having a bit of a rant and, on occasion, a go.

I really must restrain myself. But, I'd like to think, there is some justification inasmuch as I am usually only keen to pop some pompous bubble, usually being inflated with hot air by one (or collection of same) who seems to 'know' what's good for us. Or, worse, is so convinced that what some others are doing is not, see it as their mission to stop 'em. I guess there are a few areas where a ban sadly is the only recourse, but I'd really like to think we have exhausted all other options first before reaching for the speed dial to one's PR, who in turn reaches for the speed dial to their favourite Editor to launch a 'reporter' off on a slow news day. And put a few folk making stuff out of a job.

But just as I used to envy my mates at uni who got all the girls by coming all over bomb banning, whilst I had this small niggle that maybe greeting the Russians with a Lee Enfield might not quite be the best deterrent of first effectiveness, so I must confess to thinking how blooming easy it would be just to have at anything that comes across my sights, and do so from the cosy cover of it being, or even just looking, 'green'...ish. Or not even having to concern oneself with any alternatives or, if one has, then whether these really are effective anyway.

This struck me as I was working through the Telegraph blogs. What fun it would be to just let rip, and the heck with whether it's fair or justified or anything other than a good way to daub myself in an arboreal hue and bask in the approbation of half of Islington, Dorset or the South Cotswolds (well, the bits not scraping a living in real jobs, that is).

Just look what I could do (I've left out the political ones, though even a few here offer pickings of richness:

Adding elegance to a room - Fireplaces, huh? That would be the dirty great hole up which a vast amount of the central heating escapes?

Confessions of a fake blonde - How much peroxide, in how many bottles, from how many trips... get consumed to look like a BBC news reader?

A portrait's progress - 'Squeezed in a trip to South Africa'. As you do.

I could go on (and do the same for all the rest), but I think I'm coming over all Marvin (it's a HitchHiker's Guide thing), and really can't be bothered.

At least most would have got a comment. Which rather begs the question as to what these types do... and who pays them. I guess it's the travel ads.

There's no business...

... like snow business: Mad fer it – we’re going skiing in a £31m shed

As a genuine question, as I really have no clue as to the answer, I was wondering how these things compared in terms of carbon whatevers?

Yes, getting a family to the ski slopes has a consequence (snow cannon point noted) , but I guess so does running a dirty great big chiller too... 24/7, 365/365?

And if the numbers are not optimal... who gave planning permission? I'd hope not some LA type who is trying to save the planet with bi-weekly collections.

In politics, a week is a long time. Ten years, however...

I was going to let this pass, but having watched yet another pol dredge for tushtissue into distant history, I simply cannot fail to pass comment.

On the matter of cancer care Alan Johnson, Minister for something or other (there are so many doing so little in so short a time before being 'reassigned' I can't keep up), was on BBC Breakfast this morning trumpeting some 'new' 'initiative' to 'resolve' some woeful state of service provision. And somehow, in a blizzard of stats he was allowed to refer us back to .... the previous administration.

My kids are now eleven.

So for over a decade they have 'moved on', 'looked at' and 'learned from' a lot.

I can't quite figure out how this is a feat that seems so far to have escaped the government who have been in power for the same period, and seems top have decided the best defence is to come out with such utter tripe to justify the hiring of extra hundreds of thousands (articles in the papers at the weekend on just how much our pensions equate to those of MPs (hint: not favourably), and how much of our local taxes goes to the pensions of public service employees) and the blowing of bazillions that have achieved diddly squat.

To put just one area in context as we're equating things with my kids: just 5 years ago they would have been in the world top 3 for literacy. Now, 5 years later and after 10 years of this administration, we're at 15th (source: Daily Mail. I'll live with 'em for facts).

The only mystery to me is how they keep getting away with this for so long, and what motivations are actually still serving to get even the most manipulable examples of the voting public, even those on the juiciest end of the public trough, still seem to plonk their x on the names of such numpties.

EVENT - I'm dreaming of a Green Christmas - London Science Museum Dana Centre

A bit last minute, but for any in or near London here's one I can reccomend:

MONTH - December

FIELD: Enviro, Science, Awareness
WHEN: Tomorrow, Dec 4 (corrected - tx Dave), 7-8.30pm
WHAT: Dreaming of a Green Christmas?
WHAT... MORE?: A few more key details
WHERE: Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD
WHO: Well, yours truly for one!
HOW: It's free. But you need to book.
URL: Link. Call 020 7942 4040 or e-mail tickets@danacentre.org.uk
COMMENTS: We went last year. It was fun and informative. And guess what... Junkk Male Peter will be going again, with a bunch of new stuff to show off! Including his famous Green Santa outfit.