Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm just back online after a couple of months away from my normal routine of blogging. It's strange for me to think that I've been writing this blog since mid 2006 and especially when I meet people who tell me they've read it regularly all that time. I still think that starting it was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and it's contained some of the best work I've produced as a person.
However, a break is always good to rest and refresh the mind, and although I quite enjoyed my daily routine not involving a computer for a little while, I must admit I've been going through a serious crisis of confidence in my blogging. I'm not worried about it really, It's a good thing to question whether you could improve or take what you do in a different direction. I'm sure the time to reflect a little on what this blog is, and could be, will be exactly what it needs to become something better.
Anyway, now my house is in order, I can put down the hammers, spades and screwdrivers and start hammering the keyboard again. To fill in a little of the last six weeks while I was offline, fixing stuff around the house or off around Europe giving talks, here are some pics from my iphoto... (click on them for a bigger image)
Drew makes the top out
And thank god for that.
Scary rope after falling off an 8c in Siurana
Bloc with a view. I climbed a lovely new V10 traverse here in April, with a V13 extention in the project book for the autumn. the topo is on page 129 of the Scottish Bouldering guidebook
The Ben looking pretty on a March morning
Puss puss attempted an ascent of our chimney and paid the ultimate price (a bath)
Claire attacks the garden before it attains rainforest status
Ready to plant my tatties
Fingers crossed I'll for a fine harvest this autumn. Tatties, carrots, cabbages, lettuce, celery, onions and, of course, broccoli ; )
Enjoying the space beneath your feet on Angel Face E2, Far East Wall, Beinn Eighe
Blair heads off into the Sky on Moonshine E4, Beinn Eighe
PS: is it just me, or has picasa's jpeg compression on it's blogger image uploader got worse?? Anyone else noticed this on their blogs? Does anyone have any good recommendations for photo upload sites with decent compression?
About the photos... Get yourself a pro account over at flickr.com ($25 a year) and then you can upload all you want and link to high quality versions of your photos. It's also a nice way to have backups of all your photos. :)
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
ReplyDeleteFlickr every time.
Great to have the posts coming again!
A third aye for flickr. While you're at it, sign yourself up to Twitter.
ReplyDeleteis there no option in Picasa to improve the quality of the uploaded files? iPhoto's Picasa add-on has on (faster upload/medium/large quality) so would guess it's similar?
ReplyDeleteI use Flickr for my best-of pics and Picasa as the dump for blogger.....noticed slower uploads on some pics when they're being pulled in from flickr.
Crisis in confidence for your blog, eh? I see no reason why, and am glad to have you back at it. It was missed.
ReplyDeleteUm, by the way, what are tatties?
I do not have the bouldering book but im guessing that Bloc with a view sits low down on a big shepard.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I flickr and compare I think.
ReplyDeleteTatties are Duke of Yorks, Anyas and new potatoes.
Flickr see some results here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/8027420@N04/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7538425@N05/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richiebetts/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7491393@N03/?saved=1
Dave, the benefits of using Flickr might outway any slight speed issues (blogger is normally lot worse for me).
ReplyDeleteIronically, even though Google owns Blogger, images that are tagged and titled correctly in Flickr get much higher rankings in search engines. You should also add the url for your site in the image description, so that random viewers can find your site. To reach a greater audience still, you can post your images in other peoples 'groups' (example), or setup your own group to promote either yourself, climbing in scotland or a specific venue etc. Also, assigning your images with the correct creative commons licence allows others to blog your images and spread the word.
There are a lot of other cool features that you will no doubt find if you take a test spin ( uploader app is really useful too)
Disclaimer: I'm a web designer, sorry for geeking out. Thanks for all your inspiration
Yet more geekery: Some 3G broadband providers, and mobile internet providers, will compress jpegs heavily as they pass through their "pipes", in order to save bandwidth. I'm not saying your crazy satellite ISP is doing this, but it's something to be aware of.
ReplyDelete