Isn't the web great?

Isn't the web wonderful? Using the internet is now second nature to many of us, and it's easy to take it for granted, but it really has revolutionised the access and delivery of information.

It's also made many previously taxing occupations easier. Shopping online, for instance, is a far more convenient, not to mention cheaper, way to shop.

It's also made it easier to keep in touch with people - and renew old acquaintances. I resisted the Facebook phenomenon for ages, then finally gave in, and now I am a convert. Melissa, who has very little interest in technology, is addicted to Facebook and seems to spend most mornings updating her profile, status, friends and so on.

If you'd have told me 10 years ago that's how I would be keeping in touch with people, I'd have reacted with horror. That really is a revolution.

Twittering

I've been promising a blog on how we used Twitter to cover the local elections last week.

However, Hold The Front Page kindly featured the Evening Leader and this article really sums up what we did pretty effectively.

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080506twitt.shtml

Just a quick one

There are a few blogs I need to write at the moment - using Twitter to help improve news coverage being one of them, and my thoughts on yesterday's excellent Digital Editors' Forum another.

Unfortunately, I haven't had time to collect my thoughts properly yet, but I just have to respond to criticism from certain reporters about my current choice of daytime drink - fruit tea.

Drinking this tea does not make me, as somebody suggested, 'a big girl'. Neither does it mean I'm a lentil-shaking hippy, as another claimed.

It just means that, now and again, I like a change from the standard tea with milk. End of argument.

Gardening - still rock 'n' roll?

I wrote an entry last year describing gardening as the new rock 'n' roll. After shifting a tonne of manure, I'm starting to wonder if that description is altogether accurate.

I mean, can you imagine Bono humping a steaming pile of muck around the place?

Anyway, I shouldn't complain - it was my idea to get some manure. I read somewhere on the web it was good for vegetable patches. Of course, Melissa wasn't quite as keen. She was even less keen when she returned early from visiting a friend to find a mountain of cow poo on the drive of our house.

When she calmed down, though, she did help me shift it, and my pile of muck is now sitting proudly at the bottom of my garden, waiting for me to do something with it.

All in all, it's not very rock 'n' roll.

Is it too early for optimism?

I've just been watching Wrexham manager Brian Little talking about signing a new two-year deal at the club here:
http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/wrexhamfc/VIDEO-INTERVIEW--Brian-Little.3975002.jp

I don't want to get carried away - and perhaps it's because we've had such a dismal season that I'm looking for positives - but he does sound really switched on. Maybe, just maybe, his appointment will be the start of something special at The Racecourse.

I certainly hope so, and it will be interesting to see what changes he makes to the playing staff over the summer. In the video, he hints at major changes. I suppose the proof of the pudding...

Weird weather

There's no doubt about it, the weather's a bit weird at the moment. I haven't got a clue if it's to do with man's impact on the environment or not, but we seem to go from one extreme to the other in the space of a day or so.

Take this week, for instance. Yesterday and today have been warm, sunny and generally very pleasant indeed. In fact, it's just the sort of weather that encourages you to wander down to the pub after work - especially now the clocks have gone forward.

But while I was mucnhing on my Weetabix this morning, GMTV's presenters were busy talking about wintry showers on their way over the weekend.

As I've said before, I'd love to see some snow - especially if it's over the weekend and I don't have to drive.

But while it's difficult to keep up with such extreme variations in the weather, at least it gives us all something to talk - or blog - about. And talking about the weather is what we British do best.

No wonder we drive everywhere

LAST weekend I did something unusual; I travelled by train.

Now as I caught the train early, the first part of the journey was very pleasant. I had a seat to myself and plenty of space to spread out and read the papers. 'I wonder why everybody complains about train journeys,' I thought.

Then we stopped at a station and approximately 1,000 people tried to cram onto the train. It wasn't pleasant. For the next hour, I was crushed up against a gentleman who obviously hadn't showered recently while my knees were crushed against the seat in front.

By the time I got off, I remembered why I don't travel by train more often; it's just not nice. If the government is serious about cutting car use, something has to be done.