大象传媒

Happy Blogiversary to You

• Kate Feld
• 9 Mar 07, 02:53 PM

These days, everyone's jumping on the blogging bandwagon. But every once in a while you meet one of those grizzled veterans of the blogosphere who can curdle your blood with tales of tapping out posts long before the WYSIWYG interface was just a twinkle in some programmer's eye. Buffy of is one:

鈥淭oday marks my 9 year blogiversary. It started with geocities, a garden in Paris and a first-name-only basis. I practiced html, posted photos of myself and used it as a letter writing medium. I had just moved abroad and every penny mattered - I couldn鈥檛 splurge on airmail. It was cathartic and therapeutic and it helped me work through my homesickness.

Every now and then I find a page or two online somewhere. Cached on some random site. But for the most part it鈥檚 gone. Relegated to one of the hard drives I keep under my bed. Last night, I dug those babies out. It wasn鈥檛 literature. And it wasn鈥檛 creative. But it was me, before I got it in my head to become a writer鈥�.鈥�

Another blogging writer, Clare over at, has something to get off her chest (and it鈥檚 not a pencil):

鈥淭his has been bugging me for ages. It's the fault of the Typing-Everything-Out-Correctly Police and I would like them to please show up right here right now and EXPLAIN THEMSELVES.

So. OK. I want someone to explain to me what's wrong with LOL.

I often read things on t' internet that make me laugh out loud. And I want the writer to know this. But they can't hear me laugh, can't see me smile. So how do I tell them? Yeah, I could write it out in longhand, "that just made me laugh out loud" but why bother when there's a perfectly acceptable shorthand available?鈥�

Meanwhile, could it be curtains for Man City鈥檚 punk rocking, straight-talking Stuart Pearce? Football blogger Danny Pugsley of parses the mood at City of Manchester for us:

鈥淚t is all but two years since Pearce first took on the job amidst the wave of optimism and clamour for his appointment (remember that?) and one thing he has always seemed to do is when the pressure begins to build on him is pull out a result to ease it off for a few more games.

However, it now seems that patience has run out and a small ripple of vocal displeasure could soon begin to build if the next month continues as recent weeks have done. With the number of fans and build up to the Cup game at Blackburn, I feel that there will be nothing but total support for Pearce and the team on Sunday. However, if we do go out of the Cup and things do not go well next Wednesday against Chelsea he may well be in for a rocky ride.鈥�

Moving north, has just heard that Radio One is staging a Big Weekend in Preston in May. 鈥淚 suspect I鈥檓 on the wrong side of the perimeter fence that is Radio One鈥檚 target demographic, but the news has caused a frisson of excitement amongst Company X鈥檚 more youthful inmates.

Stella, my eighties style yuppie witch of a team leader, a woman for whom profile is everything, is pleased too. She鈥檚 always had a vague notion that somebody should, in some unspecified manner, be making more of an effort to put Preston on the map.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got a perennially under achieving football team,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 it. Most people will have no reason to have even heard of Preston.鈥�

"You're right. Someone should be doing something," I agreed, before returning to gazing out of the window and drizzling yoghurt down my jumper.鈥�