ICYTD round up

thanks to everyone who took part in the 1st annual ICYBT day.

think, out of the four participants, two (Stephen and Dolly) have decided to keep their new templates.

i have gone back to my old template.

forgot to take a screenshot of my changed template. for anyone who missed it, it looked a bit like this.

also forgot to take a screenshot of Ani Smith's new template (who has also gone back to her original template).

sorry.

here is an attempt at creating Ani's ICYBTD template, using MS Paint:


anyway. really felt like we made some history. good work, everyone.

ICYBT day

i have changed my blog template, for International Change Your Blog Template Day.

if you would like to join in, just change your template some time today before midnight.

i am happy to include links, screenshots, etc. here.

email me a screenshot of your blog before the template change (chriskillen@gmail.com) and i'll post a link on here.

happy ICYBT day, everyone.

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UPDATE:

Stephen O'Toole is taking part in ICYBT day.

he forgot to take a screenshot of his old blog before changing the template, but has sent a drawing of it instead.

here is Stephen's old blog template:



here is Stephen's new template.

here is a quote from Stephen re: ICYBTD:

"we could all learn something from ICYBT day, though i didn't"

good work, Stephen.

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UPDATE:

Ani Smith is taking part, too.

here is a screenshot of Ani's usual blog template:


and here is Ani's new blog template.

good work, Ani.

i felt confused looking at the new template.

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UPDATE:

Dolly Peg & The Untruths has also changed her (their?) blog template.

unfortunately she was unable to provide a screenshot, BTC (before template change).

in her own words:

technology has let me down and won't let me paste a print screen of it! I think I've got a computer mutiny going on at the flamboyance of my new blog page layout.

here is her new template.

good work, Dolly.

update #6

Socrates Adams-Florou won the most exciting desktop battle yet, beating "Blackwells' own" Dave Hartley by 11 & a half votes to 8.

if you think you can beat Socrates' desktop (in terms of tidiness), please submit a screenshot of your desktop to chriskillen@gmail.com. i think desktop battles will be an ongoing thing, as long as people want to carry on submitting.

Socrates currently holds onto the title of 'all time tidiest desktop in the world, 2010'.

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'Other' magazine have just published a very serious poem i wrote when i was eleven. i wrote it during a one-day poetry workshop at my school.

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'Other magazine, in general, is posting lots of good stuff at the moment. have a look.

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still wondering what i should turn my blog into. please vote here if you have a moment.

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hope everyone is okay.

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i'm supposed to be marking.

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i'm sitting in a large, deserted computer cluster. feels like a group of 30+ students could come in at any moment.

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here is some more info on ICYBT day:

[click here to find out what ICYBT day is.]

so far 6 people have signed up. if you would like to sign up, please express your interest in the comments of this post.

for the participants:

if you would like me to include before/after pics, links, etc. -- i was thinking of doing a kind of 'round up' post at some point doing ICYBT day -- please send me a representative screenshot of your current blog, sometime on or before ICYBT day, but before the changes are implemented. (chriskillen@gmail.com).

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a group of 30+ students just came in to the computer cluster.

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i am having a nice time.

desktop battle #4

i have had a new submission for desktop battles.

the new challenger is Dave Hartley.

Dave seems eager to win. here, in full, is Dave's submission email (titled 'a new challenger approaches'):

You may have put this to bed already but I do have a
tidy desktop.
I believe Fats was robbed and I want justice
Dave
Hartley

in a follow up email, Dave says, 'I am very excited to be joining the battle arena. I am also determined to win'

Dave's desktop is being pitted against current title-holder Socrates Adams-Florou's extremely tidy 'magic eye' style desktop.

rules are simple: look at the two desktops and decide which is tidier. place your vote in the comments.

okay.

Socrates' desktop:

vs.

Dave's desktop:



which is tidier?

also worth looking at, possibly, is previous title-holder Fat Roland's poem about losing Desktop Battle #3, in the comment section of this post (third comment).

[a note on the typeface: i panicked about Verdana (largest) and, in a moment of 'weak will/indecision/being in a university computer cluster as a group of students suddenly come in to have an IT lecture', have reverted back to Times New Roman (normal). still unsure about the future typeface of this blog. please bear with me during this difficult decision. i thank you all for your patience and support.]

proposal

i just had an idea.

i am proposing an international 'change your blog template' day.

i am proposing this coming monday - Monday, 26th of July - as International Change Your Blog Template Day (ICYBTD, for short).

is anyone interested in joining me on changing their blog templates for one day only?

(i think you can save your current template on blogger, so you can revert back to your normal template again on Tuesday, 27th of July. i've done it before, it's quite easy, i think.)

i am excited about the idea of blogs i normally look at on Monday, 26th of July suddenly looking completely shitty/terrifying/confusing/hard to navigate/much better/just completely different.

if you are interested in getting involved with the first annual 'ICYBT' day, please express your interest in the comments below.

i am happy to use my blog as a 'hub' for that day, possibly hosting screenshots of your usual blog template, along with a link to your now completely shitty/terrifying/confusing/hard to navigate/much better/just completely different-looking blog.

come on ggs!

let's make some history!

update #5

i have a new plan. i am going to very slowly, almost-imperceptably change the appearance of my blog. the changes will be so subtle they will feel subliminal. however, by maybe this time next week my blog will look and read like a completely different blog (still not sure what kind yet -- please vote in post below).

i have changed two things since the last post.

(i wonder if anyone is able to notice these two subtle changes.)


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'gg' is now an entry in Urban Dictionary.

if you have a moment, please click the 'thumbs up' icon to make it the no. 1 entry (not sure if this is how it works).

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update: i am worried that no one will notice the two changes.

the two changes are:

• font + font size (Times New Roman (small) to Verdana (largest))
• background colour (white to luminous pink)

desktop battle update

Socrates won desktop battle #3.

click here to view his winning desktop.

Socrates is new title holder of 'world's tidiest desktop of all time, 2010'.

if you want to submit a desktop, to try and beat his desktop (in terms of tidiness), please email a screenshot to chriskillen@gmail.com.

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feel desktop battles has run it's course. or maybe could continue quietly and be updated maybe once every week or two.

i need a new gimmick.

here are my ideas so far:

• blog novel.
• a three-posts-a-day 'my life' photo blog (feet at busstop, view out of window, what i had for lunch, alarm clock, blurry lights in bar, etc.).
• magazine-style articles on things, completely free of sarcasm/irony, written as if i was getting paid for them (except i'm not).
• extemely emotive, 'serious' poetry, one poem per day, for a year. (again, completely free of irony, probably coming across as quite emo, probably containing words like 'ruby' and 'mewling' and 'candle'.)
• once a week updates on The Bird Room, for the rest of my life.
• a 'writing blog' style blog (short posts about my 'process', my desk, etc., usually ending with a question like 'what kind of pencil do you guys use?' in order to promote discussion.)
• a giant, once-a-week link list, mostly to things i have seen anyway that week on the internet, but occasionally including something i have searched for on google just before compiling the list -- like a funny video of a cat eating a golfball or a serious Guardian-books style post on 'did the novel end with Updike?' or a link to a photo blog of someone who has shelved 600 kindles in a real bookcase or whatever -- in order to make it seem more literary/wacky/[something].
• something else.

what would you like to see this blog turn into?

what kind of pencil do you guys use?

please vote in the comments.

update #4

after hardly updating my blog at all in the last year-and-a-half or so, my new technique is to frantically update it, hopefully every few hours.

i wonder how long this new approach will last for.

i am guessing it will last for about a week.

when i think about updating my blog, i think about words like 'resuscitation' and 'CPR'.

i think about an old, grey cat, covered in a thin layer of white dust, lying at the bottom of a newspaper-lined cardboard box from a supermarket, not completely curled up, possibly with arthritic back legs, a perpetually swishing tail, closed eyes, breathing irregularly, maybe asleep.

i want to give my blog a small saucer of warm milk.

i am not sure if my blog likes warm milk.

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i got 'knocked out' of the Literary World Cup. i made it through to round three. is that quarter finals? i know nothing about football.

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i just drank two cups of strong coffee in quick succession. feels like my brain is pushing against the inside of my head.

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i am having a nice time updating my blog regularly.

update #3

i keep listening to why? on spotify.

my current spotify routine is to open spotify and log in and wait for it to load and then type why? into the search bar and then click on why? from the list of bands and then listen to why? on spotify.

it often feels like 'some kind of unending house party, complete with ups and downs and panic and drugs and maybe hand-holding' listening to Why? on spotify.

i am having a nice time.

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i liked this article about 'the art of seduction' by Ben Brooks.

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i liked this thing about twitter feeds by Brandon Scott Gorrell.

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i liked these photos (scary and amazing and possibly 'nsfw').

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i am reading a short story at a magazine launch today, at 5pm, at the Sand Bar in Manchester.

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i just submitted 'gg' to urban dictionary.

desktop battle #3

i have had a submission for the next desktop battle.

it is from Socrates Adams-Florou (editor of 'Other' and all-round gg).

Socrates' desktop is being pitted against Fat Roland's so-far-unbeaten, extremely innovative and tidy desktop.

the rules are simple: look at the two desktops and decide which is tidier. place your vote in the comments.

Fat Roland's desktop:

vs.

Socrates' desktop:


which is tidier?

(just had a daydream about the question 'which is tidier?' becoming a kind of 'viral catchphrase', like a 'post-millennium 'Gladiators ready'' or something. for instance, maybe i am standing at a busstop in a year's time and two school children are looking at some litter on the pavement - an empty crisp packet and a rain-sodden cigarette packet - and one of them says "which is tidier?")

update #2

Fat Roland's desktop is staying on for round 3 of 'desktop battles' (see previous posts).

feel excited about round 3 (i have a submission).

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it is raining 'like a bitch' outside.

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really liked this thing about different blogging platforms by Tao Lin.

i am excited about reading Richard Yates.

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also, 'Other' is back.

desktop battle #2

okay, i have had a second submission for the 'desktop battle' series.

the new submission is from someone called BountyBar64@hotmail.com.

there was no message accompanying BountyBar64@hotmail.com 's screenshot.

BountyBar64@hotmail.com seems shrouded in mystery.

**i feel nervous and excited.**

BountyBar64@hotmail.com 's desktop is being pitted against the winning desktop from round 1, Fat Roland's desktop.

rules are the same as before. please look at the two desktops and vote for the desktop you find tidiest in the comments section below.


Fat Roland's desktop:

vs.

BountyBar64@hotmail.com's desktop:

which is tidier?

desktop battle update

looks like Fat Roland's desktop won the first desktop battle.

if you would like to compete against Fat Roland's 'insanely tidy' desktop, please email a screenshot of your desktop to chriskillen@gmail.com.

finding it hard to imagine a tidier desktop than Fat Roland's desktop right now.

all i can think of is a completely blank desktop, with maybe one folder called something like 'everything on my computer'.

desktop battle #1

i have had a submission for the 'tidy desktop battle' (see post below).

the submission is from Fat Roland.

i am not going to make any comments about how tidy/untidy or aesthetically pleasant/unpleasant his desktop is, as i don't want to influence voting.

rules are simple:

look at the two desktops. decide which desktop is tidier. vote for the one you think is the tidiest in the comments. feel free to include your reasons for voting. the winning desktop will 'stay on' (i.e. will be 'pitted' against future tidy desktops, hopefully eventually leading to the discovery of 'all time tidiest desktop ever in the world, 2010'.)

right. so, desktop battle #1:

my desktop:

vs.

Fat Roland's desktop:


which is tidier?

update #1

i've moved flats again. i now live in a flat in an ex-hotel. i have actual broadband again, instead of mobile 'piece-of-shit' broadband. i am going to update this more. i went to london and met some internet people including this person and this person and this person and this person and this person and one thing people asked me was 'why don't you update your blog anymore?' and i think i started saying something embarrassing in reply. anyway, my point is: having proper broadband is exciting. i have been listening to things i hadn't previously listened to on Spotify. had actual 'holy shit' moments with Why? and Of Montreal. hooray.

i have a tidy desktop now. see header. (screenshot taken maybe 10 mins ago.)

i have the tidiest desktop.

feel like i want to enter my desktop in a 'tidy desktop' competition.

like the 'Crufts of destops' or something.

my desktop will be judged on the following:

• overall tidiness.
• tidiness innovations, i.e. folders within folders, etc.
• aesthetics, i.e. how many columns of icons, etc.

feel 90% confident my desktop would at least 'place' in a competition of this sort.

quite happy to have a 'desktop battle' if there are any contenders? email me a screenshot of your desktop (chriskillen@gmail.com) and i will post it on here vs. my desktop.

also, here are some things from recently and recently-ish:

i interviewed Zachary German for 3:AM Magazine. (features picture of Zachary German wearing a coat.)

i was interviewed for Writer's Pet. (features pictures of my cat and desk.)

i had a haiku accepted as part of IsReads7.(features picture of printed-out haiku stuck to something somewhere in America.) lots of other haikus worth reading, too.

think that's it.