Category: blogging

Get to know people better meme

I was tagged by Tamzen for this one and it tickled my fancy early in the morning, so I’m going to go for it.

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I really had to think about this one – given that I switched jobs every couple of years, it’s not that surprising. I was working for a publishing company who no longer exist called Two-Can on a kids newspaper supplement called Young Telegraph for the Telegraph newspaper that also no longer exists.

I was living in St Albans in a small two-bedroomed terraced house with my ex-wife and things were, generally, OK – although I was earning a pittance.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?

a) Go and see Sex & The City tonight!
b) Buy some lovely organic pork chops for tomorrow night’s dinner
c) Call the bank
d) Email my sister
e) Catch up on last night’s football on the BBC iPlayer

3. Snacks I enjoy…

A crisp red apple, Mars or Snickers, peanuts, cheese on toast

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire…

Move to live on the coast, set up my own organic food shop,

5. Places I have lived…

Chatham, Kent; Orpington, Kent; Oxted, Surrey; Sheffield; St Albans; London (mainly south)

6. Jobs I have had…

Sunday paper round, Sales and other assorted horticultural tasks in Knights Garden Centre, Conference and Editorial assistant at Horizon House, Sub-editor, Writer, Editor and various other assorted job titles at other magazine companies who have changed name or no longer exist, Production Editor and Features Editor at Emap, Freelance journalist, and now online bod first at AOL and now at goodtoknow.

7. Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better…

Hmm, not sure how many other of my friends read this. Clair (although I’m sure you’re not that fussed about doing this), Dale, Cliff, Wendy maybe…

Stuff white people like

Apologies if I’m waaaay behind the curve on this one, but thanks to David Hepworth on this week’s Word Magazine podcast for drawing my attention to the fantastic blog Stuff White People Like.

Basically taking the right royal piss out of white middle class Americans (but very, very relevant to us Brits, as well), it alights on subjects such as: White Problems: their children drink wine?, having black friends and (very pertinent this one) marathons.

Very, very funny and very, very accurate!

When blogs go very wrong

Picture the scenario. You’re an aspiring 19-year-old writer, fresh out of school and soon to take a few months off to travel around the world.

Suddenly, you get a call from some bloke at The Guardian who’s heard on the grapevine you’re off travelling and wonders if you’d write a blog for the paper’s website about your experiences.

Naturally you say yes, never imagining for a moment that people might find it interesting enough to read.

However, that was far from the case when Max Gogarty’s first entry appeared on the Guardian’s site.

The vitriol that followed may or may not be justified. Having followed many a thread on other parts of the site, I do think that the Guardian’s blog community is particularly harsh, but then they’re probably of an opinion that the content should be pretty high, given that contributors are probably being paid.

However, in this case, the reaction was so strong and almost universally damning that the GU’s Travel Editor was moved to write a reply.

Inevitably, this got just as much of a shoeing as the original blog.

Part of me feels pretty sorry for the guy (19-year-old Max). At that age, very few of us can manage to craft copy that would be lauded by the audience of the Guardian blogs.

Hell, I know I’d have a problem now at almost twice his age. The fact that he writes for Skins doesn’t mean he’s a great writer, more that he can probably create dialogue that is credible for that age group.

Midway through the comments in the Editor’s response, Max’s dad writes saying that it’s hurt both Max and his family reading the comments. This is one point on which I have no sympathy.

Max’s dad is a writer himself and should know that people take potshots at journalists for both their views and ability to create well-read copy.

He should also know that, if you publish something on a widely-read site like The Guardian, those taking the potshots are far more likely to make themselves heard.

Whether the Guardian’s online editors were right to publish Max’s musings in the first place is also something that could be debated. Personally, I just hope that Max doesn’t take it all too much to heart and continues to pursue his dream of being a writer.

One day (hopefully very soon), he will look back on the incident and be able to laugh at it and treat it as just another ‘war story’