links for 2008-11-23
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Monthly Archives: November 2008
Yep, they've escaped…
I had three gerbils, now I have one. The other two are somewhere in the house, or possibly in the walls. At one point I think I heard them inside the washing machine. There was a small trail of sawdust leading over to it, but in the front room a receipt had been chewed on, and a sweet on the floor of the kitchen had been nibbled.
I don’t hold much hope for their return, they’re untame and pretty fast at running. There’s a large hole in the wall so they’ve probably hopped off into there for a look around. I’ll get some humane traps and leave them around the kitchen to see what turns up.
Since gerbils need to live in groups, I’m off with Amy to the petshop to get another one. And a new lid, they chewed through the current one to escape.
Digging for victory?
My pet gerbils digging and tunnelling
There is supposed to be an embedded YouTube video below this text. If it’s not there, click the link above instead.
Here you go, a short video of my pet gerbils digging in their gerbilarium. According to gerbil intelligence, the ideal home has two entrances, a central bit and the food buried in a corner. Interior redecoration is encouraged and spontaneous, in fact it is normal to leave in the morning and to return, finding your front door has been moved and the living room is now in the kitchen.
Since taking this video they have filled everything in and are busy making more mess.
I need an endoscope, the mud on the glass makes it hard to see what’s going on.
Blogging is pointless, you can all go home now
Yep, it is, people don’t care what you have to say, you may continue with your life now.
Over on the YakYak forum we’ve been having a bit of a chat about how to get your blog noticed. Some good ideas have been discussed, and I thought my entry was good enough to separate out and put in here.
There’s nothing like a bit of meta-blogging is there? 
I think you need to have a consistent theme. I read quite a few tech/coding/art blogs because they’re interesting, but I only read general blogs for people I know. I’m really not that interested what some random person does every day, and the only person who really cares what I did this evening is me. The Internet is full of billions of people telling the world their immediate thoughts, but the Internet is less full of people writing consistently about one subject.
I think it’s important to have an opinion too that people either agree with, or feel wound up enough to write to you about. If you run a blog, think of every other blog you’ve looked at and thought “boooooring, shut up”. Then try to work out why yours is different.
If you can’t, don’t be surprised when your Feedburner stats only hit four.
This is why I’ve got my Photo blog and main tech website. They’re not updated as often, but have consistent content.
War Memorial
(Cross posted from my Photo blog)
While driving through the outskirts of Scunthorpe, around Brigg, I saw the perfect scene to test my digital camera. There was a war memorial on a street corner lit perfectly by a light, casting really interesting shadows. Even better was the lamp post on the street corner that I could lean against.
Of the five photos I took, this was the best. Shot in RAW and post-processed in Photoshop to bring out the detail and change to black and white made the picture so much better than it originally was.