This Poster that is currently used to advertise Jack Daniel’s Old. No7 really winds me up.

I’m sorry about the picture quality, my ageing pre-smartphone mobile only has a low quality camera built in.

Here is what they have to say:

THE INVITE SAID BRING A FRIEND

It may not be what your hosts were expecting, but it will be a welcome guest nonetheless. After all, Jack Daniel’s in enjoyed in more than a few social circles because of it’s remarkably smooth character – the result of steadfast loyalty to its original 1866 recipe. Indeed, based on those qualities alone, you could hardly do better in choosing a friend.

Your friends at Jack Daniel’s remind you to drink responsibly.

So the invite to a social gathering said to bring a friend, and JD’s marketing agency believe that a bottle of bourbon makes for a suitable substitute. No, actually they say that a common ingredient for mixing drinks is a better choice than human company, because of it’s ‘remarkably smooth character’. Well folks, I don’t know how anyone who is swayed to believe that booze makes better company than a friend can possibly still drink responsibly, as such an individual would do well to instead confide their troubles to experienced councillor than a bottle.

On closer inspection still, I pose the question what sort of a euphemism “a few social circles” is for party crowds with a devotion to quantity, not quality of intoxication liquor, who by and large strive to do everything but enjoy the beverage responsibly.  I certainly have never heard of a “Lagavulin and Coke” or a “Scapa and 7Up”.

So as a host, I too, would raise an eyebrow if someone offered a cheap booze is lieu of a friend, and tried to justify it by exclaiming that what scratches that throat with 40% ethanol, is redeemed through its smooth character.

Today’s statistics on WordPress exclaims that there are 60,734,473 blogs using wordpress. This is one of them.

The statics go further to exclaim that “Over 303 million people view more than 2.5 billion pages each month.” and that “WordPress.com users produce about 500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on an average day. “WordPress.com users produce about 500,000 new posts and 400,000 new comments on an average day. ”

These are the stats for the WP hosted blogs, there are no stats available for all the WP run, self-hoststed blogs out there. But let’s make a crude assumption. Let’s assume that this statistic is roughly the same for most “one person” personal blogs of which there are millions more, each one being eaqual to one person. Even if as a statistical exercise we can not extrapolate to the majority of blogs on the web, it still means that for each of the 303*10^6 viewers to WP hosted blogs there are  8.25 page visits per month or  0.27 per day. It means, that for each WP hosted blogs, one in 151.84 blogs receive one comment per day, or around comments 2 per year.

In the four years that I ran coffeemoon, I have collected eight comments that have been written by humans, not spambots. Actual visitors that read a blog entry and left a comment. One of which was someone correctioning me on punctuations. Eight comments, four years, that makes two per year – I’m bang on target. But what this means is that for the hundrets of hours of work that have gone into this blog, I probably accumulated 15 mins of meaningful interaction with the the “outside world”. Maybe twice that, it doesn’t really matter. The time I spend in front of this computer, that I spend going to take photographs that help to decorate blog entries with pictures, reading about blogging tips, styling tips, time spent researching and learning plug-ins, coding styling tips, and debugging css stylesheets is time I spend alone, in front of this computer, rather than with friends. No doubt I am not the onle person out there doing this, there is a good indication that at least 60,734,473 other people are spending just as much time on their blogs as I do on mine. 60,734,473 people who’s blogs are a labour of love, an attempt to create something meaningful. For 0.27 visits per day, and 2 comments per year.

And this is just the statiistics for the WP hosted blogs, not for the entire bloggosphere, where a few shining beacons get all the attention. Boingboing.net no doubt does not have these worries. But for me, one of seven million people in my city it is. Because for me, this is a tangible statistic on lonliness. The more time I spend on this blog, the less human contact I get. The harder I try, the less I succeed.

Back when I started coffeemoon, I was enthusiastic, thought that running a blog would be fun, sharing what excites me, being part of that vibrant on-line community who fully embrace what this increadible technology has to offer to us. Sure there would be a lot of spam, and the odd troll, but it would be worth it. Worth it, because I would connect with a few people from around the world who might leave a comment or who have the same interests and passions, a kindred spirit who might share what they have to offer with me in return. But four years later, and hundreds of hours invested in this blog, I know better.

The statistical plug-in I run tells me all that I need to know.

Average time spent on the site 0-30 seconds. Statistically, you will not get this far in the post before moving on. Most popular post I ever created: The home made knife block I made for my brother. Courtesy a good SEO techiques a popular item with google images.

So for me, I should learn from my conclusions, and heed my own advice. Spend less time on-line, whether here on coffeemoon, reading some-one else’s blog (and thus ruining their statistics)or dating sites, and more with real people. After all that is the advice I read on all the sites that talk about loneliness in london, such as the happiness project.

But I have one question for you: If you are already lonely, if you use your phone only to call your bank because there’s no-one but work contacts in your phone-book, if you already spend your free days on trips going out doing what you enjoy, such as photography and learning to play and instrument, if you already do your own art projects, have hobbies and past-times, if you already spend every waking moment being active and doing things, how do you actually get to meet more people and spend time with them?

coffeemoon moved host, again. Hopefully I’ll stay here for a long time, as we’re hosted back in the UK (at least that’s what I believe) and the page loads a hell of a lot faster…

Wolfgang

Absolutely amazing colour photographs of life in rural North America between 1939 and 1943.

Reblogged from http://blogs.denverpost.com via http://putthison.com/ 

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/

The Woodbine Pub, originally uploaded by Wolfgang Haak.

Let me introduce to you: The Woodbine. My local pub is cool enough to warrant an entry on the blog. It’s open late, there’s no carpet, the decoration is fun and eclectic, the crowd is pleasant and good looking, the bar staff attentive, the music genre is mostly classic rock, it’s open late, got sofa’s and armchairs. If it had a fireplace it would be the best pub in London. I’ll be back plenty of times.

See the rest of the set over at flickr.

Bees take over bakery van

You may have heart the alarming stories that bees are disappearing around the world.  Apparently it’s due to a protein problem, but in London scientists may have to think again:

I spotted some unusual activity on a white van parked at the top of my street (North London), only a few meters from a bakery. Dozens of bees were buzzing around, congregating at the back light of the van, where some damage had opened up a crack. I assume the crack gave the busy gatherers access to the interior, stacked with crates of honey soaked baklava, Danish pastries and other baking goods.

But the shock got bigger, when I walked around the side of the van, and discovered a moving curtain of bees “flowing” their way of the co-drivers side window to what looked like a new nest, just above the co-drivers seat!

As one elderly gentleman commented:

Bees are getting rare these days, those in the van will cost more than the van itself…

Check out the pictures for some bee-tastic swarming. I didn’t stay around for long enough to see what happened when the driver/owner returned, but the van was gone the next day.

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I’ve got stacks of them. My harddrives are littered all over the place with half finished designs. Some good some stupid some bad.

It took me 30 mins to find some decent images/presentable graphics to get 4 (four!)  designs together! Remind me to finish stuff off, and re-organise my computer.

Enjoy!

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Yo! Well, my last web-host, EZPZ some company that we won’t mention here , decided to flogg my hosting account of to some other company on another continent somewhere. So I stuck two finger up to them and start from scratch elsewhere else.

The old coffeemoon site was managed by Drupal, but I found too time consuming to  get around and decided this move would be a good opportunity to change to my (now) preferred WordPress.

Not too sure if I can fake the old dates of transferred posts, but I’ll try.

So Long!