posting

Haphazard Posting

The last several months (and indeed the majority of the year – if not longer) has been marked by the haphazard and irregular nature of my posting to my Blogs and the updating of my websites. This is likely to continue for some time and for an indefinite period of time. Why? I have been battling depression (essentially), though I have no real understanding of why/how it has come about. A number of years ago I was involved in a car accident that nearly killed me and I suffered a brain injury as a result of the accident. I am as fully recovered as I am likely to be and it has not really left a great permanent impact on my life – though this depression may prove to have been its lasting legacy.

I have thought of closing down the Bogs and websites on a number of occasions – but have not really wanted to do so. I would like to return to them with the same enthusiasm that I once had, though I am obviously unsure when that will be. Also, closing down the sites would be like yielding to the mental illness and sliding further down the slippery slope, which is not something I want to do. So it’s six of one and half-dozen of the other as regards what to do.

So if you have been a regular reader/user of my sites I ask for your continuing patience and understanding – normal service is something I am aiming at returning to. I just don’t know when that can/will be.

 

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Bit of a Break

Just a small note to let my readers know that I will soon be returning to this Blog and my other Blogs after a short break. I took a couple of days off and went on a short trip, then returned home to scenes of a major storm and more damage around the place, with no electricity for a short period. Also when I went away I forgot to pack the power lead for my lap top.

I had originally not planned any breaks from Blogging, so a series of events has led to my breaking from posting.

Busy Week

As seems to happen on a regular basis, life gets in the way of my Blog posting plans and schedule. This week has been particularly difficult with various family members in hospital and a serious car accident involving my mother. So again I find myself playing catch up with emails, Blog posts and the like. At the very least I am back on annual leave for another two weeks so that will help enormously.

So that is just a quick post to let readers know why my ‘extra’ daily posts seem so few and far between at the moment – hopefully they will soon become more regular.

I Only Forget what I don’t Remember

It is taking me a while to get used to posting this extra post on what’s happening in and around me each day. These are my ‘365 Posts’ for the Blog, where I try and do one post a day concerning my life, something I experience, etc – for each day of the week. I haven’t bee too successful in being consistent at this as of yet. Hopefully soon I’ll achieve it.

The problem is I keep forgetting, but I only ever forget what I don’t remember, and that which I remember I never forget.

Native Wildlife of the Area

It’s another wet and windy day in paradise, so not much to do but sit it out. It also means I haven’t got a lot to type about (as opposed to write about, given I’m using the keyboard). So I’m going back a little and posting about some photos I’ve taken in recent months here. In fact, what I’m posting about today is one of the great things about living here in Tea Gardens, which differs a great deal from other places I have lived down Newcastle and Lake Macquarie way and that is the abundance of wildlife around here. Sadly we have managed to kill of most of the wildlife down around Newcastle, or at the very least drove it all away. Here it abounds and I love it being so.

Diamond PythonI’m not talking about just the smaller animal and bird species you might expect to find in a suburban area, but even the bigger examples of wildlife also. Kangaroos and Wallabies can be found all over the place in this area and it isn’t unusual to see them bounding down the main street in numbers. In fact, sadly, you often find them as road kill on the main road out to the highway. Where I work we have smaller wallabies and kangaroos actually living in and amongst the homes, with joeys in their pouches as well. The odd Dingo can also be seen from time to time. Koalas are known to live in healthy numbers around the area – not that I have spotted one here yet.

Reptiles abound here also, with large numbers of Red Belly Black Snakes, Diamond Pythons (pictured at above left) and Tree Snakes readily found in the warmer months, along with Blue-Tongued Lizards and Goannas. I have seen some Goannas that have been at least 1 metre long. Some of the Diamond Pythons have been closer to 2 metres in length.

It is the bird life that really thrives around here, especially the wetland varieties. The area is rich in bird life. At work you can see on a daily basis Wattle Birds, Blue Wrens, Finches, various Parrots and Rosellas, Black Cockatoos, Galahs, Water Fowl, Wood Ducks, Ibis, Egrets, Spoonbills, Herons, Black Swans and many, many more species of birds. There are the rarer sightings of birds also. A Tawny Frogmouth (pictured at below right) has made its home near where I live, trying its best to look like part of the tree in which it chooses to roost.Tawny Frogmouth

The area also abounds in sea life, of various types and sizes. It is not unusual to have Humpback Whales sighted of the coast here and Dolphins can be spotted almost every morning if you know where to look. The Sting Rays are also easy spot at the right time of the day.

You do get your not so welcome species of wildlife also, such as mosquitos and sand flies, but I guess these play their part in the general run of things, being food perhaps for the more welcome members of wildlife society.

One of the things I’m doing down here, tieing in my interest in web applications and social networks, is being involved with the Project Noah social network. This is a place to log wildlife spots with GPS markings using the iPhone application, along with the web application. I haven’t long been involved in it, but it is something I will be doing more and more. It will be good to build up a more complete picture of what species live in the area. Others can get involved in recording and mapping the wildlife of the area here by joining the ‘mission’ I have started at Project Noah.

The mission I have started for Tea Gardens can be found at:
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/12346009

Glitch

Today I am posting a YouTube video concerning the game Glitch. This is a game that is still in beta (entered beta recently) and is being developed. However, there are growing periods of time when the game is open to new users to join and play the game. I have been playing Glitch for some time and I find the game to be quite addictive. It is a complex game, yet quite simple to play – and it is a very social experience as you interact with other Glitchers. I’ll leave you with the video.

 

Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) Browser Game: Land of Destiny

And I’m back (again – I know). For the next couple of days I’ll be posting links to various browser games that I’ve been indulging in (or perhaps, wasting time in). I’m not so much into the shoot-em up type games and/or the SciFi/Fantasy type games that are so popular these days. For some reason I’m not big on all of the Facebook games either – probably because my news feed is full of them (which I block by the way). Anyhow, there will be a few games that I have started to play a bit over the next couple of days.

Land of Destiny is a Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) browser game. It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game in which you are up against thousands of other players building online villages at various levels of development. The game is set in Roman Times and your objective is to quickly build a village and then participate in defensive/offensive strategy/battles. Not only is it necessary to be aware of potential attackers, you also need to contend with the weather (the season changes on a weekly basis and each day the weather can be different). Of course there is a lot more detail to the game than that.

The current online world is coming to an end in early July 2011, so a fresh start is just around the corner. I am using the remaining time to learn the game and develop my strategies for the new gaming world when it arrives.

Play the Game at:
http://www.landofdestiny.com/

 

Wordnik

Today I’m posting a link to another web application (of sorts), this one called Wordnik. Wordnik is a place about words. At Wordnik you can discover meanings of words, spell checks, pronunication assistance and comments can be made on words. You can also get a daily email with a word and definition – a good way to expand your vocabulary. There is a wealth of information available when a word is searched or looked up on Wordnik.

Have a look at:
http://www.wordnik.com/

Digg

Digg has been in the news a bit over recent months, with stories of its demise and failure to stay relevant. Personally I think such talk is premature, though certainly it did fail to listen to its members and its membership dropped as a consequence. This has all changed now and the site has again been overhauled, more in keeping with the wishes of its users.

Digg is a social network where members ‘Digg’ news stories that appeal to them as they surf the web. This can be done by posting the link of the story on the Digg site, in browser extensions/plug ins, etc. Digg is a very user interactive site, where the users likes/dislikes help to promote stories or bury them. If you are a website owner, you can integrate Digg into your site with various widgets and buttons. In short, Digg allows the users to share web content with friends and others within the Digg community.

You can also use Digg to explore news articles and content, simply by visiting the site and looking at the current listings.

Visit Digg at:
http://digg.com/