Red Roses

Bloggie Article

An article was published in The Age yesterday about The Bloggies, it was mainly about the best Australian/NZ finalists and had some talk of commercial blogging thrown in there. 'Blogs break out and hit the big time' was the title.

I was emailed by the writer last week, but because I was in hospital I couldn't reply until Sunday, which of course was too late. I am officially the mystery fifth blogger who wasn't mentioned in it. The lovely Karen Cheng and creative Claire Robertson also didn't get a mention, even though they are finalists (in a different category) from Australia.

Here are a few of the questions I was asked...

What does the nomination mean to you?
It makes me proud. It's wonderful to have your hard work and dedication to your blog appreciated. Sometimes I look at my stats and think of my visitors as just numbers, because most don't leave comments, and then I get nominated for a bloggie and I know they are really there.

When/why did you start blogging?
I started blogging in July 2002. I knew a few people that had their own blog and it seemed like an interesting hobby. I also wanted a testing ground to exercise my web design skills. A blog is a perfect place for someone interested in growing stronger in web design.

What feedback do you get from readers?
I receive emails from readers expressing how much they enjoy reading my blog and how it brightened their day. People say blogging is a selfish pass time, but the emails I receive beg to differ. Readers can and do get something out of reading blogs.

Is the blog form becoming commercialised?
Yes, anything popular always ends up becoming commercialised and blogs are becoming increasingly popular. Businesses and anyone interested in making a profit are starting to take note of just how powerful blogging and 'word of blog' (blogs linking to and recommending websites and products) is. That's not a bad thing. So long as the person blogging is honest and truthful, which is at the core of blogging, there's nothing wrong with commercial or business blogging. Readers can always smell bullshit on a blog.

I'm still writing up the great hospital entry, it's quite long, and nap breaks keep interrupting the process, but I will have it done soon.

Food, water, sleep

I have been in hospital for the last six days. I will blog about it once my brain has done a defrag of all the information and I'm feeling up to writing about it. Until then, here are some of the things I've missed this week...

• I seem to have been finally hit with trackback spam. Oh goodie.
• A ton of email - 1019 in total, including 438 spam messages.
• A young boy has been ripping of my design. He stole my CSS file, uploaded it to a free hosting account and then used what he wanted from it, including my background image. Normally I'd email him and ask him if he knows what copyright means, but after the week I've had I couldn't give a flying fuck. So I changed the files around and I think his layout looks so much better now that credit has been given. See for yourself in the before and after images.
• Desperate housewives, ER, my restaurant rules, lost and all the other TV shows that started up this week down under.
• Food.
• Water.
• Sleep.

Update #1...

The boy who is stole my CSS and linked to my background image is still using the 'devoid of talent' background image and someone is posing as me on his tagboard. Hilarity ensues.

Update #2...

He has now password protected his blog and changed the site information on the CSS file to read 'CSS for ecuadorz.blogspot.com', changing anything else in the file (like the 'devoid of talent' background image) seems to be far beyond his knowledge base.

Update #3...

He has taken down his blog and the stolen CSS file. Viva la monkey!