Category: General

All the gossip aside, it’s interesting to note that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are honeymooning on the Artic P. Who owns the Artic P? We’ll it was purchased by Kerry Packer, but since he’s dead it would be fair to say that it’s now owned by James Packer, Australia’s richest man, and as we all know James is good mates with…Tom Cruise, after all, Cruise visited Australia last to attend Kerry Packers funeral.

Had to download the latest MS updates today…mainly because I was hoping they had bundled the WA Daylight Savings patch (they hadn’t). The download included IE7. I’m not totally convinced by it, but first thoughts in playing with it: it’s quick. Really quick, like twice as fast as Firefox quick on sites I regularly visit. It might be a glitch, we’ll see, but for once it bides well for a Microsoft product.

Last note: it’s 8pm as I type this, and the sun is still up, it’s the first day of Daylight Savings as part of Western Australia’s 3 year trial (the trial we had to have to make sure the curtains don’t fad and the cows all die, etc…). God bless daylight savings! But I guess there was never any question as to which way I’m going to vote at the referendum on the subject in 2009 anyway 🙂

This would be hysterical, if only for the fact that Glen Milne (the chap doing the attacking) is regarded as one of Australia’s leading political journalists. I guess journalists shouldn’t hit the piss, right?

Just catching up on some 2 weeks worth of reading, strangely enough some of it about myself. A couple of people have asked “what next”, the simple answer is I don’t know at this stage. I’ve spoken to a couple of people about different things, and I’ve got as many emails to follow up on as well. Given it’s less than one month to Christmas (that’s Christmas, not the holidays ppl!…that was really annoying in the States) I’m not going to rush anything, although I might start exploring a few different ideas and things, some with others, some by myself. Not surprisingly, I won’t be doing a blog network again, not only because I’ve probably got a dose of once bitten, twice shy, but because legally I can’t…which isn’t a bad thing I think given I honestly think the boat has probably sailed there now anyway. Either way, once I do start doing some new things, I will share.

And a final word, I’ve read some of the speculation in relation to my departure from b5media, a couple of people wanting to know more, and one person even going so far as to imply I’m a hypocrite (in as many words) given how big I am on disclosure and being upfront about things. What I will say is that there is a legal reason to my silence, and as much as I wish I could come clean and speak the truth but I can’t go into the details.

Dude, Where?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s My Porn?: SEO Blackhat Blog

Quadszilla is reporting some serious changes in the Google algo which has resulted in porn sites being purged from the index, both in full and in part, a move that it bound to upset a lot of people in the adult blogging business as well as the mainstream side. I suppose the other question that arises is why? Is Google now censoring it’s .com page results to cater to the American Government in the same way it censors political speech on it’s .cn page to cater to the Chinese Government? Strange move, and I’m sure there will be a lot more to be said on the subject in the coming weeks.

Back in Toronto again, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been colder in my life. It was 0c (32f) when I landed….and still no bloody snow, and allegedly down to -5 tonight. I’ve travelled across the world and I’ve still not seen snow, mind you at this temperature I’m entitled to it….sooooo coooold. Leaving Thursday for HK, and home Sunday. I lose a day there somewhere, but getting a little homesick now. She who must be obeyed keeps telling me how hot it is there. It got warm from the beginning of September so for the first time in a couple of years it looks like a long, hot summer. Heat/ Cold…hmmmmm…given the lovely AC I’ve got installed in my home I think I might side with the warm side :-). More soon.

Sunday, Newark NJ. The US is great but I’ve had enough now, and still a week till I get home. I’m back to Toronto tomorrow and I’m not looking forward to it. Ashame really I don’t have the rest of the week in New York, you’d need that and more just to see everything. Great people, amazing place….but on the other hand it also reminds me fully the advantages of living essentially in the country as opposed to a city, commuting everywhere is a pain. Sorry again to everyone I haven’t gotten back to on email, or people expecting some more comment on things going on, travelling is like that, particularly without a laptop…now if only I could work out how to upload from the phone the pics I’ve taken. Statue of Liberty is big. Very big. Indeed, is there anything in NY that isn’t big? 🙂

Perhaps it’s because I’m tired, perhaps it’s the sore back (:-)), but I keep getting this strange feeling….a feeling to dance down the street signing “New York, New York” as Sinatra did in the 1940-50ish musical which at this stage I cant seem to remember, but for lovers of musicals you’ll know the one, Sintra, possibly Dean as sailors in NY during WW2. They were right, New York, New York is a wonderful town. Not cheap, but mindblowingly big….it just seems to go on forever. Loren informes me that theres something like 14 million people and another 6 million nereby, essentially the entire population of Australia. I’ve got a couple more days (leave Monday) and I’m looking forward to exploring some more. The WTC was quite moving, Madisson Square Garden, Broadway (I’m seriously thinking about a ticket to Spamalot…but not cheap). OK, enough for now, when she who must be obeyed gets up in the morning this post is only going to make her jealous. More soon. Oh yeh, nearly forgot, I’ve got no comment on b5 at the moment.

On a computer again for the first time in 3-4 days, I say 3-4 because I’m not quite sure what day it is. The flight from Hong Kong to Toronto via Anchorage was, without doubt, the single worst flight of my life. It’s also the first time in my entire life I’ve thrown up on a plane…or as the case was all over the entire toilet + a good portion of myself as well…I think the vomit was flying up and down with the plane. Cathay Pacific is excellent, great food, efficent service…and most importantly it’s not Qantas, but the turbulance North of Japan…maybe 3 to 4 hours worth, straight after dinner…it just went on and on and on. Worse thing, a bit like with a boat, I usually don’t suffer so much at the time, but on the land…land sickness. Slightly recovered now and off to New York tomorrow. I won’t share my thoughts about Toronto until I get back home, but suffice to say it may have been more enjoyable under different circumstances. But time to go now, the wounds in my back are twitching and I’ll got to go and sign some papers. Till NY, aurevoir…

PS: This might sound strange but it was actually easier to communicate with people in Hong Kong than Canada. Trying to do the simplest things here is quite frustrating. Canadian’s may have kept some good things from their English heritage, but the use of the English language wasn’t one of them 🙂

Ive just got my acceptance email through for AzoogleAds (aff). Admitedly, I did have to jump through some hoops, and I’ve got to post some stuff to Canada as well to later recieve a payment (I’ll probably hold off till Monday, then I can post it locally :-)). I’ve heard some really good word of mouth for these guys lately, and whilst I’ve got accounts at various affiliate and advertising sites, I don’t recall having used them previously. First impressions, without having actually starting using some of the offers yet, is all positive. Easy to use interface and quick, unlike CJ in particular. With the advertisers offers there’s no xyz% or average payout type rubbish, you get a clear figure of the return you’ll get on a CPA basis. They’ve got a reasonable range of advertisers, it’s by no means the largest but it’s decent, various offers, with a strong range of ringtone sites in particular. I’ll report back in a couple of weeks once I’ve given a few of the offers a test run, but so far, so good.