View From the Couch (LITERALLY)

Ja so I am still sleeping on the couch. From the futon sleep remains slippery. I'm not sure if it is the blue glare from the 'sleep mode' Telefunken that induces insomnia. Or it could be the proximity to the floor. Perhaps it is my destiny to spend a large fraction of time unconscious of the couch.

This week has been dominated by the quest for a new driver for my Infra Red Device. I use it to load up my workouts. I have spent so much time scouring the internet, and installing possible drivers, that I've had precious time for sleep, and even less energy for exercise.

It's an incredibly draining procedure, this virtual battle to get your software actually working. It amounts to several hours spent struggling with cobwebs, and amounting to a great primal scream in space.

Last night I did extricate myself out of this virtual web, and went for a run.

26 Minutes.
Kcal: 302
Weight: 86.00 kilograms.

Due to my minimal access on Facebook, I notice some friends have withdrawn in a huff, while others - that I don't even know - have extended their hands. My Facebook profile is currently a questionable image involving a nearly naked female. I'd change it of course, except I installed it at work while we still have access. Such is life.

While my fitness appears to be on the upswing, the financial walls have become less solid, and more like a trampoline. A law firm emailed me that they would pay me some pocket money this month, but I've been waiting 18 months for what's due, so I fear this last gesture is like offering me a small handful of very special nothing.

It's interesting to note how Climate Change is beginning to dominate the Zeitgeist. I foresee an intensification of this trend.

The story I sent in to Paul Ash is still in his inbox (it has been for 5 weeks now). I am now reminded why I elected to spend (waste?) so much time writing for citizen journalism. At least there's a quick and easy response, at least your material sees the light of day. In the world of magazine and newspaper editors, there are the stars, and the beggars, and then those out to lunch or on the couch.

NYT: A Glut of Cinema This October

Did somebody blow a whistle and decide that mid-October should be some kind of ad hoc, free-floating film fest? Not really. Current movie-business dynamics are at work, along with some long-held superstitions.

By DAVID CARR
In certain circles of New York life, cultural cachet does not hinge on possession of the latest gadget or juicy piece of gossip. Instead, when the Saturday dinner party in Williamsburg or on the Upper West Side turns to films, the dedicated savant who has managed to see the just-opened movie gem owns the conversation.

“Control,” at Film Forum, is just one of many fall options for the dedicated cinephile.
This weekend, if you are one of those people — there are worse vices — you will simply have to go see “Lars and the Real Girl,” the comedy starring Ryan Gosling and a blowup doll that was the talk of the Toronto International Film Festival. And then you better drink a few lattes, because “Control,” the black-and-white biopic about the leader of the rock group Joy Division, also opened this week. And start early, because “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” is taking a bow, with Cate Blanchett under all the ferocious makeup again.

Don’t make plans for Saturday, because you’ll need that matinee time to take in Kenneth Branagh’s remake of “Sleuth,” featuring the acting chops of Michael Caine and Jude Law and a screenplay by Harold Pinter. And even after all those wind sprints between theaters, you’ll need a clone to take in James Gray’s New York narco-drama “We Own the Night,” or any of the other 10 new movies that open this week in the city.

Maybe you can bluff your way through the “Have you seen ‘X’?” conversation this weekend and catch a few films in the days following, but next week the onslaught continues. “Gone Baby Gone,” Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, based on a Dennis Lehane novel, piles in. So do “Rendition,” “Reservation Road,” “Things We Lost in the Fire” and “Wristcutters: A Love Story,” all must-sees for dedicated consumers of specialty film. And that’s not even including smaller but still notable projects that will have been released in little more than a week, like “Out of the Blue,” “Terror’s Advocate,” “Black White + Gray” and “King Corn.”

Did somebody blow a whistle and decide that mid-October should be some kind of ad hoc, free-floating film fest? Not really. Current movie-business dynamics are at work, along with some long-held superstitions.

For the rest of this article click here.

Are you an Amablogger-blogger?

The above ranking lasted about 2 minutes... ;-)
Get sorted at Amatomu.com

David Bullard won’t be reading this article. He recently quit blogging. For the rest, if you’re one of the 25 037 bloggers out there (11% active apparently), then you need to get yourself sorted at Amatomu.

Amatomu is basically a local-is-lekker version of Technorati, but I’m inclined to say it’s a lot better than Technorati: it’s zippy, it’s dynamic. It should be; it’s run by the geniuses at Mail & Guardian.

The site is very practical, useful and interesting. What’s nifty is you get to see a ranking of the local blogs according to a number of criteria. You can also see where the local Zeitgeist (what everything is thinking about) is going. Google has recently launched a South African version of their Zeitgeist, but it’s nice to have a one-stop-shop for all things Blogging.

Amatomu also provides overall stats for the South African blogosphere: you’d better believe it is expanding at a PHENOMENAL rate. To give you an idea, August’s tally of unique blog visitors is 621 204. This puts blogs in the top 5 of South Africa's most popular websites.

These statistics and others have urgent implications for mainstream media. But some websites are responding to the changing playing fields. Johncom’s The Times.co.za is decribed on Amatomu as: “… the first mainstream newspaper to embrace blogs and the social media and social networking environment in general in its print pages.”

Amatomu have also ranked The Times.co.za as their ‘Player of the Week’.
Arthur Goldstuck writing for M&G’s Thought Leader defends the nomination as follows:
“The Times… serves almost as a manual for social media. It gives bloggers a print platform to flex their blogging muscles as “blogumists” and expand their audiences dramatically.”

I agree. The Times.co.za is the only South African News website I know of that allows you to embed video onto your blog. Are there any others right now? Plenty of overseas sites (like Metacafe and YouTube) have provided this option for some time.

What Blogs Are About

Bloggers want to have a conversation within their communities, and sometimes, outwards, as they attempt to engage with a wider audience. So being able to post news onto facebook, or your own blog helps get these conversations going. I’ve been experimenting lately with my own blog, but I’m not always sure I want too many strangers reading my content. The more people who visit my blog, I’ve started to realize, the more cagey I have to be about personal revelations.

Be Careful What You Blog

What you blog I suppose depends on what you’re prepared to etch in stone. It’s true that once you post to the web, it’s very difficult to erase. Just ask Amy Polumbo how she felt after being crowned Miss New Jersey, and then having some skimpy Facebook pictures emerge in a tasteless (and unsuccessful) blackmailing scandal. I’ve also ranted on my own blog and reaped the whirlwind. Bloggers and those who read them forget that once the emotion has passed, the words remain, so beware that you’re venturing where angels fear to tread.

Forever and Ever, (Web)men

The phrase ‘carved in stone’ will soon be a less articulate expression, than ‘carved in cyberstone’. The good news is you can pay some companies (like Namyz, Defend My Name and International Reputation Management) to erase questionable content. This usually involves negotiation with webmasters. But in reality, once information is on the internet, it can be downloaded onto computers, and even if erased off the net, copies are likely to remain and even resurface.

Now, How It Works

So here’s how Amatomu works. In order to track your blog, whose visiting and how popular it is, you need to embed an HTML tag onto your site. Don’t worry, it’s invisible. You might want to add a ‘Schmaak This’ button so that people can rate your posts and you can check how popular you are in the blogosphere. Another useful tool to either consult or attach to your site is Amatomu’s Zeitgeist.

Posting articles relating to the Amatomu Zeitgeist means you’re tapping into the stream of consciousness of the crowd. Being relevant is more important than ever if you mean to be an interesting blogger. Amatomu enables your blog to be all that it can be.

*Vincent Maher, the M&G Online's strategist

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist: (pronounced [ˈtsaɪtgaɪst]) is originally a German expression that means "the spirit of the age", literally translated as "time (Zeit) spirit (Geist)".

It describes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era. In German, the word has more layers of meaning than the English translation, including the fact that Zeitgeist can only be observed for past events.