Vibrant, did you say vibrant?
Anne-Claude and I attended this month’s Bloggy Friday in Lausanne last Friday and we had a great evening and met many fascinating people. We were 19 at last count and due to the ambient noise of the restaurant mingling was difficult but we did manage to have some very interesting conversations and discussions.
The restaurant was full and service was poor but that was due to staff shortages apparently and had no repercussions on the personality of the owner who was in fine form!
Nothing is perfect but that’s what adds spice to life as perfect would have been boring and uneventful. I would have preferred a non-smoking venue or one that was better ventilated but that’s just me.
Thanks to everyone and here’s looking forward to future Bloggy Fridays! As you might, or might not, know they are held on the first Friday of the month. Be there!
Are we seeing the true picture?
It’s rare that I post anything political but I’ve been saying this to my friends over the past few months and I think I’ll just let it out here.
I’ve been following, because you can’t really ignore it, the lead up to the Presidential Election in the States and am fascinated by the coverage almost exclusively Pro-Obama here in Europe. I am also noticing that most of my feeds also come up with pro-Obama content and only relatively few articles about McCain.
I firmly believe however that Obama will not obtain the Presidential ticket based on his origins and relative youthfulness.
I can easily understand people thinking he should win and even hoping that he will win but when push comes to shove and faced with a decision I think the American people won’t have the courage or conviction to go all the way and actually vote for him.
He will probably have a popular victory but not a real victory and of course it will be close but I’ve seen too many political contests to believe otherwise.
As I’m not an American citizen I won’t express my preferences on the matter but if either man wins will it really change anything? Not fundamentally, I fear.
Back from vacation
You can tell I live in Switzerland
I didn’t think there was much to see in Singapore compared to HongKong or Bangkok but I was wrong. We spent two nights on our way to Java and Bali and I regret not having explored the city longer. In spite of the heat and humidity and a grey morning during a coach tour of the city we were gifted with an extraordinarily sunny afternoon and took the metro followed by the monorail to Sentosa Island.
While on the island we took a Cablecar round trip to and from Mount Faber. This is a pic near the top terminal on Mount Faber which overlooks the city and Sentosa Island.
Catching up
I’m still in the process of redefining my presence both in the blogosphere and on the net. If I’ve been, once again, relatively silent here on my blog for several months, I’ve nevertheless reactivated and rebuilt my presence on Facebook and now that I’ve understood the benefits and have managed to avoid those horrible time-wasting third-party apps, I’m quite happy with it.
Just today I added the notes application which will draw these posts into my notes on Facebook and these will find their place alongside the tweets and other drawn-in content.
Now all that remains is to place my articles here concerning life in Geneva, reflexions on tech matters and my rants and raves and avoid posting stuff that would be more comfortable elsewhere.
This is what I’m going to do. Starting today.
Architecture
I’ve been thinking for months about how to fit everything into my online presence. I am, like you I imagine, involved in many sites and get distracted everyday. It is sometimes difficult to know where to write a comment, a thought or an article in order to get these messages across. There is always that nagging thought that what I write could be lost or mislaid.
I actively resisted Facebook for months because I didn’t want to lose myself or distract potential readers away from here. I am now convinced that this is not the case and that if it (or other competing sites such as MySpace or Bebo) are used properly, it fits in quite nicely.
This grows rapidly when most of those you followed elsewhere and many family members and friends are also on Facebook. I realize that this is Facebook’s intention but it is nevertheless a fact that it is a formidable link pin between the immediacy of Twitter and the in-depth possibilities of a personal blog. It therefore has it’s place in the scheme of things or general architecture of an online presence.
I must admit that Facebook is also very good at aggregating content from Friendfeed, Twitter and Pownce and also a good place to point people to go for longer articles such as this one.
You just have to be very careful not to be drowned in the superficiality of a large percentage of the apps available. If you can manage to do this you are using it efficiently and in tandem with your other online activities.
This is why I encourage you to seek me out on Facebook to discover what I’m up to on a day to day basis and to continue to come here for appropriate, or at least I hope so, articles.
Now I’ve got that out of my system I’m hoping that the kitchen sink of my activities has been cleared and that I can get back to my normal programming.
So, how are things with you?
Yes?
I’ve just installed the Wordpress iPhone app from the app store and this is a test post. Please ignore (or not)!!