Everything Went Wrong / I am 30

The two aren't connected, although there is something strangely appropriate about the blogs all being granted a forced make-over at the same time I enter my 4th decade... not that I've done much to them, just a different template and some better organised links... still, it makes it look like I'm better at web design than I really am...

Not a terrific update this time around, I'm afraid. I'm too tired and too busy to come up with anything overtly hyperbolic at the moment. I've found recently that I have less and less time to do any writing, which is beginning to bother me. I've always been a firm believer in doing at least a couple of paragraphs a day - it keeps the mind supple and the abilities at an acceptable level - but recently it's become hard to devote time and conciousness to it. I hope it will change in the near future... in the mean time have a look at the balloon pictures on the newly rustified Day of the Dave.

Oh yeah, and I'm now 30. Life and association with sitcom characters begins here apparently.

This came from Paul Wolinski. www.decayofthedave.blogspot.com. Isn't he a sweety?

Hello...? Is anybody still there?

So. Been a bit absent for the last month or so. Yessiree, a little absent. Leaving your blog unwritten is sort of like correcting an untruth, the more time passes the more you are happy to let it be and not make the changes neccessary... In fact, I have to admit, that I'm personally putting myself under duress to sit here and write, lest I never return again. It's not like I've grown tired of blogging - far from it - I've just grown a little tired of writing about my own misadventures. I've been doing some reviews for Watch With Mothers which I've really enjoyed doing much more.

But anyway, I've also been a bit busy and distracted which is another reason why there has been no updates around here. I toddled off on tour with 65daysofstatic at the start of the month, came home for a few days and now I'm back out on the road driving for Brett Dennen, the support act for Rodriguo y Gabriella. The 65dos tour was great, although not as action packed and exciting as perhaps I was hoping for - the boys have been on the road for a very long time, and will be for a very long time more, and some of the novelty has now passed on. It was still good to be out there though, doing visuals every night and feeling vaguely like an artist for the first time in a long time. We went over to Ireland at the start of the tour which was really nice - I sure like that country and we met some lovely people, and I think I may have left a little bit of my heart in Galway which was, like, just gorgeous.

I've just realised that the days touring schedule states that the Finnish are arriving at 10.20. That is meant to mean we finish at 10.20... but I think I prefer the idea of nordic vistors. Oh, and Daily Motion have featured 65daysofstatic Don't Go Down to Sorrow on their front page so go over and have a look...

New Photos

There's 3 (count 'em, 3) new photo sets over at my photo blog Day of the Dave. Feel free to swing by and have a look...

Same but different

I've posted this before, but I'd quite like to point it out again as I continue to find it bizarre. My blog address is http://www.dawnofthedave.blogspot.com yes?
Take out the S' of blogpsot and you get http://www.dawnofthedave.blogpot.com which is some kind of Jesus Loves You bible site... what kind of address is that for Christian worship?

Spammed

Of all my posts it would seem that this one is the most popular among spammers. Not too sure why... maybe all spammers are big Low Lows fans, or perhaps they have a thing for beards... hell, it could even be that they do keyword searches for Prunella Scales before choosing which blogs to spam. It remains a mystery to me, but 10 spam comments on 1 post doesn't lie.

UPDATE: This is nothing compared to the 177 spam comments that I've just found on this 65dos post. Jeez. Those boys really are popular.

Caroline Hustings... where are you?????

I have a little service run by a website called Blog Patrol that lets me know how many visitors I have, what countries they come from, what pages refer them, what their IP addresses are, what brand of shoe they're wearing - that sort of innocent thing. Most stuff is pretty innocuous and helps me see how certain links like MySpace, YouTube and 65dos help get me readers.

Every now and then it throws up some interesting facts. The phrase "Swearing in German" is my number one linked from google search, I get more readers from Israel than I do Ireland, a link to my blog appears, inexplicably, when you search for "you tube video feet sniffing sandal" (here's the weird thing, I actually have made a video about feet sniffing and put it on YouTube, but I've never mentioned it here... weird!).

Anyway, I got a link this evening from someone searches Google for "Caroline Hustings" and they went to an old blog I wrote about Friends Reunited in which I talked about a girl who I went to school with called Caroline Hustings. Now, I have no idea if it was the Caroline Husting I went to school with who was Googling herself or a different Caroline Hustings. Most likely is wasn't my Caroline, but what if it was? I never thought about using blogs and the vain act of Googling to try to find people before, so I'd like to try it.

Here is a list of a few people that I'd like to get back in touch with, I've chosen people from school so as to tie this in with Caroline.

David Hughes
Matthew Lilley
Helen Whitrow
Elizabeth (Liz) Morrell
Andrew Bastock

Right, five people - nice and simple. Here are a few keywords to shake the whole thing up a little:

Nottingham Bramcote Hills Comprehensive School Chilwell Beeston Parkview Sixth Form Centre Sherwin Arms Field Moor Lane

If any of these people end up swinging their way here then I'd love for them to leave a comment and say hi. I tried Googling all these people and couldn't find a thing, then I tried Googling the name of every school friend I could remember but still to no avail. In fact the only lead I got was this man: Rizwan Ahmed. He looks alot like my friend Rizwan Ahmed, and his name is the same but his website has no mention at all of every being in the UK and when we were meant to be doing Sociology together he was reputedly a Student Facility Member at a university in New Dehli. Unlikely to be the same guy.

The only person who I successfully found was me. According to Blog Patrol no-one has ever come to this blog by searching for 'Dave Holloway' which I guess is part of the problem of calling yourself Dave Medlo online (another problem is realising it sounds like a surname and thus everyone thinks you've named the business after yourself).

I'm now going to do another search for Caroline Hustings and I'll be damned if I don't get pole position.