Saturday 26 May 2007

Sticky-back plastic revisited

Managed to get on a short HTML course yesterday, that being (and any geeks out there, please correct me if I'm wrong) the fundamental language in which most/all web pages are written. You might use a package like Dreamweaver or Frontpage but these are just virtual machines that write the actual HTML code for you so you don't have to get your hands dirty.

When I viewed the source code of "East of Dulwich" I could see why the thing is such a mess. Trouble is I started the thing as a temporary measure, to fill up my days during a period of "resting" between jobs that now threatens to stretch out to the day I will be able to draw my pension. And I always planned to transfer to a blogging site like this one. Except that I began to get attached to the shoddy look of the site, taking me back to the kind of things they used to make on Blue Peter in the sixties.

The think is that the whole project has turned into a kind of Frankenstein's monster. It started off as a Christmas cracker joke, written in MS Word and uploaded using My Computer (Windows 98 nothing special edition). Now because of lack of planning, I've ended up with a project that I no longer write as a distraction from my busy life. Rather, the bl@g has turned into an author it his own write (sic{k}) -- it is East that writes me. My life is not my own any more. Even the characters which used to obey my imagination have, in the words of the famous creative writing guide adage, taken on a life of their own. And not just one life...I think they've started breeding.

Clearly I need help. If you can spare some time to take over the line management of any of these recalcitrant avatars (Tiina, East, Jorma or any others you care to name) please apply within using the the comment facility.

And if you're short of ideas...I envy you.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ideas? Short of ideas? I know what you mean. The trick, I think, is to work on them, develop them, nurture and nourish them, and quite often prune them. So really it's you who's in the enviable position, I mean of having time to do all that. Oh, and was Descartes wrong? I am thought, therefore I am...
Cheers,
Alf

East of Dulwich said...

Alf,

I think you'll find that it was I am thinking therefore I am -- but I suspect you knew this. What I meant by the envious remark was simply that I have more ideas than I can ever find time to turn into some kinda in-the-world reality. Most of them go round and round my head until I either forget them or wear myself out. Not unlike a car revving up and not going anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Ah Blue Peter - I'll always remember Val, John and Peter and their wonderful professionalism -- I'm sure they could teach those young and beautiful presenters of today a thing or two as the following clip testifies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Cj2TtFd_E

East of Dulwich said...
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