Rocketing down the rankings

Mindlessly perusing my blog's stats this evening, I came across the Wikio Sources website, which apparently has been analysing this, and a multitude of other blogs for the past few years.

http://www.wikio.co.uk/sources/see-that-tattie-run.blogspot.com-pXBF

It was somewhat disheartening to discover that I have plummeted from the heady heights of 6,545 in the "General" category rankings in October 2009, to my lowly position of 8,378 at the last count (as advertised by the pretty new widget in the top left of the blog).

Although with my recent average post count approaching 1 per month, and Wikio's "topic cloud" suggesting my main source of inspiration has been, err, 'Bulgaria', 'Lifestyle' and French car-derived vans, it's perhaps not that surprising.

Cheeky Russians

I've had a compliment of sorts for one of the photos I took whilst in Kazakhstan last summer - Russian website turj.ru has robbed my copyrighted image from Flickr and claimed it as its own here:

http://turj.ru/blog/history/1730.html

My original photo is on Flickr, here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tattie_chomper/4924300871/

They're the same feckin photo! Right down to the location of the crane in the top right, and the people walking along the pavement in the bottom left. 

Anyone know how to rant about intellectual property in Russian?

Never so happy to be buzzed at 7am...

I was shocked out of an abnormally deep sleep at 7am this morning (well, 7.03 to be exact), by the flat buzzer going off... Momentarily confused by the fact I had slept through my alarm, which was blaring in the corner, and the lack of girlfriend next to me, who I'd not even noticed getting up, my mind cleared sufficiently to establish what was going on.

A whoop of delight from the front door a couple of seconds later confirmed the happy news - J's passport had returned, resplendent with a new red, white and blue insert stating that she now has clearance to travel to the US for the next 10 years!!

Although she sailed through the embassy interview last week, we're both pessimistic enough that we didn't want to start getting too excited before we saw the visa in black (or red & blue) and white. It was therefore with baited breath that we waited for our happy arrival this morning, and full Noo Yoik planning to begin in earnest.

Must admit, there have already been some preliminary notes made, after we allowed ourselves to buy a guidebook on Sunday and then sat in the pub, half-watching the rugby whilst planning the attractions we need to see. Pretty much one a page in the 350 page book. Suddenly a week doesn't seem like nearly long enough.

Back on the jogging trail

I returned to exercising ways for the first time in nearly a year yesterday, having taken a sabbatical following the Reading Half Marathon last March and, well, forgotten to start again.

Following that race, there was so much else to focus on with regard to the Charity Rally that I was happy to put my gutties back in the cupboard until further notice.

As with everything in life, however, I found it impossible to motivate myself to start getting back in shape without a carrot dangling on the end of the metaphorical stick - until now...

I'm doing another 10K. Not just any 10K, mind. This 10K:

http://www.nyrr.org/races/2009/r0411x00.asp

Yes, whilst over fulfilling one of my dreams in New York at the start of April, I have voluntarily agreed to give up the option of getting absolutely battered on my only Saturday night in town, and instead rise early on the Sunday morning for a race around Central Park. My mate Gav has done it the last couple of years and asked if I fancied it - the combination of such a stunning location and the chance to stop wheezing every time I climb some stairs proved too hard to resist.

I only have 6 weeks to get in a semblance of shape for it though, which even by my lackadaisical training standards is making me think I may not be particularly well prepared. At least I can blame it on jet lag, I guess.

Just call me Tattie Z

Ahh, fohgeddaboudit....

This is an exact representation of me in a couple of months - after 6 years of sort-of-planning to, and 30 years of dreaming about it, I have finally booked tickets to the City That Never Sleeps.

What is it about New York that unlocks all these feelings of excitement inside me? Years of being bombarded with tv, films, music and fashion from the coolest city on earth. I am 100% sure that everything about the place will live up to my expectations - I'll just have to see a Yellow Cab or the Statue of Liberty and I'll be off.

Justyna is, of course, going to be at my side as I stare manically around, a demented-but-friendly grin on my face. We got so stressed before her visa interview it was crazy; if either of us had been going for our dream job I wouldn't have been so on edge. But like the star she is, she apparently sailed right through the process and now we're waiting for the courier to arrive with that magical little piece of paper affixed to the inside of her passport.

Then all that remains is for me to get sorted with some Rocawear, buy the lady a sequinned jumpsuit and some piano lessons, and slip into that Empire State of Mind...

Spam-tastic

The blog has been getting bombarded with spam of late, occasionally in Chinese, sometimes in Cyrillic, but always, always, laden with links enticing readers to pass over details of their worldly possessions.

The Blogger spam filter usually does an excellent job of quarantining them before they get a chance to appear on the relevant post (I only see them via an email link), but today, it went too far. Yes, the comment is by "anonymous". Yes, it appeared on a post I made back in November 2009, about nothing in particular. But there's no link to click. And I really can't understand why anyone would bother spamming it, unless they want to encourage as much self-referential droning as possible to clog up the internet.

I'm as narcissistic and in need of validation as the next person, and for this reason I have rescued it from spam box purgatory. You never know, much like Astrology (which only ever "makes sense" when it tells you your life is about to improve immeasurably) it might even be authentic. Except I'm still pretty sure astrology's a pile of crap.

"Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "the most spontaneously arranged plans....": 

What a great web log. I spend hours on the net reading blogs, about tons of various subjects. I have to first of all give praise to whoever created your theme and second of all to you for writing what i can only describe as an fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and honestly you got it. The combining of demonstrative and upper-class content is by all odds super rare with the astronomic amount of blogs on the cyberspace. "

Anonymous, I honestly could not have put it better myself. Except that with my clearly obvious abilities, I probably would have spelt possess correctly. I fully concur that the content of my blog is both demonstrative and upper-class - in fact you pretty much have summed up my vision for it. And as for the theme... Well, I'm afraid I must take all the credit for that too. 

I'm available for consultancy work should anyone wish to get in touch via the usual channels (i.e. a comment on a post about what I had for my tea, from March 2008).

Sofia, so good.

I went, I saw, I survived. And that, my friends, counts as a result. The fact I managed to have a bloody nice time into the bargain just adds to the experience.

Yes, for the second time in my life, I joined that rite of passage as a man-child becomes a, err, committed man-child and flew to Sofia for my mate Al's stag do. Have to admit I quite looked forward to Bulgaria; it's not the kind of place people generally go, and after our experiences in the former eastern bloc during the summer I have a soft spot for former communist republics.

I was a little concerned about hijinks and tomfoolery - being a sensitive, self-conscious and largely puny soul -and all too aware that the locals may not take kindly to a crowd of pissed up Brits stumbling around their fair city being loud and obnoxious. I need not have worried - the debauchery was cranked up to "just right", and as it turns out my fellow staggers were as lovely a bunch of chaps as you could hope to meet.

The focal point of the weekend was a day's skiing in Borovets - I'm stunned and proud to announce that even with a gap of almost 18 years since my last foray onto the slopes, I remembered how to ski straight away. Like a penguin to snow. The fatigue in my legs kicked in pretty sharpish after lunch leaving me incapable of anything except gentle snow-ploughing, but I've got the bug back now. The rest of our time was spend boozing, in a controlled-ish manner, at a variety of pubs and bars in the city centre. I even managed to blag my way into the VIP section of a local nightclub and myself and fellow friend-of-stag Ryan are now immortalised in all our glory on clubbing website Disco.bg (pic 99)

Alas, it seems my dance moves themselves were deemed "too hot for the internet"