On twitter…

Talk about online evolution – in the last decade, I’ve gone from:

ICQ to Yahoo!Chat to Yahoo!Games to GoPlay to Hotmail to Blogger to LinkedIn toYouTube to Facebook to Skype to now…twitter!

Twitter’s a micro-blogging service where you can send and receive 140-character updates, which can include links to cool articles, personal reflections, by-the-second news etc. Sort of like the status update feature in Facebook. I’ve decided to make my profile based on sport, with my user name ‘scrumblue’.

So I’m now following the updates of the Wallabies and Waratahs (media!!) teams; journalists Jessica Halloran, Mark Cashman, Ben Kimber and the Ruggamatrix crew; a rugby blogger fromGreen and Gold Rugby; sports star Lote Tuqiri; and rugby brain and ex-Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer.

For instance:

LoteTuqiri So i'm getting 4 wisdom teeth pulled out after yesterdays consult. Now where to find the time???

You’ll also notice I’ve attached a twitter widget onto the sidebar at the bottom right (scroll down). This will include any of my updates or conversations happening on twitter.

Blogging is back

My friend Edwina has cracked into the world of blogging.

First stop, documenting her experiences working on the Olympics in Beijing for an Australian TV channel.

Bravo!

Check it out here.

It's been 20 days...

...since I blogged.

Sorry about that - been busy. Here goes...

It's been 356 days...

...since Angus blogged.

Bravo.

A bit of a polish

Hotel Bell got a bit of a spruce up recently - it would be great to know what you guys reckon about the new layout, header and colours!

Naiiiiii! Wireless!!!

Allllriiiight!!

Welcome to the world of wireless, baby. Willis would be proud - this post marks my first ever using a wireless connection!

So I'm sitting here in the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay, a little bit waxed and salty after a morning in the surf with Clare. There's a bit of chilled jazz playing in the background, I'm a third of the way through a schooner of XXXX Gold and there's a handful of people across the other side of the bar wondering who the two wankers are with their laptops open on the table.

There's also some old guy coughing like a madman behind me. I think he may have emphysema...or maybe he's choking on his fish burger after checking out some of the hotties with their surfboards wandering toward the beach.

My newfound wireless capability results from the purchase of a brand spanking new Apple MacBook.

It's hot. It rocks. It will hopefully let me glide through cyberspace using the underground, unsecure networks of Bangkok city, reporting back to those at home and abroad the random, mundane and plain insane of Bangkok and beyond.

Yeah!!

Call me old fashioned, but blogging sucks!

OK, so you may notice some slight changes to my blog. Like my links are no longer there, or the fact that the lovely photo of the couple drinking a beer has decided to disappear.

Well, that's probably because I tried to get all geek on myself and mess with the HTML. Now I've lost my widgets and links!!

And what's worse - it's 1am on a Saturday night and I'm at home blogging. Oh god.

To bed!!

Call me old fashioned, but blogging rocks!

I just received a comment from Leslie, a wonderful woman who I stayed with over my last few weeks in Sydney. She's the mother of a couple of mates of mine - she also surprises me time and time again with her super-savvy approach to life.

Despite not being born into a hard drive like the kids of the 80's and beyond, Leslie seems to be willing to learn some new e-skills and give blogging a bit of a go.

And this is what I dig about social media...providing people of all generations, interests and computer abilities the opportunity to communicate the world over.

Naturally, it will be the little friend and family moments I'll miss most when I'm overseas - so seeing a couple of pictures of Dave and James pulling beers down at Picton, an update on the dogs, a description of the latest trip to Bali, or simply a Wednesday morning harbour sunrise will make the distance seem so much closer.

Leslie's first, brand-spanking new blog can be found here.

More big decisions

My Mum has always wanted me to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. For some time, I've been quite happy keeping to my basic staple of meat and potatoes.

But I think there comes a time in a man's life when he needs to re-evaluate his diet.

I have used PCs for most of my life, but am now considering a fruitier option which has recently popped onto my plate.

I'm looking at buying a laptop for my time overseas and beyond. MacBook's specs are pretty hot, but so are Sony's and Toshiba's.

With all things being equal (except price...MacBooks seem a little more expensive for what you get), I'd like to know from a usability and lifestyle perspective which notebooks people prefer.

Why PC?

Why Mac?

Willis? Mick? Halter? Koilee? Angus???

Smashing a ton

Well, it's been emotional. This is my 100th blog post since Hotel Bell's inception back on 4 November 2006!!!!

In January of this year, I set up a Google Analytics account to track what content people are finding most appealing, which randoms are reading my blog and from which countries, as well as to immerse myself in a web-world I've never encountered, from a general education perspective.

In celebration of the 100th, I thought I'd take a stroll through some of the quirky, questionable and quixotic results from my Analytics account:

Basic stats (since 23 Jan 2007)

• 2,166 visits from 660 different computer IPs
• 4,289 pages viewed, averaging 1.98 pages viewed per visit
• Visitors spend an average of 2 minutes and 35 seconds on the site
• Most visits in a day - 32

Languages & countries (in order of usage)

• English, Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Danish, Italian, French, Hungarian
• Australia, UK, US, Ireland, China, Argentina, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, France, Singapore, Thailand, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Japan, Greece, Chile, Hungary, Romania, Brazil, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Uruguay, Austria, Norway, Luxembourg, Peru, Switzerland, Slovakia, Belgium, Egypt, South Korea, Qatar, French Polynesia, Bulgaria and Puerto Rico.

Top 6 traffic sources

• Typed directly into browser
• Aitken's blog
• Beth's blog
• Millgate's blog
• Angus' blog
• Google

Key words/phrases people used in Google to find my blog

• "Anthony Callea"
• "Ben Harper"
• "Only 8 transformers?"
• "pria young" gay
• "ready steady cook" "channel ten" veal
• "rubber hot water bottle" -brand -stamp
• "ship lovers society of victoria"
• "slavic soul party"
• "Australian beers named after reptiles"
• "booty shak'n girls"
• "contiki mykonos sex"
• "how to pick the right transformer?"
• "mr. bean throws a spanner in the works"

...and my favourite:

• "cleaning bat faeces off cars"

I have always set out for Hotel Bell to be like a bi-weekly gift for my friends and family overseas, up the coast or around the corner - in the hope that they can have a bit of a chuckle for at least a couple of minutes of their day.

Looking forward to another 100 posts!

PRIA - The perfect pitch

Holy shitballs. What an eventful night.

This post doesn't have any pictures, so for those only interested in my pictorial portray of life, please divert to this site now. It's much more entertaining. My best score is 3198.

I've just gotten back tonight from my first ever Public Relations Institute of Australia event. To be honest, it's been the first event which I've been able to afford (many other events cost a few hundred to a thousand dollars to attend), and on my salary, many events simply aren't accessible...a stain on the PRIA for young members, but understandable due to resourcing etc. If only there could be an informal (and non-stereotypical) venture such as a BBQ where people gather on a Saturday afternoon, talk PR and all associated afflictions, then go out and get shit-faced. Low cost and achieving the goals of the PRIA.

This one tonight brought together three blokes (in a room of roughly 35 women and 5 guys) to present their views on "The Perfect Pitch". Journos presenting to us included Tony Biancotti (Formally Today and Getaway), David Flynn (IT freelance journo and former editor of a host of IT mags/newspaper supplements), and Tony Blackie (Senior journo at BRW and founder of PR company Blackie McDonald). In a nutshell, their views echoed exactly what I have thought about PR: Be personal, be genuine, be smart, be valuable.

As a quadruplet, these elements are in no way interchangeable - in my opinion, despite any magical 'new ways' of communicating, these four elements will always form the cornerstones to any effective public relations (or any business!) strategy.

Tonight was eventful for more than just the fact that it was my first ever foray into PRIA events:

• I got my feet wet - we've had about 60 points of rain in the CBD since 9am this morning (apologies to my family in Central West NSW).
• Paull Young, a mate of mine from uni who was in attendance, went up to the president of the PRIA to discuss some possibly thorny subjects, only for his lip to be prematurely cut open on a broken schmiddy glass (yet another reason why they should be banned), being forced to abort any intentions of intellectual conversation with blood streaming down his chin. We got a few free beers out of it though. Thanks Youngie.
• I got to talk about the effects of new-media with a whole host of intelligent, informed young PR professionals.
• There was a simultaneous speed-dating event on in the same venue. It proved quite funny when a random young lady introduced herself, then leaving three minutes later with a confused look on her face after witnessing three guys gripped by said new-media conversation.

I'm still really undecided as to whether I will renew my membership ($275 for a few emails and 'invitations' to events where I need to pay more money) - I think I would like to speak with the PRIA hierarchy as to different costing elements.

This event, whilst a great way to catch up with old mates and meet a few new people, was terrific - I just wish I don't have to pay a heap of money for the privilege.

Goodnight...

Welcome!

Hello team. Welcome to my blog - arguably my greatest ever.

As of July 2006, Technorati reports that about 175,000 new blogs were being created each day, contributing to a global pool of blogs in excess of 50 million. That translates to just over two new blogs a second. Yeah - holy shitballs.

So in my mind, it highlights two things:

1. Perspective: My little online journal is merely a drop in the Blogosphere Ocean.
2. Infestation of geeks: There are hell of a lot of like-minded gleebens out there in the world.

In a world that's only beginning to bloom some fantastic communicative opportunities, I hope Hotel Bell ends up being a ripper of a window into my life for my mates, family and associated randoms. I welcome your comments, feedback and slander.

Enjoy!
Belly.