Ten Tors forced to stop by Torrential Rain

I did Ten Tors 45 miles in 2002 - a fantastic weekend it was too with a real sense of achievement afterwards. My brother (currently cycling his way around the delights of southern Europe and north Africa) went one better and did 45 and 55 and he too was proud to have completed such a difficult event.

Therefore I can empathise a lot with the youngsters who were taken off the moor on this years' event after terrible conditions forced the army to abandon the event.

There was a piece in the Guardian's G2 section today - you can read it online here - extolling the merits of the fact in todays' health and safety world people still challenge themselves to do things like this and although I know all the people who trained so hard for this event will be bitterly disappointed I am sure most will be back next year determined to finish off their hard work.

Style over Substance?

Jakob Neilsen is a bloke who think he knows the internet better than anyone else - and has come out and criticised the latest Web 2.0 phase for being too design heavy. Well you certainly couldn't accuse his own website of being too well designed...

Quote Unquote

I've started reading Andrew Marr's book My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism and there are some great quotes relating to my chosen profession:

'Perhaps the most desirable quality in a journalist is that he should be a good mixer, a sociable soul'
- Teach Yourself Journalism, 1951

'Only a blockhead writes - except for money'
'Round numbers are always false' - both by Sam Johnson

'We learned shorthand - still, in my view, invaluable to anyone in journalism'
- An extract that seemed pertinent after some of the debate on my course this year.

The Impersonal Touch

So I didn't get a job I applied for. I'm not bitter. Really. I'm not. But I am annoyed at the continuing way in which we our treated in the procedure.

Kept in the dark for weeks, then suddenly called for an interview from a personal email address, everyone is 'matey' and friendly, and then abruptly sent an impersonal email from a generic address (human resources) telling us we have been unsuccessful but without any indicators as to why.

NetVibes.com

My new home page is Google, and YouTube, and Wikipedia, and FlickR, and my Hotmail account. How you ask?

www.netvibes.com is the answer. An amazing site which allows you to collate all your favourite bits of the web onto one page.

It automatically up dates any sites which are on an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) so you don't have to constantly remember to head to each site individually to see if its updated. It also hosts Google earth, MSN Messenger, the weather in your area, and a host of other clever little features.

With programs like this the internet is becoming ever more simple and stream-lined. With TV shows becoming increasingly available online and the music industry pushing sales through iTunes more and more you have to wonder just where the internet revolution will end.

Perhaps one day TV, Phone, Music, Internet and other technologies (toasters? kettles?) will all becoming combined in one large all-encompassing piece of super-technology that will make mobile phones or high definition TV looked outdated and redundant.

Some Good Writing

A very controversial post attacking Mother Teresa here.

And an even better article here published after those anti-Islamic cartoons caused controversy after being published by a newspaper in Denmark.

Incidentally both are written by Christopher Hitchens.

The Best Video on YouTube

This video is great - out among the majority of crap on YouTube you find things like that: Just a guy who saved up money and traveled to everywhere he had ever wanted to go. How else could this video have become so popular without such technologies as YouTube? We are the creative generation.

Hugh Grant Gets Mean(z)

Well who would have thought Hugh Grant liked beans so much? And hated the papparazzi so much? I feel sorry for him having to deal with people snapping him all the time but he shouldn't have snapped out. Not the first time he's been in trouble either eh?

The trouble is give it a few months and Grant (or any other attention starved celebrity) will be thankful for someone taking a shot of him doing some mundane just so it can grace that weeks gossip mags. But with the privacy laws in a changing state perhaps the age of endless shot of celebrities buying cheese, or picking their nose, is coming to an end?

Over the Hill?

A clever way of making money from yourself

What a nice man he sounds too.

All in the Past

I finished my work experience at BBC History Magazine yesterday and an enjoyable time it was too. I was given copy to write, facts to check, pictures to research, people to phone, books to log, and others things besides.

It was very interesting seeing just how much of our course is directly relevant to the real world of magazine journalism and the concerns and discussions that I heard while working there were very much those that have been brought up by lecturers and ourselves when working on our own magazines.

I sat in on a meeting with Nick Brett where they went through the April issue (pictured) and that threw up some relevant points too. The tone of the meeting was positive but it was interesting to see just how many concerns and opinions there were on each page of the magazine.

The best thing about all this though, aside from being treated like a competent person who they could rely one, was that it underlined that I have made the right career choice. Magazines, with their professional but informal approach (I only wore a suit on the first day there...), the importance on design as much as content, and the notion of writing what a reader wants to read, not what they need to (i.e. newspapers), all remain things I can see myself doing for a living.

Popworld Pulped

I'm really not surprised this magazine lasted two issues, the front cover is terrible and it just sounds really badly placed in an already straining market.

TV Pickings

I've started a new blog at www.tvpickings.blogspot.com

The Worst Thing of All Time?

An All Encompasing Umbrella Blog

Owing to the joys of dial-up internet I am going to try and cover several topics in one go as I cannot tolerate the long loading times it would take to post these separately

I'm back in Cornwall, the weather is amazing, the sailors have been freed, and journalism is going well so life is just ticking along nicely.

I passed my Public Administration exam with a good mark (71 - it was on Council Tax, Ombudsmen and Homelessness Provisions...), I spent a very enjoyable and useful week working at Cornwall Today, and have several pieces going in over the next few issues, including some with my own photography which I am most pleased with.

The world of television is continuing to pedal telephone vote shows, which I am most displeased with, and I still don't get The Apprentice. I just can't enjoy a bunch of arrogant, opinionated morons telling us how amazing they are and then displaying total ineptitude at the simplest problem. (Except the blonde female who went to my old school, she's alright).

ITV surprised me by producing a genuinely enjoyable and moderately intelligent show in the form of Mobile. Meanwhile American TV continues to grow with Lost really hitting its stride with some brilliant writing and plot twisting. Where the show will end I, and almost everyone else, have no idea.

The cricket world cup is starting to get interesting for the right reasons, not Bob Woolmer's death, which, tragic as it was, is still no reason to stop an international tournament, it would be like giving in to terrorism.

Crowd trouble is flaring up again on the European stage and I feel undecided as to my stance. I'm sure the fans are correct when they always say the police react "heavy-handedly", but then, reasoned and intelligent debate is best saved for the WI, not for drunken football supporters. And I doubt many of them speak Italian or Spanish. But it does take two to tango, so I can't believe it is entirely the fault of the fans either. The only certainty here is that UEFA will handle the situation about as badly as they can.

I am off to BBC History magazine on Tuesday which should be another very interesting and useful experience. A real chance to put many skills into use and be part of the top end of the magazine industry - for a short while at least.

I will end now as I doubt many people will read all of this - I'm hardly adhering to my own "less is more" mantra regarding blog posts.

When broadband returns to my life, blogging should return to normal.

P.S. - the picture was just meant to draw you in, it has no relevance.