More thoughts from Wednesday
I knew when I wrote my first post it was going to be a long one, and really there was so much to think about that I left out a few comments about others who were present and did some talking.
The opening speaker, Veronica I think provided a good insight into jnr bloggers which can lead to graduating into grownup bloggers 
I do know btw, that there is a healthy contingent of Perth LiveJournalers, and most of them are in the late teens early 20s and still write the angsty teenage/young adult stuff. Alot of them use IRC aswell as a form to communicate, and when you ask people how they are, their reply is usually “read my LJ”. It was a warm introduction into the session, but I think perhaps should have been thrown into the mix a little later so we weren’t stuck in serious mode for so long.
Anthony the spice blogger was most enjoyable. I have an appreciation for Japanese food, and now have an idea about how simple it is to make some Japanese food in minutes, making it alot more accessible. I now understand why a girlfriend of mine would only do Japanese nights. Quick and easy. It’s a shame M does not share my love of most foreign food. I am stuck eating boring food, and I guess the most interesting place i can go to with him, is the Red Turban off Albany Highway in Kenwick. There’s an awesome indian restaurant.
Tama - apart from having a most interesting name, made me smile as he talked about presenting part of his class content on line. Something I totally agree with. My workplace uses WebCT for alot of its training courses and online quizzes that staff need to do periodically to keep up with current and new information that comes out on an almost weekly basis. I find it a very enclosed environment. Often I will spend time browsing on different websites and find out information which I use at work for my customers. Granted some of it may not be on blogs - however I did start my own mobile phone blog to record information I find maybe useful to myself and others. I don’t get many hits or comments, but that’s not the purpose. It’s for my own education and benefit.
Bret’s presentation about how to promote WA with blogs was, a challenging idea. I do feel that perhaps some of it is wishful thinking, and the nature of the bureacracy we live in dictates they would not be so adventurous as we would hope for. Let’s face it, the current federal government doesn’t understand the nature of the Internet, how can we expect that a state govt. would do anything which *may* run into trouble with Federal plans for regulation. However, I do believe that we should try. WA has always been out there, the only state with ISP’s charging a flat rate for internet useage for many years till the rest of the country caught up.
A side note: It is interesting to observe a few people are now from the blog nite complaining about comment spam, which was referred to by Warren from ineedhits.com. This recent phenomena strikes me as somewhat.. ironic. I wonder if Warren has any useful ideas on how to remove comment spammers from blogs using his own tools?
On a more personal level: I’ve been fighting a dreaded lurgy the last few days and have a huge lump just behind my right ear at the base of the skull, which does feel like a whopping huge gland. The pain extends a little down my neck on the right hand side, and I have been feeling sick most of the day. I am hoping I am not going to be too sick over the weekend, I have work on sunday at 5.30am and I need to be in bed at 7pm on a saturday night! *sobs*
I have been included in a preselected group at work for 1:1 discussion/informal interview to be part of the first group of call centre consultants to be trained up in ADSL and DUI support. I am really only interested in ADSL support, but I guess I have to do the other stuff too. I know from experience in previous jobs, that internet users tend to be dumber than mobile phone users. (please convey my apologies to newbie internet users in the world but it’s true).
My work is also slack in giving me my formal letter that I am now a full time permanent staff member, and I haven’t been given my measly 30 cent per hour pay rise yet. It’s been nearly a month, and I’ve earnt alot of money in the mean time and my backpay is going to be taxed like a bitch. Two weeks ago I earnt enough to qualify paying some HECS for the first time since I left uni back in 1993.
I am envious of David, and another friend who recently started working in IT support on Fraser Island, living at one of the resorts. *sigh* David the lucky bastard is going to Korea to teach.
I have other thoughts for the week, centring on the death penality and our govt.s hypocrisy, oh and who the hell gave them the senate majority? stupid aussies.
Something interesting
I have noticed recently a trend in the browser share of those viewing my site. Less IE browsing and more in other browsers like Mozilla based products, such as FireFox. I include a nice purty graph of the proportion of GEEKS viewing my site.
Most interesting!