If this is your first visit at iScatterlings, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Blogosphere was great. It was wonderful. It had comraderie. We all knew it was right. We liked blogging. We found each other. We connected with each other. We were a community.
We learned from one another. We grew our blog audiences together. We were riding the wave. We were laughing together. We had good times. We had not so nice times. But we pulled each other along and upward. We knew who we could depend on.
And then Facebook came along and split us apart. None of the above applies anymore.
Only you can make a decision to change your life for the better based on the options before you. I cannot do it for you. Only you can make a decision to change your life for the better based on the options before you. I cannot do it for you. Only you can make a decision to change your life for the better based on the options before you. I cannot do it for you.
By dawn the next day the foreboding of the previous day’s plunging barometer had manifested itself into the makings of a storm. Dark clouds lolled in the air. Moving slothlike across the darkening sky, threatening us cowering humans here on terrafirma.
I fell out of bed at 05:12am today! Yep, I rolled over the edge and PLUNKED onto the floor. Not the best way to opstaan and the first time that it has happened in my life.
I decided that for today I would put some pictures into a hat, close my eyes and write about the first one I pulled out. The challenge is to begin from scratch and continue through a beginning, middle and end in as little time as possible. Absolutely no prep work is tolerated.
So I put my hand in the hat and pulled out the picture above. It is a beauty. And what a story it can tell.
No matter how you view it, sadly the end for cork closures in wine bottles is in sight. Like so many things in our technology based world, natural materials have come under a lot of scrutiny from hygenists, biologists other ists as well as dieticians, technicians and a shedload of creeps in white lab coats.
Screwcap monsters are trying to usurp corks. Absolutley ludicrous! Just look at the photo above. The humble wine bottle cork. It is an icon, a work of art. It is every wine connoisseur’s fantasy mural depicting many nights or afternoons of ribald gastronomic and sensual pleasures. What finer memorial to the nectar of the God’s can one ask for?
Polaroids and videos may suffice for many. But for me the cork still lives of the occassion. It smells of the time and of the wine. The cork. You can pick it up, even throw it across the carpet for the cat to chase. You can fiddle with it and keep your fingers active and le cork still retains the aroma of the wine. Magnificant lingering free prize.
When I first started this blog, I installed the Stattraq plugin. It was rated as one of the best, worked well and supplies just the kind of detail about visitors that I regard as useful and meaningful. I still regard it as the better tool to use but as there is no development or support, I need to find an equal or better tool to replace Stattraq.
And herein lies my quandry.
Over the past couple of months I have installed and tried five tools that claim to be good. But they do not provide me with the sames detail that I like and use Stattraq for. Not even Wordpress’s BlogStats meets my need. I get no realtime stats like I do from Stattraq. Also, the way the data is presented does not meet the standard I get from Stattraq.
As reported by Total Telecom, “the closing of this deal brings to an end a saga of rumours surrounding the future of Pipex.
BT was originally thought to be interested in Pipex, with rumours emerging that the U.K. incumbent was lining up a £350 million bid.”
Deal closes just four months after Tiscali confirmed its interest in possible Pipex acquisition.
Tiscali announced Friday it has completed its acquisition of U.K. broadband provider Pipex in a deal worth £210 million, on a debt-free basis. However, less than two months later Tiscali announced it had acquired Pipex, financing the deal with a €600 million debt facility from Intesa SanPaolo and JP Morgan.
Buying Pipex has brought Tiscali amongst other things 650,000 voice customers, 570,000 broadband subscribers, of which 250,000 are dual-play customers, and 100,000 SME customers.
Remember that Tiscali had to sell off several of their operations around EU to pay off a $250m loan by July last year and then promptly went out and renewed the note. Now it concerns me how they will service the €600m facility.
Massimo Cristifori (Tiscali CFO) is sailing very close to the wind and I am questioning Tiscali’s ability to sustain iteself with the kind of debt it now has onboard.
I hope the service does not deteriorate. If it does the subscribers to Pipex broadband will seek a new supplier. I am already looking at changing vendor.
Reuters reports that when two planes from the “Zelazny” display team collided killing both pilots at a weekend airshow over Radom in Poland, photographer Kacper Pempel managed to capture the entire horror of the crash in a series of amazing but horrific photographs.
Everyday a rock band or solo artist is somewhere over USA or Europe in a plane cruising to their next gig at 400+mph. The song below was prompted by the fear of flying.
It was written by Lonesome Dave Peverett and Rod Price of Foghat and appears on their second album Rock n Roll released March 1973. Both these peope are sadly no longer with us but the band Foghat continues touring the USA and Roger Earl (drums) continues as the sole original member and to be present on stage 100% of every gig since the band was founded back in 1971.
To me the lyrics say what being in a band on the road is all about. It’s a snapshot of being in a van or bus with steamed up windows on a not so dry and blue skied day en route to the next of many. many gigs. Foghat were a hard working band. How many miles by road and air have Foghat travelled since 1972?
Back then Dave forecasted the way it would be for him. He did roll till he was old and he did rock until he dropped. While ill with cancer, Dave bravely continued gigging with his band and favourite people. Sadly on 7th February 2000, he died.
Rod Price on lead and slide guitar who had left the band to pursue a solo career sadly also died March 2005 but left a legacy of great music. Rod was a bottleneck (slide) guitarist par excellance and his writing partnership with Dave created some of the best boogie rock to date.
You can visit the new Foghat site (post 2000) here
“I’m back on the road and I ain’t gonna stop,
Goin’ to roll ’til I’m old, gonna rock ’til I drop.
Out of the smog, headin’ into the sun,
I’m goin’ to New Orleans, Bourbon Street here I come!
Road fever, wheels turnin’ in the rain,
Road fever, fire burnin’ in my brain,
Give her the gun, drive like a hurricane.
Got the heat up high, and the radio’s on,
Diggin’ rock and roll music while we’re ridin’ along.
Maybe Atlanta, may be Birmingham,
I know where I’m going, God knows where I am!
Speeding along like a bullet from a gun,
It’s a three day ride, we’re gonna make it in one.
I’m back on the road and I ain’t gonna stop,
Goin’ to roll ’til I’m old, gonna rock ’til I drop.”
Rod Price / Dave Peverett - Knee Trembler Music - ASCAP
Back in June 2006 I posted this small piece taken from one of Seth Godin’s posts, little realising that a year later how relevent it would become to me.
“And the delicious irony is that those that conform often don’t get more traffic. They often get less. Because following all the checklists can make you boring.
We have to breakout and stop being stereotypes. I don’t mean we should all go overboard but we should introduce some of the unusual into our lives. We also need to expose our readers to that which is not run-of the-mill. Not an easy task at all. No it is not easy to flick a switch and change a lifetime of habit and routine and of accepting that we should always keep our heads down below the parapet.
We cannot simply stop submitting what I call ‘doilly’ stuff. Billy Connolly calls it ‘beige’. I don’t want to be beige anymore! You?
Bill Gates donated close to $100 million to fight AIDS in India. As a percent of his total wealth, this would be comparable to him donating ten cents if he only had $60.
In 1992, approximately 750 deaths occurred in the United States due to workplace violence.
There is a Nike commercial that was shot in Kenya with Samburu tribesman speaking in their native language Maa.
The slogan “Just Do It” appears when the tribesman is talking. In reality he was saying, “I don’t want these. Give me big shoes.”
