Hey look: A blog entry that’s actually made it out of my imagination and onto the computer screen! We should get straight on with the nonsense, else we’ll be here all day…

To cut a long story short, I decided set up a Twitter account and quickly became ever so slightly addicted. I like how the service lends itself to protracted (and oft interupted) conversations which really suits the way I keep in contact with people. I’ve also found it really useful for when I just want to put something out there without clogging up my blog with aimless drivel.

I was hoping that using Twitter might encourage brevity in my writing. No chance. I seem to spend most of my time trying different variations of words to fit as much into one hundred and forty characters as possible.

I suppose one of the main aspects I enough is that this is still a fairly new phenomenon and thus there is still lots of excitement and creativity surrounding the idea: There is a plethora of widgets, gizmos, doodats and thingermees nibbling away at Twitter’s API.

At the moment my favourite is Twistori which I came across a few months ago. I don’t think I blogged about it at the time because though I really liked the idea, I found the site a little too static. In the time since my last visit they have solved this problem by transforming the site into a screensaver (Mac OS X only I’m afraid).

I love it. Every time I get distracted enough to wander away from my computer, I come back to a beautifully mundane stream of reality.

I have also signed up to Last.fm. The instigator for this was the Lastgraph project from Aeracode.org. To be honest it’s more for me than anyone else: What I’m interested in is documenting my listening habits. Especially whether there is a contrast between what I might tell people I listen to and what I actually listen to.

Gary Hustwit, the dude who brought us Helvetica, is working on a new film called Objectified. The website does a far better job of explaining the plot than I can though I will say that it looks dope and I am very excited. You can watch the trailer here.

Howies have pulled their finger out and uploaded last years Do Lectures to the internet (they are also available on Vimeo). The Trevor Baylis video is a must watch. Seriously, it’s just under an hour long but it’s much better than most of the mulch they show on television: Make a brew and stick it on! I also really enjoyed the presentations by Andy Kirkpatrick and Matt Davies/Russel Davies as well.

Speaking of Russell Davies, I have just finished reading his blog back to the very beginning (I think there are about five and a half years worth of entires). I was going to list my favourite entries but there are just too many interesting bits and bobs.

It’s a bit hard to explain who Mr Davies is because I have only the vaguest of ideas but he was one of the people behind Honda’s Cog advert with should be all the encouragement you need to check him out. He is also the author of Egg, Bacon Chips and Beans (the blog and the book). If you are the sort of person who is prepared to take your time and delve through you will be rewarded.

I have spent a lot of time checking a lot of blogs that are purely image based. My favourites include: Yimmys Yayo (I imagine that one counts as NSFW), JJJJound, Matty Magpie, Anthony Burrill, and of course, The Knife.

I recently rediscovered Copenhagen Cycle Chic which definately deserves a mention.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned George Plemper’s Riverside School photos before but I know that if I did, I didn’t have a link to the full set before. You can see the collection in it’s entirety here. I highly recommend that you do so: Portrait photography doesn’t get much better than some of these images.

Any other news? Errr… I popped over to Bristol last week to catch Jam Factory’s Made On a Mac talk in the Apple Store. Oh and I finally bought myself a fixed gear bike after two and a half years umming and ahhing about it (still not had chance for a proper thrash about though).

Right then, I’ll take up no more of your time. Thanks for sticking with the blog despite my rather erractic and delayed updates (I’m hoping RSS will be my saviour and I won’t have lost too many readers).

As ever, if you read this and you won’t to get in touch feel free, my contact address is under Extra Beans or you can reach me using.. well if you’ve read this far, you know how!

*Edit* I have edited this entry since the original publication because the Last.fm paragraph was pure gibberish. Thanks Thom!