David Emery Online

Hello, hello, hello

Some of you may have noticed the sudden resurgence of posts here – it got to the point that I was only posting about once a month, which really isn’t enough to keep a blog going (although with the prevalence RSS it matters less these days then it used to).

So, I’m now shooting for a once-a-work-day schedule.

Now, I know I’m not going to be able to keep this up all the time, so don’t get too cosy, but if I aim for it, hopefully I’ll get into the habit of posting a lot more frequently.

It also means the sheer amount of rubbish I post will go up exponentially.

Luckily, I doubt anyone will notice.

When I first started this blog, I really hoped that it wouldn’t degenerate into yet another dead blog, without a post on for months – I’m not going to let that happen.

To any of you that have a blog that has died; post on it today!

6

On Tuesday it was the 6 month anniversary of this blog. So far I’ve written 16,355 words, which is not bad going, I think. I’ve also had 39 comments posted so far, which isn’t really a huge amount, but I’m not doing this for the fame – thanks to all that commented!

I’m pretty chuffed that I’m still going with this blog; the amount of blogs you come across via google that have been abandoned is very high and when I set out I really hoped mine wouldn’t be one of them. I seem to have settled into posting about once a week, which seems about right – While I started out doing the “post on everything you read about” thing, I’ve since decided that there’s no point repeating what everyone else is saying unless I’ve got something to add to the topic. For example, when Apple released the new iPods I think I read about them on pretty much every blog I read, without any of them saying much more then “oh, Apple released new iPods that play videos. I like them/don’t like them/am ambivalent”.

I’ve really enjoyed being able to write in...

Assorted

As you may or may not have gathered, I am currently a bit busy*. Of course, the first thing to give is this blog and to be honest I imagine it’s going to be a few weeks before it calms down a bit, so it’ll probably stay a bit sparse on here until then.

The main reason behind the busyness is that I have finally got a full time job :-) I’m working doing web stuff (html/css + content publishing, site updating etc) for a major record label (although I’m not going to say where, blog smart and all that…), which is pretty darn cool really, me being both a web geek and a music buff!

Also, I’ve discovered one of the benefits for working for a record label: Free booze gig tickets! This week I got to go to a lovely picnic in Regents Park, London where Devendra Banhart played a few songs in the sunshine:

Of course, finally getting a job has coupled in nicely with getting more and more freelance work (it never rains etc…), which seems to be really getting going now:

• Further to my work on themes for Sandvox...

Choas Mk.2

London blasts cause chaos on Tube

Wonderful…

I would have quite probably been on the Warren St train normally – I go though there at that time pretty much everyday – but as luck had it I wasn’t today.

I’m not sure if I really want to get on the tube on Thursday’s now, though…

(I will, though.)

One Week On

I don’t really know what to write at the moment; in fact, since last Thursday it’s been a real struggle to be creative at all, although it’s been coming back in the last few days. That is, of course, one of the main problems with working freelance – you can’t just take a day or two off to take stock…

But the world goes on, nothing really changes, only your specific perception of it does. In the grand scheme of things, 53 people dying in London is almost unnoticeable, but it’s on a small scale that these things matter. For the last week, I’ve been on the tube countless times, and I’ve been though Kings Cross almost everyday which is still closed to most tube lines, and it’s chilling stopping at the station but the doors not opening; how are you not supposed to think about what’s been going on, what’s still going on just 50 meters or so away?

Well, that’s the point of all this, isn’t it? To make people think in a different way, to change the way people live their lives.

Funnily enough, I don’t feel any anger or resentment to...

Chaos

And I was trying to go somewhere this morning…

Major Incident on the London Underground

UPDATE: Ok, now there seems to be bombs on busses (at least 1 confirmed, 2 more rumoured)…

UPDATE 2: Ok, so I haven’t seen anymore bus bomb reports (other then the first one), but it’s looking like a coordinated terrorist attack. Lovely…

UPDATE 3: Just to add, as it has now become obviously a lot more serious then first thought (I was on a tube train waiting at the platform at Highbury and Islington (the stop before Kings Cross) and they closed the station citing a “power failure”), my thoughts are with all the people affected – hope everybody’s ok!

Art Deco

While researching art deco style work for one of the projects I’m working on I came across some really nice pieces of design; I love the combination of simple, elegant lines while still retaining texture and utterly beautiful typography.

A good source of inspiration, if anyone is looking for some!

Source: Art Deco

So Many Geeks! Run for your lives!

Picture courtesy of Firefishy on Flickr . That’s me in the middle, looking slightly odd.

Yesterday evening I went to the London Geek Dinner and it was pretty good fun. The food was nice enough, and the company was pretty good too.

It was quite interesting though, as a fair few people were talking about blogging in a business sense, and about what the “next big thing in blogging” will be – failing to see that blogging was simply the last big thing, and that the next big thing will probably either be something utterly unrelated, or something that’s related only by lots of people with blogs being the first ones to notice it.

Blogging as an innovation is done.

Get over it, and start thinking about something else.

Also amusing was the worship of Scoble – I got a feeling that their was a significant amount of people there simply to try and meet him, which is a bit odd really. The guy seems nice enough, but a bit gung-ho for my liking – I think that’s probably a product of him being American, and also being an evangelist for Microsoft...

Star Wars: The End

I moseyed down to Leicester Square (in the heart of London’s fashionable west end) today, and had a look at the “Star Wars Day” event that was going on. Now, I’m not really a serious nerd – I like my computers, games and so on, but I don’t wear “witty” t-shirts and I don’t go to conventions – but I am a pretty big Star Wars fan.

It was a bit weird.

There were people dressed up as various Star Wars characters – wookies, storm troopers, numerous Boba Fetts etc – but they were really really bad. For example, I saw one woman dressed up as – I think – Princess Lea, circa Episode 4 – think white, regal-ish, fitted dress. However, the woman was probably about 40+ and probably a size 40+* as well.

What possesses these people to go and stand around in the rain, in bad costumes, playing with children’s toys, while people look on and stare?

The film looks like it should be good, though.

*A slight exaggeration

Moving House

I have a decent excuse for the lack of posts over the last few days; I’ve been moving house! I now live in sunny Islington, which is much more convenient then not-so-sunny Kingston – which after 4 years of living there, I think I pretty much used up.

Notes from moving:

• Leave More Time to Move – We left about a month to find a place and move, and we ended up moving on the we had to move out – which was a little bit hectic.

• Foxtons are Bastards – Don’t use them! Really! Part of the reason that we moved so late was that we had a place all ready to go with Foxtons, but then they screwed us around and we had to pull out. Also, they tried to charge us £370 for the privilege of moving with them! Compared to the £140 we ended up paying. They also wanted 6 weeks deposit, as opposed to 4.

• T-Mobile Hotspots are Expensive – We now live above a Starbucks (people who know me may find this amusing), and hence get WiFi reception and my internet addiction is such that I couldn’t resist the temptation…

• Boxes of old...