This will hurt me...

Blogs are everywhere. Campbell Street, Hobart CBD, October 2010. Theme Thursday yet again and this week I wanted to talk about the current touch football season. Now, I could bore you with vivid descriptions of our SOMNOLENT defensive line (or lack thereof), but I wouldn’t want to bore you with clichés . I could talk to you about the myriad of injuries incurred in what is supposed to be a non-contact sport – game one = sore shoulder, game two = bruised thigh, game three = jarred knee – but I won’t. I won’t lie to you: we’re struggling . Zero and three three rounds in, we remain [mathematically] still in contention for the finals. We’re taking it one week at a time . There is no point getting ahead of ourselves , but (like the boy with the barrow), there is a big job in front of us . The reality is that we have had a number of injuries to senior players (my long list, a broken finger, back spasms, bruised egos), but we are looking at it as a chance for the kids to step up . Despite th...

In order to celebrate what is the FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THIRD post of this here website thingamabob, I thought that I should alert you to the fact that it now has its own Facebook page . How terribly exciting! So if you do the Facebook thing, feel free to add the blog networks application and tick me off. Even better, if you have your own page, you can whack it up there with little effort.

The ABC reported yesterday afternoon that "blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face." I must admit to feeling a bit this way as well, especially when you discover that there appear to be some (albeit not very many) people out there who are reading what you say (thank you Google Analytics ). The fact that potential exchanges are global in scope maybe intensifies the feeling of interaction. I've certainly interacted with more people from a richer variety of cultures than I've perhaps been able to prior to getting into the whole blogging experience (visiting other people's pages, leaving comments, joining into discussions on a whole host of ideas and issues that reflect the diversity of the globe). The study itself strikes me as a little flawed though, does maintaining a My Space page count as a blog? I've always thought of it as an aesthetically displeasing so...

My eye has been drawn to a new experiment going on at the BBC News website. They're inviting readers/listeners/viewers to put forward topics to talk about each day . I often find that the BBC message boards have a more diverse range of commentators (geographically, gender-wise, ideologically etc) than other such places, and they seem more closely moderated. This generally keeps the tone far more inclusive and civil than elsewhere. Yes, I'm looking at you CiF ! The idea of a proper, civil, global conversation is a good one, and I hope it takes off.