Lefty nice guys the Bevan Massive Crew is havin a Blogging Gig in Cardiff Bay.
It be happenin soon.
DJ Peter Black be there.
Boom boom, shake the room.
He big nice tie man, wear me shades.
Vicky W of the Bevan Massive Crew be there.
Betsan Bloop be there. She be be be by the sea woman.
Tea be there…. “re fresh ments provided”.
You be there......
My apologies for lack of blogging. I've been re-rereading my book since last week, trying to avoid sending a manuscript loaded with crazy stupid mistakes to my editor. My goal is to get the thing in the post to her this week.Originally I was hoping to send it off on Friday, but that has now been pushed back slightly thanks to the minimal amount of proofreading that occurred today. Instead of working, I started thinking about all the little extraneous things that one thinks about when writing a book and somehow this resulted in my deciding that I really needed to rework my blog.There is a long and tedious explanation of how exactly I came to this decision but when I was telling the child bride over dinner she literally closed her eyes and started to fall asleep.So, anyway, I've gone all...
It’s been three years since we first started blogging about Aberdare and now there are three thousand photos in the Gallery.
Put one foot in front of the other and repeat, and repeat, and repeat. Before you know it, you’ve trod your way so far down a path, it becomes easier to continue forward, than re-trace your steps backwards.
The photographic ‘themes’ in the Gallery started in Aberdare… honest guv! In a town rich with Chapels and Churches it was inevitable we would start taking photographs across the Valley, then across the Valleys, then farther afield.
And so the pattern is repeated with our other photographic themes. First Aberdare, then out there!
The word we are looking for here is serendipity. We have trod this path as accidental photographer...
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To help promote my latest web site/blog, I’ve decided to run a rare cymru66.com competition with three great prizes on offer –
First prize: a 20×20 pixel advertising block (400 pixels) on the I Want A Volkswagen Bus web site valued at $80
Second prize: $50 Amazon.com gift card via email
Third prize: $25 iTunes gift card via email
Before I share the competition requirements with you, here’s some background information to the I Want A Volkswagen Bus web site where I’m looking for advertisers to purchase pixel space to promote their own web site, blog or online business.
Pixels can be purchased for just 20¢ each for a period of three years from July 1st, 2008. I’ve already sold 2000 pixels (admittedly 400 of them were to promote cymru66.com), have had...
You may have noticed a recent increase in the amount of posts pertaining to my current Volkswagen Bus “obsession”. Well fear not, I’ve created a new home for everything bus related and the all-new blog can be found here:
I Want A Volkswagen Bus
There’s also a web site attached to the blog (or is the blog attached to the web site?), where I’m looking for advertisers to purchase pixel space to promote their web site, blog or online business.
Pixels can be purchased for just 20¢ each for a period of three years from July 1st, 2008. I’ve already sold 2000 pixels (admittedly 400 of them were to promote this site!) and have tons left over if you’re interested. The smallest block of advertising available is 10×10 pixels for $20, which...
An anonymous poster (why is it that I get annoyed when people post anonymously?) asked me the other day if I know Christopher Glamorganshire, a blogger in Wales who was sacked (FTYPAH: "fired") from his job in the Cynulliad because of his blog. FTYPAH: the Cynulliad is the Welsh legislative body -- a sort of toy version of British Parliament.I don't think I know Glamorganshire personally; he is one of my Facebook friends, but that means nothing -- Al Franken is one of my Facebook friends. Welsh people are obsessed with giving themselves pseudonyms, but then strangely expecting you to know who they are regardless, so it's quite possible that I hang out with Glamorganshire all the time and he just hasn't told me. I don't think so, though. According to Alwyn ap Huw (may or may not be his...
It's official. According to tubby online batchelors at Wikio, No Good Boyo is the Tenth Welshest Web Blog in the World! This information was culled and presented by Ordovicius, future President of All Wales and suitor of Mrs Boyo's imaginary sister. Well, I don't know what to say. First of all, I'm annoyed to be listed as non-political - this site is devoted to making Wales a Maoist haven for slate-based autarky and slogan-shrieking Urdd child soldiers. Second, I could not have done it without Mrs Boyo's constant denigration of my friends and very being. This above all drove me to seek solace in the web community of my thoughts. Third, a big, hairy-palmed hand to all the self-polluters who boosted my ratings with such searches as 'caroline quentin basque', 'charlote church bukkake',...
Remember 2003? Year of the blog, I think it was. And all we ever did was blog via memes. Heather, Chris and Neal are bringing the good times back, and now so am I.
1) WHAT WAS I DOING TEN YEARS AGO?
I had driven out to Lake Tahoe to spend the summer working at the now-defunct Ponderosa Ranch, a "Bonanza"-themed tourist trap on the Nevada side of the lake.
I was a gunfighter, "robbing" the wagon rides that took people up the mountain to have breakfast. I also worked in the photography area, taking pictures of people dressed up in cowboy outfits. I was apparently really good at the latter because:
1) I goofed around a lot, which kept the people who were waiting from getting bored. 2) I understood the basic principle that people wanted to be photographed holding lots of guns. They'd say...
Have I ever told you about my utterly strange job interview in which the interviewer walked out on me? I was applying to work for an internet company that would go belly-up about a month later. This was in the final throes of the internet boom, when people were still being paid to do fuck all. Indeed, the job I would eventually land paid me to do so very little that I started learning Welsh just to keep my mind active. And we all know how that turned out. The internet company in question was one of those that believed in the catch-all website concept and was trying to build one targeted at college students. There persists to this day the ridiculous idea of the portal website, a site from which a user embarks on his or her internet journey, or which encompasses the whole of his or her...
I think it's safe to say that I've finally got that damned blogging monkey off my back. I feel bad admitting this, or, rather, I feel that I should feel bad admitting this, but over my hitherto month-long blogging hiatus I have had no desire to write anything. There are still thoughts. Little tiny electrical currents still flow through my skull (that's all a thought is, according to one of those film strips [Cripes. Remember film strips? I really am old] they showed to us in sixth grade when our science teacher was absent and a sub was sent in to do little more than assure we didn't burn the place down), but I haven't really felt like sharing them.I still don't,...
Turning to another Chapter in the Adventures of Leanne Wood in Cyberspace …
In January, Leanne Wood’s blog disappeared from the Internet.
This happened shortly after her last blog posting attacking Queen Elizabeth II at Christmas.
And shortly before the Welsh Assembly Standards Committee issued ‘blogging guidance’ to all Assembly Members.
Did Leanne Wood take a Vow of Silence ?
Did the spin doctors from Ty Gwynfor make her an offer she couldn’t refuse ?
It appears that some one else is to blame for the disappearance of Leanne Wood’s blog.......
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Aberdare Blog started as an experiment in communicating views of Aberdare and views from Aberdare. It remains an experiment in communication open to participation. Jane from Mountain Ash blogged the lead story on the Mountain Ash Opencast plans this week. Why not blog your own story from Aberdare today ?
Here is a list of the Top 100 tags used to describe posts on Aberdare Blog… if we haven’t blogged on a subject close to your heart, you can fix that yourself. If you prefer to blog a story with photos or video, that’ll do nicely thank you, send them today.
abercynon aberdare Aberdare Town aberdare_park Ann Clwyd Baptists bbc bbc_wales Books Caerphilly capitalism cardiff Ceredigion Chapels charity christine_chapman christmas christmas_2005 Church coal comedy...
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Jane from Mountain Ash blogs here with a story on the proposed opencast plans for Mountain Ash…
We had a knock at the door last night from a nice man called Ian. It was -3*C and he was going door to door with a petition. Ian was collecting residents signatures for his petition to raise awareness of one anonymous landowners intent to dig for coal on a small plot of land behind the graveyard in Caegarw, Mountain Ash.
We had been wondering about the sounds of heavy machinery and the Apex Drilling vans seen on our street over the past few weeks.
It appears that the plot of land was sold by Lord Aberdare in the ’60’s to this man and he has twice been denied permission to excavate the coal from a 100 year old tip.
We understand that the land has a preservation order on it...
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Oh, hallelluia. The Welsh Assembly Gets Tough on Bloggers this week.
We noted some weeks ago the sudden disappearance of a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member’s blog in mysterious circumstances.
We called for Guidelines on the use of the Internet by Assembly Members, especially after dastardly projects like Natwatch - an anonymous blog - apparently funded by a Labour Party Assembly Member and his young researcher.
Today, leading Assembly Member bloggers Peter Black AM (in Blogging AMs) and Glyn Davies AM (in Bloggers Beware) discuss a Guidance Note sent to all Assembly Members via the Welsh Assembly’s Standards Committee.
Although parts of this missive are being discussed online, there is no copy available in the Transcript of the Standards Committee meeting of 29 January 2008 on the...
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Amidst the frenetic flurry of stories on Tower Colliery this week, one story caught our eye as an insightful breathe of fresh air …
John Redwood commented in his blog this week on the closure of Tower Colliery. He was Conservative Secretary of State for Wales at the time of the pit closure and subsequent buy-out. Without his enthusiasm for the project, it is doubtful whether the miners would ever have become owners of their own pits.
Redwood blogs thus :
When the miners arrived in my office, I think they were surprised by my enthusiasm for their cause, and by my explanation that their task was not to persuade me, but to work with me on our joint case to the Energy department and Coal Board to give them the opportunity to run the mine. As it meant being allowed to prove the Coal...
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My latest column is out. Actually, it's been out since Tuesday, but I wanted to give more time on top to the story of my being attacked by a crazy woman. That's life, innit? You start to think things are getting too dull, and then someone comes at you with an axe and Samurai sword.I've only just noticed that the link I put in the column isn't working properly, so here's the link again. I'm not sure it's worth it for me to ask someone to fix in the story -- I get the feeling sometimes there aren't a whole lot of people reading that column. Not a whole lot beyond those of you who already read this blog, at least.To that extent, I've been carrying on an internal debate about whether I want to put the fiddle on the roof in terms of my column. "Rhoi'r ffidl yn y to" is a Welsh metaphor that...
Leanne Wood seems to have disappeared down a virtual rabbit hole in cyberspace.
This week the Plaid Cymru Assembly Member’s blog disappeared off the face of the Net.
It is like a Lewis Carroll story with the eponymous heroine disappearing into another world.
So therefore we dub this news story, Leanne Wood’s Adventures in Cyberspace.......
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I wanted to add a Digg button to the latest post on my Run Bulldog Run blog, but I didn’t want it to be the default big, clunky button.
I found a link to the tools page of the Digg web site which contains various code for various “Digg This” functionality. One block of code claimed that the background color could be changed to blend in with the web site/blog background color and that the big, clunky button could be changed to a compact version. Sounded promising and the code looked easy to implement.
However, after changing digg_url to the URL of the post, digg_bgcolor to my chosen background color and digg_skin to compact (as per the Digg instructions), the big, clunky Digg button was still visible. I read a blog post that it could be a WordPress cache issue, so I...
Occasionally I will think of brilliant things and then I will do nothing about them and be upset when someone else shows some initiative. To that end, I want the world to know at least that this was my idea first:Tracking devices as fashion accessoriesI realised today via a Facebook conversation with Charlotte that if the marketing was done right, millions and millions of people would willingly, eagerly, wear tracking devices -- allowing any and all to know their every movement.Social networking sites and blogs and constant texting and so on indicate that there are large numbers of people who don't like the idea of being out of contact for even short periods of time. It's as if we are all a bunch of co-dependent girlfriends.What I envision is a fashionable, waterproof, lightweight...
My grandmother (and a few other family members, it has to be said) occasionally protests to the language and content of this blog. But imagine how this young lady's poor grandmother must feel. I mean, it's a given that any song entitled "Smell Yo Dick" isn't going to be all puppies and bubbles (a), but, crikey!I've been thinking about language lately. Eric is right that my natural speech is peppered with a fair few profanities. As Papa once said: "Sometimes it just fits."I generally like to blame my blue streak on my newsroom background. Newsrooms and radio stations are bastions of abusive language. There may be a sort of purging element to it -- if people get it all out before going on air, they are much less likely slip up and lose their jobs. I think it also has something to do with...
Actual quote from an e-mail my grandmother sent me today: "I would go to your blog but I am not mature enough for the language sometimes. If 'mature' means finding profanity and vulgarity...
I just learned that long-time blog friend Bram Davidson died suddenly a fortnight ago.I learned about this from Kari and felt ashamed to admit that I hadn't heard earlier because I haven't been reading blogs in a while. I've been wrapped up in my own little world -- that happens, I suppose. Then something tragic comes along to remind you that all the little shit is really not worth tearing yourself up...
It’s been a couple of months since I joined Smorty, so I thought it was time for a quick update. First of all, I must admit I haven’t maximized my use of Smorty by any means. They usually email new opportunities several times a week, and by the time I jump onto their web site to accept the opportunity, they’ve already been snapped up. Slots are limited and as Smorty states on their web site:
Opportunities are taken quickly and it is up to you to log in and accept the task before all opportunities are taken.
Despite my slowness, I did sign up and have been paid for 3 opportunities since I joined. At $6.00 a post I’ll never be able to retire on my earnings, but if I put forth more effort, I’m sure I could rack up a tidy sum. Smorty’s web site is very...
A few days ago I was tagged by Absolutely True and challenged to “Show My Desktop”. Makes a refreshing change from some of the question and answer type tag games, so I figured I’d share what my laptop desktop looks like. Before I created the screenshots, I took the opportunity to tidy things up a bit and delete a few shortcuts and old files - a task that was long overdue to be honest!
I use a freeware application to display random desktop wallpaper, so for this tag I chose 4 of my favorites. Here they are:
click an image for an enlarged view
Wallpaper #1 - Photo of a beach in Grand Cayman where my wife and I vacationed in 2003. So relaxing….
Wallpaper #2 - The swim start at Ironman USA in July 2004. I still can’t believe I was able to swim 2.4 miles,...
WidgetBucks - Trend Watch - WidgetBucks.com
WidgetBucks features pay-per-click shopping widgets that help bloggers make money fast. They instantly display the most popular products based on buying trends of 100 million shoppers. The widgets see $3-$6 CPM — pretty good compared to traditional ad networks that deliver less than $2 CPM.
You earn money each time someone clicks on a WidgetBucks ad widget on your site, also called pay-per-click, or PPC. You can also earn money by referring people to WidgetBucks.
The widget is very customizable, you can choose what category of products you want to feature and easily copy the code to your blog layout. There’s a $50 payment threshold, but to help you get there, WidgetBucks credits your account with $25 for free when you sign-up, so you...
New feature just announced on DealDotCom - every day, a DealDotCom registered member will be randomly selected and awarded a free copy of the product/deal of the day!
All you have to do is check the DealDotCom website each day. The lucky winner will be displayed on the DealDotCom homepage and on the top header of each page. If you see your name in that spot, you have 24 hours to login to your account and claim your free copy of the product of the day.
Of course, you have to be a registered DealDotCom member to be eligible for the FREE stuff, so if you haven’t already, head on over to their web site and sign up for FREE today! It doesn’t take long, I promise
If you have no idea what DealDotCom is, you might like to read one of my previous posts explaining what DealDotCom is...
What a nice surprise when I checked my email this evening after a weekend away - I’d been randomly selected as the winner of the BlogsRecord First Contest and therefore my PayPal account is now $150.00 healthier!! I’m still in shock to be honest…
The BlogsRecord blog directory is, according to Chris the site owner, “a catalog of blogs and a hangout for blogs chat”. Do a search on Google for “Social Blog Directory” and BlogsRecord comes in at number three - second only to the great BlogCatalog.com blog directory. If you’re a blog owner, make sure you add your blog to the directory!
Chris has now started a second contest, which should be bigger and better than the first one. Read all about it here.
Thanks Chris for a very generous competition...
It seems you have to be really careful what words you use on your blog posts at the moment. Not long after I’d finished laughing at a post on the DealDotCom blog where they were featuring a “Meet Gay Chubby Guys” AdSense ad, I was looking back through some of my old posts and noticed a bizarre ad of my own.
The post from late July was about a unique Welsh company who specialize in recycled paper, which just happens to be called “Sheep Poo Paper“.
The AdSense ad was simply titled “Poo“, followed by “Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today.” - conjures up all sorts of mental pictures doesn’t it?!
What’s the strangest Google AdSense Ad you’ve ever seen, and just out of interest, did you click......
Well, here it is, the blog prize draw to end all prize draws! David Airey is celebrating the 1 year anniversary of his graphic design blog by launching a bumper giveaway to thank his regular readers for making the site what it is today.
Up for grabs is over $4,000 worth of prizes, split into several categories as follows:
Gold award
The ultimate business blog package:
Logo design from David Airey.
Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill.
Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh.
One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley.
Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle VanFossen.
Silver award
A second logo design from Tara Roskell.
Website critique from Randa Clay.
One hour SEO consultation with Lyndon Antcliff.
$60 of books from Amazon...
A few days ago I received an email from one of my “trusted” blog visitors about a new money making opportunity web site called DealDotCom (note: if you visit the site before the 18th September, you’ll just see a cool countdown clock as they’re still in prelaunch mode at the moment!)
Always keen to make an extra dollar to cover my web hosting fees, I thought it could be worth checking out.
Here’s what the email had to say:
Subject: OPEN UP: You’ll want to see this…
I just got an email about this and wanted to send you a personal invitation to check it out.
Before I get into the details, you can take a big deep breath and relax.
This is not about the latest/greatest new product or anything. In fact, there is nothing to buy.
But, if you act fast, you can...
