DorkMatter.net

I had a go at making a panorama. Shame I forgot to take the polarising filter off. Will know for again.

Dundrum Bay

After absconding for 5 or so months I thought I would post an update on the chillis… except I never posted an original to update in the first place. Never the less, here are some pictures of my newly ripened Cayenne Peppers. The Poblanos and Jalapenos didn’t make it due to what looks like some kind of viral infection. That’ll teach me to buy compost from the £ shop.

They were sewn in April (which explains why I didn’t post about them before) and took about 2 months to start flowering. We’ve already eaten 2 green and currently have 3 yellow and 1 green on the plant. Hopefully it will flower again and I’ll get a second crop. The other Cayenne plant keeps flowering but dropping the flowers. No amount of shaking or brushing can seem to make it produce pollen so I suppose it’s just a dud plant.

I started a new blog with Inkscape and Gimp Tutorials. I was really good initially but soon got to the can’t-be-bothered stage. I enjoy making graphics in Inkscape but trying to write it up as a tutorial takes so much time and kind of takes the fun out of it. I haven’t posted there for a few weeks which has given me some time to just play around in Inkscape and have been working on ideas for wedding invitations, table numbers, thank you cards etc. now that we have set a date and booked the venue. Still plenty of time to finalise it.

In other news I finally passed my driving test (first time!) and got a car so hopefully I will be able to get out with my camera and see if it’s all as grim as Scumdee around here. Photographs will follow if I find anything interesting.

I took yesterday off work and away from my computer for May Day, hence yesterday’s lack of posting. As a result I’m behind with my work so today’s tutorial will be along later today. In the mean time I found this funny, not sure why, but it was funny.

I’m never sure what to put as a first post on a blog so why don’t you have a look at the About page if you’ve just found yourself here by accident.

Yesterday the guy came to put the “For Sale” sign up on our window. It’s weird. I can’t wait to get out of Dundee but I really love our flat and don’t like the idea of leaving it.

Anyway, for the benefit of a certain nosy friend (you know who you are!) I thought I would post some photos of the flat before it’s too late. In order right to left: kitchen (2 pics), my office (2 pics), bathroom, bedroom, living room (2 pics).

My office looks weird now it’s been tidied up and I’ve taken all my pictures and posters down. When I tidied it I realised it was huge.

I’m not sure how long I can live with being this tidy so let’s hope it sells quickly!

Recently I’ve found I spend more and more time each day reading blogs. It’s a great distraction from normal work and I can call it research (almost). A few months ago I found Vienna. It’s a great alternative to using the browser to read feeds. I don’t tend to use Safari much and reading feeds in Firefox is pretty ropy in my opinion.

Some blogs I prefer more than others but it’s good to see different writing styles and reading other people’s blogs inspires me to write in my own. I really admire blogs that stick to one topic and I think I should probably take Dork Matter in that direction… if only I could find a topic I could stick to!

If you’re not familiar with HairCrazy.info and HairCrazy.com these are my main source of income. It’s a very niche market but HairCrazy is one of the top sites within it. In contrast, Dork Matter is a bit of everything; whatever happens to be going on with me at that particular time. Recently I’ve been writing a lot about home decor and property because we’re selling our flat and moving to Edinburgh in the near future.
When I’m developing a new tool for the site I tend to write about Python and Django and spend a bit more time on graphics. When I haven’t much in particular going on you get the random posts like Sound Bites and whatever I’ve been doodling lately.

The problem is that I can’t seem to stick to anyone topic outside of hair dyeing and I already have a site about that. Perhaps when we move I’ll do a new blog about decorating the new place.

Until then here’s what I’m reading these days:

The blogs I tend to read first when I check my feeds in the morning are Five and a half, Kirin Notebook, Photojojo, Ikea Hacker and Design*Sponge. I suppose going by that I’m in a design phase at the moment. Sites like NotCot are great for keeping me entertained throughout the day with a variety of eye candy. I’m still subscribed to Craftzine but I find I tend to mark it read without reading. Lately it’s been a lot of posts from the blogs I already read regurgitated. Used to read Makezine too but it went way downhill and stopped being about making stuff a while ago.
As well as those listed and my own feeds (got to make sure they’re still working right?), I also read some blogs on blog promotion. I’m especially enjoying Blogging Experiment. It’s a year long experience where one guy tries to make money from blogging and reports his successes and failures.

So what are you reading? Anything I might like?