ickledot
graphics & writings
August 2009
BBC – Mark Beaumont Cycling the Americas Blog: Change Of Saddle
August 16, 2009
I met up with, Montana rancher, Mona on Monday at the side of the interstate and headed into the mountains for a day on horseback.
The first job was to get kitted up so I swapped my lycra for a cowboy shirt, jeans and chaps – the only issue was finding cowboy jeans that could fit over my cyclist’s legs! Mona told me that the horses and dogs on the ranch immediately gelled with me and said I looked very at home on the ranch – probably helped by growing up on a farm in Scotland. You can take the boy out the country…
After a fantastic night sleeping in a basic cabin, miles from the nearest power, phone or water supply, there was a day of cattle herding to be done. I hadn’t sat on a horse for eight years but there was no time to sit and worry about it as it was straight into some tricky riding over rough ground, across streams and darting about after cattle – all whilst trying to film for the documentary!
To start with the herd seemed to want to go in any direction but the way they were meant to. They needed moved off the creek and up the mountain to higher pastures. After a few hours I felt like I was getting the hang of it.
It’s incredible to think this was a normal days work for Mona, but a long day in the saddle for me. Albeit of a very different kind to the ones I’ve been used to for the last few months! By evening the cattle were high up at 7500ft on new grass and I got back to the cabin tired but having loved the experience.
via bbc.co.uk
Good luck, Mark!
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An account for ickledot
August 15, 2009
Hello Posterous
I would like this to be become my first post on my posterous blog.
Cheers
ickledot
John Ashton: graphics and writings at ickledot
contact | ickledot@ickledotco.co.uk | t: 01535 645231 | m: 07966 989409 | Twitter
contact | ickledot@ickledotco.co.uk | t: 01535 645231 | m: 07966 989409 | Twitter
Remember the iPod Mini?
August 13, 2009
Been meaning to write a little bit about the iPod Mini for a while. It all began when I made my one and (so far) only appearance on a podcast – Mac20 Questions – and David asked me something about whether I had an iPhone and I replied no I didn’t but I had a Touch. I mentioned that before that I’d used a Nano, but my first iPod had been a mini.
I’m sure he believed me, but there was enough of a pause in his response to make me begin thinking, in the heat of broadcasting, that maybe it wasn’t called an iPod mini at all. Maybe it had another name, or maybe I’d just imagined the whole thing. But here it is, and what a huge and antiquated thing it looks.
And yet, the mini’s only five years old. How come we all forgot it so quickly? Wikipedia reminds us it was launched on February 20 2004, with a second generation following just over a year later. It enjoyed a relatively short life, as these things tend to do nowadays, being replaced by the Nano on September 7 2005. As we’re all remembering now, it had the click wheel below a monochrome screen, and came in several colours. For some unknown reason, I chose a turquoise one.
I was going to picture it with the Nano, just to show how big the mini is in comparison. Somehow it didn’t seem fair though and besides, the Nano’s in the car.
Consequences of Ross and Brand Antics
August 10, 2009
Been catching up on a few podcasts this morning. One episode of BBC Radio 4′s Front Row podcast featured writer Jimmy McGovern. Possibly most famous for Cracker and Hillsborough, he was talking about one of his most recent projects, the award-winning The Street.
His comments revealed an aspect of the Ross Brand incident which I’d not considered before. His brand of drama is often hard-hitting, depicting groups and individuals in extreme situations and moods within the context of ordinary everyday life. This requires the use of strong language to bring realism. Describing Ross as a ‘clown’, he felt that the episode had led to TV executives becoming over-cautious and uncomfortable with such gritty dialogue. Regardless of the moral arguments surrounding what Ross and Brand did, perhaps they should have also realised their actions have consequences, even within their own industry.
Rapidweaver and WordPress
August 10, 2009
I mentioned a few months ago that although I love Rapidweaver and its friendly community, I was tempted to switch to the free and ever improving blog-platform, WordPress.
Wordpress has now developed to such an extent it has become a joy to use, from the intuitive dashboard to the wonderful themes on offer.
For many weeks, however, I have remained loyal to Rapidweaver but linked it to Blogger in order to enable remote blogging, using the excellent Rapid Blog. Now, thanks to another Rapidweaver plug-in, WP-Blog by Nilrog, I am able to write this blog using WordPress.
Only slightly more complex to install than RapidBlog, it allows me to maintain my blog on the Rapidweaver site while also exploring the many tools and plug-ins that WordPress has to offer. Using WordPress and WP-Blog also allows for Disqus commenting (as does the latest update of RapidBlog). WordPress can also import Blogger posts from within its dashboard, so nothing is lost (apart from images, perhaps). Although the various widgets cannot presently be transferred to the RW page, Nilrog has said that future updates of WP-Blog will allow for this to happen.
Many thanks to all concerned.
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