Fun But Dangerous Concepts No. 1

 Before you start thinking this is about freight-hopping or some such, let me say that it's about interviewing other bloggers. That should explain the fun part, so what's this about dangerous? Well, it's potentially the prospect of asking people things that they don't really want to talk about, or being asked by them, or learning facts one doesn't necessarily want to know, or, or, whatever! Even an interview can go horribly wrong - and I'm not referring to job interviews.



 What's the idea? Swapping interviews with other bloggers. That's the simple part. Wouldn't it be lovely to have the transcript of a Q&A session on your blog? Readers seem to think that an interview makes both participants special, as when an important person is interviewed by a respected journalist. Of course this isn't necessarily the case, and an important person can be stuck with a really amateurish interviewer. But let's not go there. Simply carry on as though both parties are VIP. It's sure to captivate an audience. At least until one starts asking lame questions or the other starts giving lame answers.


 Should I concoct a mock interview here? Uh, well, that would require some thought, and I'm not fully capable of that at the moment. Instead, let's discuss prospective questions. That's the second-most-difficult part of an interview. Whaddya gonna ask? Stock Questions? Random Questions? Questions peculiar to your own idiosyncrasies? Well, in my case, that would be a good thing, a goof. But It really depends on the situation. Some people are just not going to respond well to certain lines of question. So it's incumbent on the questioner to learn a few things about the respondent in advance, and to ask at least a few perceptive questions relating to the respondent's background or interests.


 Are we ready for that mock-interview yet?

Thematics

It's just dawned on me that what I want this blog to do has something to to with themes - and being physically structured so that posts can be arranged according to their thematic content. The image that comes to mins is one of a table of contents showing the most recent post in a list of themes, and that each of the major thematic heading is hyperlinked to a page containing the most recent posts, or even all the posts. That means I want a blog with a branching structure, a bit like some bulletin boards or threaded discussion groups. More graphically, I want my blog to be like a book, with a contents page, chapters, and sections, where the chapters are infinitely expandable, where I can add section after section. At the moment, blogs are organised chronologically, which means that they have no thematic coherence. Perhaps some of the commercial blogging software has a structure that permists the kind of organisation I'm thinking of.

Trip On This

 

 When was the last time you saw a banana peel on the pavement? Did it make you feel as though you were in an unpredictable place, that something unexpected might happen? I mean that in the sense of coming across something unlikely, such as a banana peel on the pavement. It's not an everyday occurence. Regardless, we have all got it firmly fixed in our minds to keep an eye out for banana peels on the ground. So when I came across this banana peel today, it was a sure sign that something was up. I was careful to give it a wide berth, and was almost on the point of telling the people behind me to be wary, but decided to take a photo instead. Fortunately no banana-induced mishaps occured, but I'll bet it's still out there - lurking in the dark - waiting to pounce on some unsuspecting drunken youth.


 It makes me feel as though I live where strange and unexpected things could happen at any moment. The rest of my walk through the village was conducted with an air of discreet wariness, exemplified by a search for cryptic symbols and unusual objects in the landscape. Suffice to say that the banana peel made Moseley exciting. Briefly.

Twilight In The Meadow

 

cyberspacecadettin'

We are still trying to name that tune. Is it a cyberwonk or a space-out? I was just about to go for cyberspacecadet, but two things stopped me. One, this guy has already made it a name for his combination of hippiedom and kitsch web presence. There's no competing with that. The alternative is cybergeekdom. Two, the word has to function as verb and noun. It has to accommodate suffixes -ing, -ed, and the plural. Cyberspacecadetting? No thanks.

Migrating The Blog?

 I am trying to remember the point of this blog. I have made more than one entry about focusing it on select topics. But I've forgotten what those topics are. In order to remind myself, I need to scroll back through several posts. It would be handy to have the indexing function that some other bloggers use (see Dooce and Rousette for examples). It appears that this function is not available in Blogspot/Blogger, so maybe I should be thinking about a move. Problem is it means moving to my own server (not fully functional) or paying for hosting (not justifiable with my current budget). It would also mean coming up with free blogging software, as there's no budget for that either. Ideally, Blogger would come up with a series of plug-ins. I'm crossing my fingers and waiting. In the meantime, what do I do?



 Aside from that, a techno-wishlist is yet another item for inclusion in the selection of topics.