A few months back, I was asked to do an article for Home Business Magazine on how someone could use technology to expand their business beyond their own geographical border, whether it be locally, nationally or internationally.   I was paid a nice fee and they also mentioned the URL of Better Than Therapy and Make Use Of which was a nice bonus.    The only downside to that is I’ve been a bit busy lately to post anything of substance to this blog so if I get a rush of visitors, I’d better start posting some stuff!

The article is now out in the October edition of the magazine and this morning, I received a free copy of the magazine from the editor.   Thankfully, they had shrunk my picture down to a thumbnail (!).   So if you normally subscribe to the magazine, just turn to page 32!

The magazine won’t post the article online until next month when the November edition comes out but I will scan my article later as a PDF file and post it here on the blog.   It’s called “Bust Out Of Your Borders With Technology” (they chose the title, not me!)

Technorati Tags: General, home business, magazine

I was recently invited to Jaiku by Ross over at Simple Help.   Now I would like to pass on my invites to others.

If anyone would like an invite to Jaiku, just let me know in the comments and I will email you an invite as soon as I can.   Obviously if I am sleeping or unavailable, I will send you the invite as soon as I am able to.    So please be patient!

All I ask in return is that you pass on your invites to other people.   Keep the invites flowing!

Technorati Tags: jaiku

I haven’t been online in the past few days because I had a bad accident the other day. I was knocked down by a tram and badly hurt. I am having a few psychological issues about it as I could very well have been killed. I literally jumped one step to the right and the tram subsequently whacked me on the shoulder and sent me flying. If I hadn’t jumped, I would have been in front of it and I probably would have been crushed and killed by it. One of my best friends (who is now my best friend of all) saved me by screaming at me to move. I’ve spent the past few days crying like a kid and wondering if death came to collect me the other day.

These kinds of events change you and make you think about your life a lot. Once the shock wears off, the incident replays itself over and over and it really hits home how close I came to being dog food.    My parents are on holiday overseas for another week and I’ve made the decision not to contact them until they are home.   I don’t want to ruin their holiday.   My mother would panic and cut her holiday short and she deserves her break.

My left shoulder is giving me hell, I am typing with one hand as my left hand is in severe pain and I am hopping on one leg as my left leg hit a concrete trash bin. Would you believe though I didn’t break a single bone?    Lucky?   Hmmm….depends on your point of view.

While I pull myself together and prepare to get myself back to work, here’s a picture of some nice dolphins, all part of the Daily Telegraph’s Pictures of the Day.

Oh and today’s xkcd comic put a smile on my face.   As a Star Wars geek, this one is a classic.

Regular programming will recommence shortly.   The presenter just needs to get his act together.

This post was typed with only one hand.   Are you impressed?

Technorati Tags: dolphin, tram, xkcd

My friend in Russia sent me this picture of his cat Murzik watching me on YouTube.    I’m not sure if the cat wants to kiss me or bite me but he seems fascinated by something (whatever it is!)

It’s official then - my fan base extends to the feline population.    It’s a pity in that case that I’m allergic to cats.   Damn.

Technorati Tags: cats, Murzik, video, YouTube

I don’t often talk about myself personally over the net because I figure that’s not really what people want to hear about.    But I’m going to make a brief exception now if you’ll indulge me.

I have epilepsy and I’ve had it since 1988.   Since it’s been 20 years, you could say I’ve learned to live with it and since I work for myself over the web, the epilepsy isn’t too much of a hassle.   If I have an attack, I will eventually wake up, dust myself off, pull myself together and eventually get on with my crappy day.   It used to be tougher when I was working for other people and they didn’t understand what the hell was going on (”Is he POSSESSED?”) but now that I’m my own boss, it’s become progressively easier.    I mean, I’m hardly likely to chew myself out now am I?

But the doctors are always looking for ways to make my condition more stable so they have been constantly pushing me to go to a specialist clinic about 120km away from here.    Initially I resisted (I can be a prickly kind of patient - think of Toby Ziegler in the “West Wing” - that’s me) but in the end, everyone just wore me down and I eventually agreed to finally get a quiet life.   So on Friday I headed on down there.  It’s quite a big place, very well known and very hard to get into.   It has a waiting list of about 9 months and in actual fact I had previously turned down the chance to get into the place once before so I am lucky to get a second chance.   Apparently not many people get a second chance (so I am told anyway).

(more…)

Technorati Tags: diagnosis, epilepsy, internet

As the more observant of you will have noticed by now, I have changed the blog’s template and I have gone for the “all white” approach.

It isn’t finished yet (far from it) but this is how it will generally look.    The previous design had many flaws in it that were really annoying me, the main one being the two VERY narrow sidebars which made it impossible to fit anything in them.  So I decided to go with one very wide sidebar instead.

Plus, with my recent increase in Google PageRank, I have had some advertising offers and I wanted to make some space for possible advertising in the future.

But the one thing that is REALLY annoying me now is that I can’t fit my Friendfeed widget into the sidebar.    I have tried many possibilties but the widget refuses to play ball.   It is going all over the place, except the place I want it to go into.   I have even tried to put it inside a HTML table, thinking that would make it behave but to no effect.   Anyone have any ideas about that?

Apologies for the lack of posting lately.   But what with work getting busy and my health going a bit haywire, the blog has had to take a backseat for a while.   But I am hoping to get it moving again soon.    I am buying a camcorder in the next couple of days so look out for video posts!

I’m sitting here infuriated by Matt Richtel’s hatchet job on bloggers in the New York Times. The death of two bloggers has prompted Richtel to conclude that blogging is detrimental to a person’s health and that the stress of it all is likely to lead you to an early death. I was so pissed that I fired off a rather sour email to Mr Richtel in which I told him that I didn’t appreciate the negative light he had cast on the bloggers of the world.

I mean, people die all the time, regardless of their occupation. People over-work all the time, regardless of their occupation. But suddenly, with the untimely tragic death of two bloggers, we’ve suddenly got to write “death by blogging” on death certificates? Come on, give me a break.

Although I was reminded by this guy that we probably haven’t seen the worst of it yet.

Technorati Tags: blog, Blogger, blogging, death, New York Times, Richtel

Tennessee-based cemetery-science investigator Elizabeth Agin has used ground penetrating radar, geospatial software and a kite with a camera attached to find hundreds of unmarked graves around the country.

read more | digg story

Technorati Tags: cemetery, death, forensics, graves, investigator, law, radar

This sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died is a challenging and poignant study. The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded revealing interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying - and living. This is something that will stay in your mind for a long time.

read more | digg story

Technorati Tags: death, German, Lakotta, life, photo, pictures, Schels