To the Future

4 years ago I started to write this personal blog and I have to say it has served me well - it's seen a lot of water under the bridge (or flowing over the weir as the case might be in the photo below - I just didn't have anything more appropriate) however now seems like a good time to think about a change to look to the future.

 As well as sounding like something fun to do, I also had 3 main reasons for blogging.

The 1st was to use it as a means of sharing life experiences - particularly the positive - a sort of non-social networking (I'm not a huge fan) social outlet.

The 2nd was that I was already keeping a diary of sorts and I appreciated the therapeutic side of writing down frustrations - a personal blog was as good a way as any.

The 3rd reason was that I read a lot of blogs and I looked forward to trying to add something worthwhile to the mix - to communicate and share ideas that might spark ideas and our imaginations.

To add to this, before I get further into why I'm posting this slightly random and perhaps out of the blue introspection, here are some relevant stats about my blogging over the last 4 years:

At the highest level - 82% of posts were related to life experiences. The remaining 18% were opinion posts.

To be more specific, the content could be categorised as follows:
36% General life experiences (home life, day to day stuff, misc entertainment)
18% Local Tourism (Northern Ireland, day trips, local sights, museums etc) of which 74% was about Belfast,  26% the rest of Northern Ireland.
18% Holidays (Travel and tourism abroad) of which 65% was about the USA and 35% Europe.
18% Opinion (Politics, news, other events etc)
10% Sports (Irish League football, Crusaders, Leeds United, Ice Hockey and Olympics)

Keeping all that in mind, I've also discovered that although I originally started off posting a lot more about life experiences this has slowly changed. This blog has now become dominated by posts about travel and holidays. So on the plus side my blogging here is still largely dominated by sharing experiences that are important to me - which is what I set out to do - however... only the detail of those experiences are really unique. Thinking about it with some perspective, sites like Tripadvisor for my travel posts or football forums for my sports posts are perhaps better places for my thoughts if I really feel the need to share in such detail.

Another site that I'm already using for another part of my publishing on the web is Twitter. Indeed I can see from the stats I put together that when I joined Twitter is when the more opinionated posts I used to make fell away. I didn't really know what to make of Twitter at first but it has soon become the place I voice an opinion 'as and when' those opinions come to mind rather than dwelling on them until I can find time to sit down to type a post here. This might be for better or for worse as it's not about carefully thought through arguments, it's often just a means to empty your head... but still it fills that niche.

So with the 2nd reason I began to blog now largely removed and the 1st being whittled down to something that might be more suitably placed elsewhere, what about the 3rd? - adding to the mix and sharing ideas? - the social side of blogging?

I think I can reasonably state that over the last few years I've added to the mix at least a little bit.
In regards to positive feedback, since I started blogging here I've had a dozens of posts linked to on other (non-blog) sites including the Belfast Telegraph. I even had one of my photographs published as a book cover last year. Some very kind bloggers also linked to my posts with a positive feeling - and that I have to say has always brought about a warming feeling of inclusion. Overall I'm happy I've been able to take part and in terms of personal well-being and development I think I've got as much out of blogging as I put in - if not more. My spelling has improved a tiny bit if nothing else. The positives have however diminished in recent times - I'm not finding the motivation to blog so much and when I do it's often late into the night when I should really be getting more sleep.

So that leads me to the next point - a point more in-line with the question posed 'what about the social side of blogging?'

Something I know for sure is that my blog is really only read regularly by other bloggers or people who know me - and in terms of bloggers, specifically other Blogger users at that. The majority of the rest of my page views tends to be one time visits from people (largely by chance) finding my posts and photos through search engines. In regards to viewing figures, I'm not sure if it's just my blog but over the last few months - although I've posted regularly - page views have plummeted and SEO isn't a major part of it.
As my content isn't niche enough to target a specific audience and retain many repeat visits from those just finding me by chance in terms of the subjects I blog about... and given the fact I haven't changed those subjects all that much over the course of the last year, there has to be something else that is adding to this trend of declining casual activity. Indeed it doesn't look like I'm alone in sensing this or something similar. Many bloggers I followed have wound up their blogs over the last year, several of those who continue have slowed down in regards to the regularity in which they post.

I've tried to find some new bloggers to follow to keep my own blogosphere fresh - as I said I would try to in my 2013 list, but alas, there just aren't many left or searchable (especially local bloggers)... well at least those who remain free of ridiculously narcissistic tendencies and/or are being led by purely financial motivations anyway.

This would worry me a lot more if blogging for me was about trying to do something like 'getting known', making money or indulging in narcissistic tendencies. Thankfully it's not at all! All I worry about is the practicality of if it's worth continuing. So although a lack of an audience isn't an issue in itself, a decline in the audience is a trend that I'd have to be fool to ignore in terms of that practicality.

The main issues I consider with blogging are just the time I have to put into it and the resulting benefits for both me and those who view what I publish.

The real joy of Blogger when I started to use it was the connectivity. I could write a blog and reach an audience with little effort (and time). With the likes of Google Friend Connect and Google Reader all the tools were there that made Blogger a sort of very personalised Facebook page, with better scope for search engine optimisation, for the type of blog I write.

The first of these tools is now all but suspended, the second is planned to be dropped later in the year and with them the connectivity of blogger has very much been diminished. A blog like mine is just a collection of words, images, videos, thoughts and ideas aggregated into one accessible place. It is basically a personalised Facebook or Google+ page with more room for creative expression and control over what is presented and published.

Sadly, Facebook and other social networking/media storage sites have captured the vast majority of the audience, Google with Google+ also compete in that area and with the withdrawal of the services that made Blogger click, it seems Blogger (in the way I use it) is currently becoming just a form of web hosting for me.
As such, with the retiring of services that helped provide an audience, the connectivity of Blogger has been relocated to Google+.

This is where I personally get caught out twice, largely because with a truly personal blog I wanted to remain quasi-anonymous. Because of this scenario, in order to offset the connectivity blogger previously offered, I would need to throw myself into Google+ or other social network sites to provide a similar result.
The issue being, I don't have the time to duplicate my social networking activities (as well as blog) in order to maintain an active or new readership whilst remaining somewhat anonymous.

The other logical problem is that if I'm asking people already using one application and network, then surely it stands to reason that I might as well just post my content directly onto that social network in the 1st place since I'm not trying to drive traffic for money or any other such activity.

So to summarise this rambling:

I still enjoy blogging and I still really like Blogger as a publishing platform - the freedom and control in presentation it offers whilst making it so simple to do are second to none.
The problem is that it makes no sense to continue writing a personal blog in the way I currently do. I can't justify the time it would take to build and maintain a community around this blog to fight the tide and keep an audience. I also don't have time to duplicate what I publish around the web in more than one place and with some of the reasons I started blogging having evolved to other parts of the internet, my focus in using Blogger has to change to make it practical and timely.

So...

I intend to take what I've learnt from my blogging experience these past 4 years and put it to good use in a different way. If I don't, I predict that in the not so distant future I'll probably find myself better off (time wise) just going back to writing a diary in a notepad.

In regards to the future of this blog, I won't be getting rid of it. On the off chance I need a place to publish something random or vague it's a handy spot to keep available. However, apart from the odd update now and again, I won't be making any regular posts in the near future.

'A Lifeform in Northern Ireland' (as my means of regularly publishing content online) is on an indefinite hiatus.

As disappointing as it is to break a routine and bring to an end something I've put a lot of effort into over the last few year, a change is as good as a rest and the chance to focus on something else brings about some fun possibilities and opportunities.

My blog posts here were becoming more and more photo heavy anyway and I often don't have time to use Flickr and its community aspect as much as I might like to, so in terms of my use of Blogger I intend to start a project that is photo orientated.

Though I haven't worked out the ins and outs yet, I intend to start a photo blog project of some kind.
Something that will allow me to combine two things I would do anyway but cut out the hours spent typing.
I realise my pictures aren't worth a thousand words at the moment but perhaps, with practice, one day they might be... and if not, at least I'll have tried to improve.

With the new blog being something far less contentious, it could also allow me to use my real name and Facebook and Google+ presence as well as other sites. It might also allow me to use Flickr and Twitter more effectively.

Hopefully this will save me a lot of time and allow me improve a skill whilst also enabling me to enjoy the social side of blogging much more. Not to mention it gives me an excuse to finally invest in more than just a standard compact camera.

I also hope it might allow me achieve more of my 2013 list (one goal being to take more photos and another to not procrastinate as much!).

On the off chance anyone was thinking along the same lines (especially a photography blog – maybe based around Belfast) and has an idea for a joint project or bloggorific extravaganza - do let me know! I've always liked the idea of a team blog but I’ve just never found a team… let alone a subject.

I'll be sure to update here whatever I end up doing. All being well it'll be a lot less self indulgent and a little more focused on really sharing an aspect of life in Northern Ireland.

So it's that time again, time to get back to the future!

July has been a little huge bit crazy.

So yeah.... Hi!

As a follow up to my last post. I so far haven't managed to get the blogger app to post yet, the post I tried to send from the airport is stuck in 'publishing' status from my phone and it's messed up and I haven't been able to get anything to work with that app since. It's had ample broadband, WiFi and data connection time so I dunno what the craic is with it. Probably something like my phone crashed or the app isn't compatible or just a one off. I might try reinstalling it at some point.

Other than that, I've been busy and stressed a little more than usual. Our trip away was awesome but since we got back it's been all very hectic and work has increased my stress levels no end.

I've been quickly coming to terms with the fact I'm being taken for a ride at work - in a corporate, cold and collected buy it cheap and bleed it for all it's worth type style, I've become aware more than ever that I am but a commodity to the company I work for. I think that employees being human with rights is just an inconvenience to many employers in the private sector. So I'll stick it out for now and keep my eyes open for other jobs. I doubt the greed of shareholders will subside any time soon so all being well I'll be aiming for a new job next year (unless the balance is miraculously tipped one way or the other). Hopefully something not for profit, a social enterprise or just a public sector job (if they ever are allowed to remove their recruitment freezes) will appear.

Talking of that sort of issue. The no nonsense finance guru guy - Alvin Hall - has a new series on Radio 4 at the moment that has so far been a good listen. The series is called - Poorer Than Their Parents. So far the first episode was about Jobs and I didn't catch today's but will on catch up. Although it didn't really go into the scenarios and problems in the job market (besides the chicken and egg scenario of needing to have done a job before someone will give you a job doing it) that I've encountered (the focus was largely more on specific scenarios), the end comments by James (a guy doing an unpaid internship in London) rang very true to me when he mentioned the word 'vulnerable' - especially when his main issue was accommodation and his attempt to get employment putting him at risk with his living conditions. Alvin's solution to James was to basically become home help for a cheaper rent, which isn't a bad idea but really is a plaster over the problem rather than trying to sort the big issues. And people wonder why there is so much apathy from the younger generations and why they hope that they might just get lucky with something landing in their lap.

As I've said before, we only have a finite amount of resources in the world, for me, the elitist structure we've got set up isn't doing a very good job of managing it. I've only read what I could find online but I think Eric Hobsbawm talks a lot of sense on such subjects. In his 90s now, he still has a very sharp mind. For instance,  Hobsbawm, in an interview with the Guardian earlier this year said:

"the basic problems of the 21st century would require solutions that neither the pure market, nor pure liberal democracy can adequately deal with. And to that extent, a different combination, a different mix of public and private, of state action and control and freedom would have to be worked out.

What you will call that, I don't know. But it may well no longer be capitalism, certainly not in the sense in which we have known it in this country and the United States."

As I've said before, I personally think we're already in a period where we have corporate imperialism tempered with a liberal mindset. I'm not sure if stats back me up but from where I'm sitting it seems like the world isn't led by people and our quest to survive, grow and leave a better world for our future than we left. Rather it's individuals with the biggest wills banding together to secure the biggest wallets and dictating what happens to ensure they can pull the strings whilst those with the knowledge or foresight can only ask for them to think about what they're doing. What some of the motivation or intentions are for those with their stockpiles - well, beyond controlling or hording more, is beyond me. Is it just to feed their ego or make their life and their kids lives easy in the short term at the expense of everyone else? Is their a psychological reason or is it just ignorance or selective education? Who knows. However, such people who facilitate this don't seem to question their actions when faced with treating human beings as commodities. Looking through the history books, sadly, this has always been the case and those eager to keep the status quo will continue to say that we are where we are now because of the same old structure that operates to this day in just a continuously varying mix.

But why are we living for the past or the present which is always fleeting?

As I believe the Guardian interview quote from Eric Hobsbawm (refered to earlier) implies, Hobsbawm doesn't believe that the basic problems we face today can be addressed by the way we've being doing things to date and I agree. I feel humanity needs some major new ideas or adaptations to how we currently work and ones that can't be hijacked for obscene personal or ideological gain. But why do I get the feeling that like trying to get a job you're qualified for except for the experience, no one or no idea will be taken on board unless it has already been tried so no one with a new idea will be listened to. The only exceptions to this seems to be at extreme times because of necessity but lets hope it doesn't come to something so stupid as it's usually only the poorest who suffer at times of turmoil. Maybe I'm just impatient though as eventually there will be change as humanity, society and technology evolves, several generations all over the world might

I mean, if scientific reasoning is accurate on the subject. Whatever or where ever humanity is to go, it's not here and it's not now. Our planet has the ability to be a nice place to live and learn and create, but not for ever, eventually our genetic descendants will need to leave and if theory is correct, in the very far flung future, we're going to need to find a way to either control (unlikely) or to get out of our known universe. No offence but we're not looking too likely to achieve that given the world's current state and the fact that with the technology and abilities we have, we can't even look after ourselves on this dot in space let alone do something productive away from it.

As Hobsbawn says in his book - Darkness:

"If humanity is to have a recognizable future, it cannot be by prolonging the past or the present."

Not to jump the gun too much but before Alvin's whole series is fully aired, I can tell you now, I already believe those who made the decisions have already sold our children's futures and that either we or the next few generations will have to stand up to the plate to give humanity some care and attention.

I think one of the core differences between a lot of people and the message we seem to get from 'The City' is that we seem to see 'wealth' in a different manner. Again, personally, I don't see wealth as numbers in a bank account that hold the promise of time, 'things' and services that gives you power, status and freedoms. My description of wealth would be the wealth of humanity: The ability to create a society and structure that can unlock the potential in each of us for a positive contribution to this place we call home all of our futures, not just one that eats up resources to maintain a human construct of nation states. The progress of ensuring the well being (and hopefully happiness) of everyone in the present. As well as a focus on a long term effort to progress knowledge and technology towards being able to answer the biggest unanswered questions of our existence so that we're not always just reactive creatures. The only alternative is suffering and ceasing to exist and since we already do exist, there is surely no harm in trying to make the most of our existence for the long haul.

On a side note... I have scheduled some posts today so there will be something to look at here again this week guaranteed :)

A game of Time and Typing

Blogging has gotten away from me lately. Lots going on at work and lots happening at home too...

Sadly not all of it productive. I got addicted to Age of Empires again... oops. I bought Age of Empires 3 Gold and the extra add on too when they were like a tenner in a sale about a year or two ago, they hadn't even been opened but a free weekend cropped up and well, time literally became history. Another game that had been neglected - sat unopened - since my birthday was Monopoly for the Wii. We've certainly made up for that though and become somewhat addicted to it too... thankfully those games tend to be quicker than the real life version... our longest games being around two hours and the quickest a mere 47 minutes.

In other news the Crues played Fulham in Europa League Qualifying last Thursday which was brilliant. I still hope to write a big post on all that and the new stands etc at some point so I'll not go too far into it but in the revamped Seaview Stadium, Fulham put out a strong first team featuring 8 players who started in the Europa Cup Final in 2010. Crusaders lost 1-3 in the end but not before giving their fully pro and highly paid counterparts a good scare. We're really looking forward to our trip to London to see the away leg at Craven Cottage on Thursday night. We have our one for pride already so nothing will dampen our spirits, even the chance of rain :)

I finally got my hair cut (hurrah!) and totally unrelated we also had Gentlemen prefer Blondes night one weekend where we took both the food and the TV outside.

That was followed by Star Trek night the next weekend which concluded the first ever El Presidente's film festival.

I have half posts already written about those (not my hair cut mind though it was noteworthy in the speed of it, totally how it should be!) so hopefully when I can drag myself away from football and collecting resources and taking over maps I hope to get back to keeping up recording events as they pass. The problem again (as always) being the more that happens the more behind I get with the list.

Along those lines, well, mainly due to my old phone being a brick (albeit an amazingly indestructible brick!) from the last millennium - I dipped my feet into the murky waters of a contract phone and got an almost up to date handset. So I now have the ability to use apps, browse the web on the go and write a text message with a qwerty key pad. I never did learn how to use predictive text and now I never will - One small step for mankind, one giant techno-leap straight over a decade of unfortunate wrong wording for Simon.
Victory is mine!

So yeah, I'm going to have to use that blogger app at some point and give this a go on the move now I have no excuse. I'm not too sure how easy it'll be to add photos and they'll be mobile phone quality but I might give it a try and see how much of my data allowance it eats up if I can't find some free WiFi kicking about.

So that's my quick update, apologies for being an absent blogger so far this month, as far as social media goes I've probably written more words on Twitter than I have on my blog which is slightly worrying given my usual length of posts but enough about what I have or haven't done for now. Sleepy time, night all! Catch you soon.

Sometimes it's all a blur

It’s all a blur... it’s time to get up, time to go to work. Time to have to work late to get things done to the tight timeline of numerous deadlines. Time to pay the bills and time to do the housework. Time to worry about time getting away from me - to time dragging its heels at the worst moment. Whether it’s time to check the list of what it’s time to do, or time to forget about the list and worry about what I haven’t done.

On the other hand there are some great things that it’s recently time for again... Saturdays at 3pm and other random times like the first evening game of the football season (even though it didn’t go too well for the Crues on Tuesday).

Contrary to what I'm typing, I’m not feeling down, but at the moment it does seem to me like the weeks are all merging into one. It’s odd because in a way it’s a good thing. The wedding, and more importantly in regards to my sanity - the honeymoon, will be here before we know it. The bad thing about that is that the time for setting times to do things is well and truly over. It’s now time to spend more time worrying about doing what needs to be done in order for the wedding to go well. Like the opening credits to the cartoon, The Racoons; Life would be simple in the forest except for... working full time and then some + trying to keep the house in order and having chance to live a little, planning a wedding and stag do, keeping up to speed with everything and trying to stay sane with life outside the forest where the Cyril Sneer’s of the world pull the strings never seeming to care about anything but exploiting every resource they can and to what end? I know billions of people are more stressed and in a more difficult position to live a happy life, but when time is something not one of us can yet create, seeming to lose some into a blob of existance (even if only in the mind) would appear to be a little disconcerting.

At least it’s still summer time in the urban Evergreen Belfast forest... hrmmm, oh well.