so here’s the rub: i’m finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with my blog and i know my posts are getting less frequent and lower in quality. i also know that i am spending less time on other peoples blogs, especially less time commenting, than ever before. my posts are getting sparser and so are my readers.

at first i was attributing this to being busier with work. i’ve been more consistently busy over the last year than ever before, but i’ve had super busy periods in the past and still managed to post.

the reason, i’ve realised, is social networking. it’s not so much a time thing as an overstretching of information. i want to comment on the new spice girls video? do i blog it? do i digg it? do i twitter it? do i facebook it? at the moment i have everything feeding into my facebook and my twitter feeding into my blog so it’s a combination of all three but i wonder how much i am repeating myself to the same people. add in to that work related posts on my portfolio site and journal/news articles on deiantArt and – gobby as i am – i’m feeling spread rather thin.

interestingly, it’s not just affecting how i write but how i read. i’ve become so used to constant staus updates on facebook and gmail and little messages here and there that i want everything in one place now. facebook is really starting to work for me now the way i suppose myspace has worked for others in the past. after i’ve spent an hour on there looking at everyones new pictures and reading their updates i can’t really be arsed trotting off to all their seperate sites – and i’m sure they feel the same way about mine.

aside from the bizarre desire to expel my ramblings to the world one of the other big draws for me initially with this blog was also presentation and playing with, at first, blogger then wordpress itself. however now that i’m using wordpress as a backend cms in around 90% of the websites i build for other people as well as having switched my portfolio site to wordpress i don’t really have the same need for a visual playground that i did.

so what now?

i’m really not sure. i don’t think i’m ready to give up on marilyn’s shampoo just yet, but am i merely prolonging the inevitable? i don’t have the time or energy needed to invest in it as my focus point any more..

and if anyone is still reading your thoughts would be greatfully recieved

we used to be with telewest for both our broadband and phone connection and quite frankly they were brilliant. no connectivity issues and wonderful customer service. easy to get through to on the phone, flexible and helpful.
then they were bought out by virgin media.

i have never had an issue with virgin as a company in the past. i kind of like branson in a weirdy-beirdy balloon riding kind of a way…

but oh man they are shit.

the first bad sign was the little pamphlet that came through the door announcing their services. it was instantly clear that i am not their demographic eg: a wanker. telewest were aimed loosely at the average domestic market with premium business services on top. virgin are aimed at those tits in the doritos adverts. as far as i can see their promotional literature seems to be far more about haircuts than broadband..

we are supposed to be on a 20mb connection for which we are paying £37 per month and honestly i feel more like we are on dial-up. it drops out all the time and it creaks through youtube.
and the customer service is completely shocking. if you ever get through.
and if you don’t believe me – have a read of these…

• Review by
  Guest.
  on 17th Dec 2007

  
  User Rating : 0
  Respect :

  0

  Virgin used to be the one brand name you could rely on for customer
  service. We are paying for “up to 8Mb” yet rarely getting above 500k.
  (we did once hit 4Mb in the middle of the night) Ping rates are poor
  and customer service is appalling. Tied in to a 12 month contract but
  seriously considering c …
  Guest.’s full review | 75 words

• Review by
  Guest.
  on 16th Dec 2007

  
  User Rating : 1
  Respect :

  0

  Virgin Broadband is terrible. I made a terrible mistake going with
  them when we moved house. Virgin Broadband says we are logged on at 7.6
  MB and the exchange is just down the road. The download speed is like
  having a modem again, it drops to 15 to 18 kbs in the evening. During
  the day it can go a …
  Guest.’s full review | 90 words

• Review by
  juliannerobins
  on 15th Dec 2007

• 
  User Rating : 0
  Respect :

  0

  Virgin used to be the one brand name you could rely on for customer
  service. We rarely get above 500k on an “up to 8Mb” connection, (we did
  hit 4Mb once in the middle of the night). Ping rates are poor, (goodbye
  online gaming) and the line constantly drops. Customer service is poor,
  they don’t want …
  juliannerobins’s full review | 109 words

• Review by
  Guest.
  on 10th Dec 2007

  
  User Rating : 0
  Respect :

  0

  Don’t use them as it is the worst broadband I have ever had I don’t
  usually complain however this is rubbish 4mb line is worse than 56k
  modem i had 5 years ago.
  Guest.’s full review | 58 words

• Review by
  acidcobra
  on 10th Dec 2007

  
  User Rating : 2
  Respect :

  0

  For a large company they know how to treat their customers with the
  lies and cons that they come out with. Why did ntl have to sell out
  cause virgin seem to not know now to treat customers well, and with all
  that talk then sort the internet out and they mite not loss so many
  customers.
  acidcobra’s full review | 70 words

• Review by
  thevellas
  on 6th Dec 2007

  
  User Rating : 1
  Respect :

  0

  I have just left Demon after they reneged on an agreement about
  speeds. I joined Virgin and unfortunately so far they are even worse
  than Demon.
  With Demon I was getting 300kB/sec at good times with Virgin on the
  same line with the same equipment I am lucky to get 50kB.
  I am suspicious of thei …
  thevellas’s full review | 70 words

• Review by
  scepticalDavo
  on 21st Nov 2007

  
  User Rating : 3
  Respect :

  0

  Been with NTL for 10 years since virgin came into our life its been
  nothing but stress, bills are wrong monthly so I canceled Direct
  Debit’s and now get charged £5 for paying over the phone, now they say
  I cant upgrade my Broad Band service to 20mb unless I sign up for a
  Direct Debit again.
  scepticalDavo’s full review | 92 words

• Review by
  dianne wallace
  on 19th Nov 2007

  
  User Rating : 0
  Respect :

  0

  We are not happy with Virgin Broadband. We have had to pay extra to
  get the service going and it is still not working. Virgin promised a
  new modem and over 2 weeks later we are still waiting. In the meantime
  no internet. When we talk to them they say they will follow it up but
  cannot call us back to …
  dianne wallace’s full review | 158 words

• Review by
  lucian769
  on 15th Nov 2007

  
  User Rating : 2
  Respect :

  0

  Its supposed to be 4MB but in the 7 months I’ve had it, it has never
  passed about 0.5MB. Between 5.30pm and midnight its a nightmare. Even
  if I’m not downloading it still is like dial up when just browsing
  sites. I really want to get out of this contract as soon as possible.
  Customer service is a …
  lucian769’s full review | 62 words

• Review by
  zuluha
  on 14th Nov 2007

  
  User Rating : 0
  Respect :

  0

  Try some other broadband, but definitely not virgin (in my
  opinion).I really want to switch service provider but can’t be bother.
  zuluha’s full review | 68 words

i think my first new years resolution will be to find a new broadband provider…

Blogged with Flock

but will i have to wait for this album for ever????

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read more about it here

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heather mills skillfully invokes the names of princess diana and the mccanns to support her plight against the british press

before

blowing it all by losing her mind over a jonathan ross gag.

bwahaahaa

the tabloid media in this country are a bunch of scumsuckers but you know what they say heather – fly with craws and all that…

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i don’t know if you’ve seen the stupid ’smash the piniata’ flash thingy that pops up all the place – but for some reason i find it totally hypnotic.
i admit, it’s not as amusing as the ’shoot paris hilton in the forehead’ one or as outright bewildering as ‘do you like tony blair – answer yes or no to win an playstation’ but still, there’s something about it.

his slightly sinister pleading look, the metranome like sway back and forward, back and forward…

i have no interest in their non-existant ipods and yet for some reason i still just had to

smash it!!!

i am moderately entertained by victoria’s bizarre trolley-dolly entrance but still… cringe enducing to say the least.
and this coming from the girl who has seen spiceworld the movie several times.

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so here it is the ‘long awaited’ spice girls comeback… and er… no, not really.

the song is pretty tedious allthough there is a nice section about a third of the way through where mel c takes lead and it all has a bit more oomph. other than that it’s rather flat. i know they are grown ups now but i would have much rathered a nice big pop song than a sludgy ballad. if they had wanted to appear a bit more mature they could have done something along the madonna, kylie, sugarbabes electro-pop route but this is just dull.

and the video? gosh, i hardly know where to start.

it starts with a shudderingly embarrassing shot of them all filing in like a bunch of middle-aged anne summers models at a hen night in clapham. the smug look on geri’s face makes me just about want to put a carving nife through my computer screen. once the video gets going it’s all sort of ‘high class’ writhing and bling by candle light. there is also some lightlty lesbian-esque bonding going on, though the idea of geri haliwell writhing around in sticky vicky’s lap is considerably less appealing now than it was ten years ago.

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mel c and emma equip themselves in a perfectly respectable manner and both look nice (although emma bunton and twiggy are turning into each other) but as for the other three.. eek!

geri is clearly very proud of her newest body shape because when she’s not dressed as carmen miranda she is undulating in her undies with a distictly pleased-with-herself vibe.

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mel b – one thing to say love – semi-opaque tights? NO! NO! NO! you look like a bar girl at the queen vic. or some left over eighties housewife hooker.

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to be fair victoria looks alright for most of the video, or at least as good as she can at the moment what with her leathery anorexic skin and concrete football boobs. until, that is, possibly the most terrifying moment of the whole video when she suddenly appears in this delightful enemble:

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and with that image in your minds eye, dear readers i shall leave you.

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(the slightly mental looking one is the inside of his head!)

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25 years ago this week professor Scott E. Fahlman first used the computer “smiley face”
he posted to an online e-bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982.:-S :-\

It has been fascinating to watch this phenomenon grow from a little message I tossed off in 10 minutes to something that has spread all around the world,” Fahlman was quoted as saying in a university statement. “I sometimes wonder how many millions of people have typed these characters, and how many have turned their heads to one side to view a smiley, in the 25 years since this all started.