I’ve just set WordPress up to post by eMail, and this is only a test to see if it works, and if so, how. You probably want to ignore it.

Does it allow for Markdown use?

Will URLs be linked? http://www.cultpens.com

Here goes the test…

Hello Alexia,

I think I’ve read your post on Freak Revolution six, maybe seven times now. The first two times I cried, the other times I just I soaked up the words and I’ve carried them around with me ever since.

It shouldn’t be hard for me to remember who I really am, I’m never far away from the silliness that keeps me smiling, or the people who keep me both silly and smiling, but when this article first came to my attention I had forgotten, and I was in one hell of a self-inflicted mess. So I read your post over and over, dug out my journal and got to scribbling. The result was pleasing for several reasons:

The ‘F’ word is nowhere to be seen.

Sure, it defines me physically at the moment, but I am no longer ‘fat’ before anything else. There’s a hell of a lot going on. This is a breakthrough in itself, and maybe is the start to getting it fixed (properly this time too).

There is indeed a lot going on, and it’s all awesome.

I’m married to my best friend. I also have lots of very lovely close friends (close as in value, sadly not in geography… some I haven’t even met in person). I have a pretty decent day job. I live in a beautiful part of England. And I’m free to explore, dream, and play as much as I wish.

I’m a dreamer, and I’m not the only one.

Sharing my life with so many creative souls is wonderful. I have writers, drummers, photographers, musicians, actors and magicians in my circle of friends. Each of them inspire me to keep on dreaming and keep on playing.

I have a decent job (at last).

Still in admin, still in the public sector, but with enough to do to keep me interested. And doing that keeps me grounded and funds all the silly stuff.

I’m “The Comic”

I’m at my happiest when I’m making folks LOL (except when they LOL at the size of my arse, that’s different). I’m at my happiest when I’m putting together shows, or skits for parties. I’m also at my happiest when impersonating a bloke. Go figure. I cosplay as this chap, which is just as much fun as it looks, strutting around being all alpha male. What started as a silly joke at the weight loss group I shall not name, “The Guv” is now my alter ego and to be honest he gets away with a lot more than I do. He even has his own fan club.

He’s such a charmer. No wonder the ladies love him.

Thank you, Alexia, for challenging me to remember, notice and appreciate all of this. Here’s to us comics, dancers, insect-collectors, artists and dreamers… or, to put it another way:

Namaste,

Sam xx

I switched from Flickr to using SmugMug for hosting my photos a few months ago, and it’s been a mixed experience.

The Good

• I now have all my photos on my own domain. I’m contributing content to my own site, rather than one owned by Yahoo!.
• I can run ads on photo pages. It doesn’t bring in a lot of money (barely anything, actually) but at least the money is coming to me.
• I can make the photo part of the site look like it’s really part of my own site, not just a link to someone else’s site.
• The photos are presented well, with nice big views, taking advantage of bigger screens well.
• It’s nice to be supporting a small family-run business, rather than a division of Yahoo! that could potentially get sold again any time.

The Bad

• It’s taken a lot of work to get things organised as I like them, and it’s still a bit odd. Every photo has to be in a gallery, and because I don’t think of photos in galleries, I’m ending up with lots of tiny galleries, often with only one or two photos in them.
• I can set up ‘smart galleries’, which pick up on keywords, and fill themselves automatically. I’ve used this for gathering pictures of specific things, or taken in specific places, and it’s really nice and flexible. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work reliably. Photos rarely appear in the galleries they should straight away. Sometimes they never do, unless you edit the gallery settings, and save them again. It means I can’t set this stuff up then just forget about it.
• Searching works well. Sometimes. Other times, it’s frustratingly slow. At the moment, I’m looking for a picture of a cup of coffee, but every time I search, I get a ‘gateway timeout’ error.
• Although SmugMug does have some social features, it lags a long way behind Flickr. There aren’t as many features, there aren’t as many users to interact with, and the users there tend not to use the social aspects. Even without taking part in Flickr recently, I’ve had photos ‘favorited’, and had comments posted. Not a single photo has been given a ‘thumbs-up’ (or down) on SmugMug. I’ve had one comment, but that was just a stream of abuse that I deleted straight away.

The Ugly

• Since ditching Flickr, they’ve released a beta version of their new photo page, and it works much better than the old one. It solves most of the problems.
• When returning to Flickr, it’s quite startling just how quick everything is, and how it all just works.
• Flickr is cheaper. By more than any ad revenue is ever likely to bring me.

The Conclusion

I haven’t reached one yet, but ditching SmugMug and returning to Flickr is feeling increasingly likely. I like SmugMug, and there are features there, but not on Flickr, that pros probably need. I don’t. It’s making uploading photos feel more like a chore.

I’ll probably start uploading all my recent photos to Flickr again, and see how things go from there. Unfortunately, my Mac is currently out of action, waiting for a new hard drive, so I’ll have to wait until it returns.

I came up with this recipe when I was a student, which probably tells you most of what you need to know about it.

I had a big bag of rice. One day, I found I had no money, and nothing in to eat. In the fridge, I had a jar of Marmite and a jar of English mustard. I like mustard. I bought the Marmite with the intention of trying to like it, but I failed.

I decided I’d better come up with a recipe that used Marmite, mustard and rice. So Marmite and Mustard Fried Rice was born.

Most people have been pleasantly surprised on tasting it, though it usually comes under the heading of ‘not bad’ rather than being a gourmet delight. It’s easy and cheap, though, so it was good student fuel.

I usually use basmati rice, but long grain should be fine too.

Cook as normal. For basmati rice, I just cook one cup of rice per two cups of water – the measure you use doesn’t matter, as long as it’s 2:1 by volume. As you start boiling the rice, add Marmite and mustard. I generally use a generous spoon of each, but it depends on how much rice you’re making, and how strong you want the flavours to be. A reasonably generous amount of Marmite is important, as it helps the textures later.

Boil until the rice is done, stirring often to make sure the Marmite and mustard mix in well. Get a pan heated up as it’s finishing. Either a frying pan or a wok will do the job, with a little oil.

Chuck the rice in the frying pan/wok. Pat it down, and let one side cook well, then flip it over. You’re aiming to get quite a bit of the rice to go crispy.

Once both sides are crispy, serve it. If you’re doing a lot, and it’s quite thick, you may want to break it up to get the crispy bits mixed into it, then cook it again, so more of the rice is crispy.

Serve with the beer you’ve been able to afford because you spent so little on food.

I’ve enjoyed having a Mac, ever since I made the switch. Now, though, my Mac is unwell. I’ve booked in at the Apple store to take it in – I think it needs a new hard drive. Until then, though, I only have my old Windows XP Tablet PC. It’s quite old, and slow, with a small screen, and no access to any of the data on my Mac’s hard drive, or any of the external drives I used.

So. How’s that working out for me?

Surprisingly well, really. It’s not pleasant, but it’s usable for a while. I think I miss the hardware more than the software, though I certainly prefer Mac OS to Windows XP. The screen is so small and so low down that I’m feeling the risk of neck ache, and it doesn’t feel good for my eyes. I’ve been spoiled with that 24″ screen, though!

One of the first things I did was to install ResophNotes, which gives me access to my writing and ‘thinking’ space – the same data I’d normally access through Notational Velocidy on the Mac. I have DropBox, so many of my current files are still available. Although I use Apple’s Mail app for my email, it’s all stored in Gmail, so I can just open a browser tab and I have my email all up to date. I’m a little in limbo at the moment for calendars, but Google Calendar is currently my ‘master’, so I have that available.

I keep my notes in Evernote, so I just updated that to the latest version and let it sync. I’m using the web version of Twitter instead of the Tweetie (or Twitter official) client. My tasks are all in Remember The Milk, so they’re online anyway.

I had access to all of my most important data very quickly.

I’m still missing all the data on my external drives. Windows would be able to access them if they weren’t in Mac OS Extended format, but that would mean I wouldn’t be able to use Time Machine to keep them backed up. And since it’s Time Machine that means I’ll be able to bring my Mac home with a new hard drive and get it back up and running to pretty much where I was, I’m happy with the trade-off.