<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372</id><updated>2009-07-27T06:52:46.145Z</updated><title type='text'>The Meta Party</title><subtitle type='html'>The Meta Party offers web design, search engine optimisation and web accessibility services to comapnies throughout Merseyside. If you're looking for search engine optimisation in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Chester or beyond why not give us a call.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>41</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-112102657577512457</id><published>2005-07-10T20:12:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-07-10T20:16:15.783Z</updated><title type='text'>SEO Article : Ways to diminish your SEO success</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;
Certain &lt;em&gt;Search Engine Optimisation techniques&lt;/em&gt; that are 'available' to you as a home grown Search Engine Optimiser can actually damange your site's performance in the search engines. So I thought it might be good for me to give you a quick heads up about the top X things which will limit your site's search engine rankings.
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;
&lt;small&gt;In no particular order&lt;/small&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;1. Hidden text.&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Hiding text on your page for the suppossed benefit of the Search Engine Spider is an SEO no-no. Hiding text, also known as SEO cloaking, is practically guaranteed to negate your hard work in other areas of the optimisation campaign and bring about a (harsh) penalty to your site.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Why is hiding text so harmfull?&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Displaying content only o the Search Spider is harfull because the Search Engines want to present the &lt;em&gt;best&lt;/em&gt;, most &lt;em&gt;relevant&lt;/em&gt; content to a user. If the Search Spiders are 'tricked' into beleiving that a page is more relevant/superior then it's competition but the user can find nothing of interest from it then the Search Engine has failed to do its job, and so Search Engines &lt;strong&gt;don't&lt;/strong&gt; want to be tricked because their reputations hang on being able to present the best information to the Search Egnine user.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;How can I hide content&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
It is possible to hide information from a user but have it display to a Search Engine Spider in a number of ways. By far the most useless way to do it is within Comment tags. Comment tags are used by web developers to comment their code. This breadcrumb trails can then be used by their colleagues or even themselves at some later point so they can remember why they placed that page header there, where the bottom of that table division ends and numerous other technical notes that are interesting only to the most anal. Some Search Engine Optimisers will attempt to &lt;strong&gt;abuse&lt;/strong&gt; these tags by filling them with page related keywords, like so

&lt;b&gt;&amp;lt;-- search engine optimisation liverppol, search engine optimisation merseyside, seo wirral, seo birkenhead, web design northwest, wed bevelopmnet new brighton --&amp;gt;&lt;/b&gt;

Search Engines and their Spiders, caught onto this 'technique' years ago and now either ignore the content of these tags completely or read them but attribute no weigh, importance to them. If you see this type of code on your &lt;em&gt;optimised&lt;/em&gt; site, call up your SEO team and give 'em an ear full. This practice is outdated and a waste of time.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Another way to hide text is to use the &amp;lt;noscript/&amp;gt; tag. This tag is generally used in conjunction with the &amp;lt;script/&amp;gt; tag which can bring JavaScript related joy to your site - mostly in the form of countdown clocks, mouse cursor followers or random quote generators. Search Spiders cannot read JavaScript and so they look for it's accessible equivalent i.e. they actively search for the &amp;lt;noscript/&amp;gt; tag and read the contents within it. By placing content in this tag your are implying that this replaces the JavaScript content on your page so that in the event that the JavaScript cannot be shown you're offering content which is the same, or as good, as the content presented via JavaScript.

You can, once again, &lt;strong&gt;abuse&lt;/strong&gt; this tag so that it can be filled with any content you like because the Spider, not being able to read JavaScript has not choice but to accept what you tell it. So for example, I might say:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&amp;lt;script&amp;gt;

?ecaf gonl eht yhW

&amp;lt;/script&amp;gt;


Which, for those of you who can't read backwards, says:


&amp;lt;noscript&amp;gt;

I offer a great web design service in merseyside. It's the best, it's reasonably priced and my email communication is just superb.
&amp;lt;/noscript&amp;gt;

&lt;/b&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
If caught, the trust placed that the Spider has placed in the site will be damaged and it will take a lot of time and effort to regain this trust.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;So I can never hide text again?!&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Well, I didn't say that now did I?

The truth is, and a lot of Search Engine Optimisers will shriek and roll their eyes when I sy this, it &lt;strong&gt;is acceptable&lt;/strong&gt; to hide text in certain situations. You, or your web desgin company, will know when this is because you'll be able to answer the following question with the following answer&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Why have we hidden that section of content?&lt;/strong&gt;

Because, in this situation, it will benefit the user
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seems simple doesn't it? The secret is that it is a simple decision as to if you should hide (textual) content on the page, is it a design decision? does it benefit the user. If you can answer honestly to both of those questions then hiding text/conten is fair game and you should not worry about doing it.

Some good examples of when hiding content is perfectly legitimate are:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Giving the user a trimmed down version of the page for printing perposes&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Giving the user a text only version of the apge for accessibility reasons&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Cutting out contetn that the user may find offensive (foul language) or anoying (banner adverts)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;...&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
In an ideal world the hiding of textual content will all be done server side so that the user and Search Spider see practically the same thing, however at times it's just &lt;em&gt;easier&lt;/em&gt; to do it via Cascading Style Sheets E.g.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;b&gt;
&amp;lt;div style="display: none;"&amp;gt;

Navigation: Web Design | Web Accessibility | Search Engine Optimisation

&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;


&amp;lt;div style="display: inline;"&amp;gt;

Search Engine Optimisation is our bag. Thanks for printing out this documet, call anytime.

&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;
&lt;/b&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;in the above example the navigation bar would be hidden whereas the 'Search Engine Optimisation is our bag...' content would be shown. Perfectly reasonable to do and perfectly executed using CSS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;In summation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you're hiding text/content from your user so as to display it only to the Search Spider then you are abusing the trust of the Search Spider and can expect to be punished. if, however, you are hiding text/content for the benefit of your user then Search Spiders, and the human moderators who police them, will have no need to impose any sort of ranking penalty on your excellently optimsed site.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-112102657577512457?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/112102657577512457/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=112102657577512457' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/112102657577512457'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/112102657577512457'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/07/seo-article-ways-to-diminish-your-seo.html' title='SEO Article : Ways to diminish your SEO success'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-112051470487700354</id><published>2005-07-04T22:01:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-07-19T12:34:33.043Z</updated><title type='text'>SEO Article : How to read the Mona Lisa</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/1600/world-on-fire.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/400/world-on-fire.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/1600/meta-party-logo1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/400/meta-party-logo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/1600/world-map1.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/400/world-map.gif" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/1600/looking-glass.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/320/looking-glass.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/1600/back-grad.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/404/963/320/back-grad.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-112051470487700354?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/112051470487700354/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=112051470487700354' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/112051470487700354'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/112051470487700354'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/07/seo-article-how-to-read-mona-lisa.html' title='SEO Article : How to read the Mona Lisa'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111979825433267104</id><published>2005-06-26T16:01:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-26T15:04:14.336Z</updated><title type='text'>Something new</title><content type='html'>I've decided to take this blog in a different direction. Away from the process of changing jobs (the new job is going well, by the way) and more to the process of search engine optimisation; specifically, I want to write more articles like I always promised myself I would, and what better place to do it then here? Expect some big changes around here soon ...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111979825433267104?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111979825433267104/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111979825433267104' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111979825433267104'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111979825433267104'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/something-new.html' title='Something new'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111980234685037885</id><published>2005-06-26T15:04:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-26T16:12:26.856Z</updated><title type='text'>Why framesets are bad for SEO</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;So you're interested in frames (or framesets) are ya? Nothing wrong with that I suppose. They have there uses, but in terms of SEO they &lt;em&gt;will&lt;/em&gt; limit you sites success and in this article Im going to show you why.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Lets dive straight in ... you're sitting in a chair, as you are now, but instead of absorbing the alpha rays from your monitor there are, instead, five ceramic bowls and one glass bottle on the table in front of you; you know this because you are told this - you, my friend, are blindfolded.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bare with me my search optimisation friends ... all will become clear&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Reaching forward you place you hand inside the first bowl and remove one of the many like objects within i.e. you pick out something from a pile of similar &lt;em&gt;somethings&lt;/em&gt; from within the bowl.&lt;br/&gt;
The object is small, about the size of the ball from within your mouse. Only its not round. One side is perfectly flat whereas the other is curved. On the curved side you can feel slight bumps - dimples almost - and lots of them. The object is tough but squashable. If you so wished you could mulch this object between your fingers, leaving a dripping, fibrous mess in your destructive wake. Satisfied? Good, then its onto bowl two.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Reaching into bowl two your fingers sink into a sea of tiny spheres (about half the size of your mouse ball). Each one rolls around trying to accomodate your probing fingers. Removing a single sphere you role it around the centre of your palm. It is almost completely spherical aside from a small indentation at its north and south poles. Squeezing the sphere causes it to &lt;em&gt;pop&lt;/em&gt; leaving a lot of liquid and a little sticky tissue between your fleshy talons.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bowl three contains the opposite of bowl two. Cubes (are cubes the opposite of spheres? For this example, yes; but maybe this is something we could revisit at a later date .. with a search engine marketing twist or course). Removing a cube you notice it to be much more substantial than the contents of bowl two. Its heavy, its firmer, it approximately the same size, if not a little larger, than your mouse ball.&lt;br/&gt;
Each side is perfectly flat and leads to an, every so slightly rounded, edge. Testing the compressile strngth of this object you notice that the outer most corners of the object seem to breakdown under the pressure you excrt whereas the inner core appears to remain fixed and solid. |Some liquid runs down your fingers are you place this slightly distorted mass back into its bowl.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Bowl four, contains what can only be described as rough, yet incredibly flexible, paper. The edges of this thin material are course yet easily pliable.You can crunch  it, tear it and much it easily enought. Each fragment appears thin but with very fine ridges on one side. It is no bigger than a fifty pence peice.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Upturning the bottle a little liquid runs quickly onto, then over, your palm. You notice the sticky sensation on the back of you palm first as the liquid drops quickly to the floor. Its texture is not unlike water but with a distincly &lt;em&gt;tacky&lt;/em&gt; residue.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Before we examine bowl five, what have we got? Can you guess what is in each of the bowls? Do you know what liquid was in the bottle? Do you know what would happen if we mixed all four bowls and the contents of the bottle together?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Well, the bowls contained sliced strawberrys, whole blueberries, cubed melon and freshly picked mint (respectively) with the bottle containing 1.5 litres of Amaretto liquor and according to Chef Gino D'Acampo we have the ingredients to a &lt;a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/fruitsalad_67181.shtml" title="Chef Gino D'Acampo's fruit salad recipe from the BBC's Saturday Kitchen"&gt;fruit salad&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br/&gt; Did you guess right? On all counts?!&lt;br/&gt;
The truth of the matter is that unless I was able to describe the contents of each of the bowls in such minute, scientific detail you probably wouldnt have guessed the contents of bowl five, the fruit sald; or that bowls one to four, along with five tablespoons of the liquid from the glass bottle, had gone into bowl five to create something that was more than the sum of its parts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Is this seach engine marketing or cooking for beginners?&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By using frames, or framesets, in your website you are splitting up the ingredients of the page, forcing the Search Engine Spider to consider each in turn (just like you did with bowls one to four) and then making the Spider predict what your page, as a whole, was actually about.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;How can I improve my cooking skills?&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you can, avoid using frames. With modern techniques such as &lt;acronym title="Cascading Style Sheets"&gt;CSS&lt;/acronym&gt; you can recreate the look of a frameset without actually having to split up your page content through several &lt;em&gt;mini-component&lt;/em&gt; pages. The following can create a smiliar look and feel:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;code&gt;
&amp;lt;div id="amaretto" style="height: 100px; overflow: scroll;"&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;p style="height:300px;"&gt;Glug&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;/div&amp;gt;
&lt;/code&gt;
If you have to use frames, and CSS workarounds just won't do, then pleaseuse the &lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;noframes/&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; tag along with your frameset code. This will give the Spider a good indication of what the page is about before following the links to the individual &lt;em&gt;mini-component&lt;/em&gt; pages; Like so&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;code&gt;
&amp;lt;body&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;frameset&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;frame source="sliced-strawberry.htm" name="Strawberrys"/&amp;lt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;frame source="blueberry.htm" name="Blueberrys"/&amp;lt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;frame source="cubed-melon.htm" name="Melon"/&amp;lt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;frame source="mint.htm" name="Mint"/&amp;lt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;frame source="five-spoons-amaretto.htm" name="Amaretto"/&amp;lt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;noframes&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
So, you like fruit salad do ya?! Well what better way to spend a summer evening than to enjoy this wonderfull fruit salad dish (somprising of Strawberrys, Blueberrys, melon and Mint) that the italians call &amp;lt;em&amp;gt;Macedonio di Frutta&amp;lt;/em&amp;gt;.&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;/noframes&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;/frameset&amp;gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;lt;/body&amp;gt;
&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And with that, there is nothing left for me to say other than, &lt;em&gt;buon appetito&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I originally wanted to call this article &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why framesets are bad for SEO : Or how I learned to love fruit salad&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, but given the focus of the opening paragraps thought that might have given too much away.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111980234685037885?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111980234685037885/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111980234685037885' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111980234685037885'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111980234685037885'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/why-framesets-are-bad-for-seo.html' title='Why framesets are bad for SEO'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111869080973499433</id><published>2005-06-13T20:14:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-13T19:26:49.740Z</updated><title type='text'>You know you made the right decision to leave when</title><content type='html'>The new &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com offers you an almost full-expense paid trip to London.
Meanwhile, the old &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com installs cameras and microphones in the ceiling insisting that they will not be turned on during the day. Staff are in uproar. The right noises are made from the upper-echelons and the angry-mob settles. Later in the day the staff in the I.T wing are informed that they &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; been being filmed all day as part of some mis-guided attempt to &lt;a href="http://www.princess.uk.com/programmes/individual/office_full.htm"&gt;gain publicity&lt;/a&gt;/build moral. Several staff storm out of the office, several refuse to sign the consent forms for their images to be shown on the idiot-box, several resign from the staff-forum as they feel they have been lied to and mislead. Management, at all levels, end up with egg on their face.
So, do I miss it?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111869080973499433?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111869080973499433/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111869080973499433' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111869080973499433'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111869080973499433'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/you-know-you-made-right-decision-to.html' title='You know you made the right decision to leave when'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111826384507852825</id><published>2005-06-08T21:31:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-08T20:50:45.083Z</updated><title type='text'>noscript vs. display:none;</title><content type='html'>I had my first real SEO argument today; it felt pretty good.
Essentially, the new SEO firm believes in doorway, excuse me, &lt;em&gt;information&lt;/em&gt; pages; and to be honest, from the looks of things they appear to work and rank well.
At present they hide links to &lt;em&gt;information&lt;/em&gt; page sitemaps within &amp;lt;noscript/&amp;gt; tags and place these in the &amp;lt;head/&amp;gt; of each page.
My initial thoughts were that
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The &amp;lt;noscript/&amp;gt; might have more weight if it were in the &amp;lt;body/&amp;gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The links might have more weight if they were in a hidden div&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
The general consensus of my colleagues was that this was a 'spammy' technique as
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The &amp;lt;noscript/&amp;gt; is not to be displayed so why place it in the &amp;ltbody/&amp;gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The hidden div would constitute as a cloaking mechanism&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
I disagreed with both of those points as the &amp;lt;noscript/&amp;gt; tag is &lt;em&gt;already&lt;/em&gt; being misused, im simply suggesting that we move it within the code in an attempt to increase weightage; i.e. stuck in the header a search spider knows that its not to be displayed to a user and therefore might not give it much consideration, but within the body the search-spider thinks that it should be displayed and therefore might pay it more attention. And a hidden div is far less 'spammy' as the search-spider will see it everytime - it doesn't have to ask itself whether it can handle some code (read script) before considering the alternative (read noscript).
But anyways, we agreed to disagree. Still think Im right though. Was good to finally get to openly discuss some of my geeky knowledge.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111826384507852825?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111826384507852825/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111826384507852825' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111826384507852825'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111826384507852825'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/noscript-vs-displaynone.html' title='noscript vs. display:none;'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111817328270673579</id><published>2005-06-07T20:40:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-07T19:41:22.706Z</updated><title type='text'>Oh yeah ...</title><content type='html'>One week today. Woo.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111817328270673579?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111817328270673579/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111817328270673579' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111817328270673579'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111817328270673579'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/oh-yeah.html' title='Oh yeah ...'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111817272664238886</id><published>2005-06-07T20:02:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-08T07:54:48.643Z</updated><title type='text'>New gliggs</title><content type='html'>Girlfriend Clare is of the opinion that I actively seek &lt;a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fad"&gt;fads&lt;/a&gt; and that my need for a temporary addiciton helps me get through the month. This patently isn't true. I dont &lt;em&gt;seek&lt;/em&gt; fads ... Im just the type of person that stumbles across them.
Take today, for example. Its a sunny day and Im squinting practically all the way to work. Although you cant see any stress lines on my forehead (I checked in the rear view mirror) I can feel them and can massage them away (whilst looking in the rear view mirror). So I thought "Why not get some sun glasses" - actually thats not true. At the weekend I had that thought and even went so far as to walk into &lt;a href="http://www.topman.co.uk"&gt;Topman Liverpool&lt;/a&gt; and try some on only to place them back after about five minutes later because £12 seemed a little expensive for no name, &lt;acronym title="Piece of crap"&gt;p.o.c&lt;/acronym&gt; shades. No, today I thought "Must remember to check out &lt;a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk"&gt;ebay&lt;/a&gt; for some shades ... maybe Ray Ban's". I choose &lt;a href="http://www.rayban.com/"&gt;Ray Ban&lt;/a&gt;'s because that is the only manufacturer of spectacles that I can recall. So I have a quick browse on ebay, searching for retro looking shades similar to those I was trying on in Topman; and I find the Ray Ban Wayfarer. Now, I didn't know that these shades had a cool, clique history until I do a bit of research and find &lt;a href="http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/links/Ray-Ban-Wayfarer"&gt;this site&lt;/a&gt; dedicated to them and their wearers; most notably the &lt;a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8&amp;q=blues+brothers&amp;btnG=Google+Search&amp;meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB&amp;sourceid=Mozilla-search"&gt;Blues Brothers&lt;/a&gt;. So as soon as I know this I gotta have them. Okay, perhaps thats a bit of fad-seeking but ... I &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; stumble across them and just because they're cool should I be punished for that? So I place a bid on ebay and get on with my dayjob. On the way home 'Boys of summer' comes on the radio and guess what I hear?!
&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.risa.co.uk/sla/song.php?songid=12690"&gt;You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
Smiling and squinting all the way home I bound onto ebay only to discover that I've been outbid. Placing a final bid for £21.01 (seconds before the auction closed) snags me the gliggs for a mere 2 pence more than my rival was willing to pay. He who laughs last, laughs longest.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111817272664238886?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111817272664238886/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111817272664238886' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111817272664238886'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111817272664238886'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/new-gliggs.html' title='New gliggs'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111809526026984919</id><published>2005-06-06T22:29:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-06T22:07:12.476Z</updated><title type='text'>Welcome to my world</title><content type='html'>I got quite a shock today when I was asked to go to the &lt;a href="http://www.internetworld.com"&gt;Internet World conference&lt;/a&gt;, in London, next week and man the SEO stand for two days.
Jinkies. Lets just hope I know my stuff; either that or lets just hope I can wing it for that length of time.
The new firm spent the afternoon &lt;a href="http://www.daytona.co.uk"&gt;go-karting&lt;/a&gt;. It was my first time and quite a blast.
There were three heats, two semi-finals and a final.
For the first two heats I was under the illusion that placement meant nothing and that it was only lap-time that counted towards your position on the leaderboard. By heat three I had realised my mistake but still only managed to finish fourth (out of six) as I had in the first two heats.
In the semi-final it was do or die. Nine of us lined up on the grid and set off at the green light; within seconds I was at the back of the pack. But I had tactics on my side. I knew that with so many drivers it was only a matter of time but they wiped each other out and allowed me, &lt;em&gt;Wario&lt;/em&gt;-like, to slip-by. Sure enough, on the first tight bend, three karts were involved in a slightly sticky accident and I, having hung back, slid by to take sixth place.
Having held my position for over a lap and a half I gained sufficent ground on racers four and five so that when they crashed and burned (quite badly actually - a head on collision) I, again, slid by to take fourth place.
Pedal to the metal I raced flat-out for another few laps till I was, not only secure in my fourth position but also, hugging the rear of the third-placer.
It was no good; I couldn't get passed. Try as I might there was no room for me to move. Lap after lap I tried to over take but all to no avail.
Then, as we neared the finishing post (literally as we were within 20 feet of the thing), my rival took the bend wide and began to slow down - clearly happy with his third place result. But the race was not over. The finishing line was still to be crossed. Slamming my foot on the accelerator and steering my cart to the inside track time appeared to slow. Foot by foot. Inch by inch. I began to claw it back, until... BOOM ... third place! Won by a nose. What a driver I am. What a maneouvre that was. What a nice way to spend a Monday afternoon.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111809526026984919?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111809526026984919/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111809526026984919' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111809526026984919'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111809526026984919'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/welcome-to-my-world.html' title='Welcome to my world'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111795638697974810</id><published>2005-06-05T08:16:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-06-05T07:29:26.366Z</updated><title type='text'>Coming Around</title><content type='html'>The lack of posts for the past several days has been completely purposefull; I wanted to settle into my new role before blogging about it. A quick summary of the past week is:
Tuesday: By 12:30pm I was tempted to hop in the car and go home
Wednesday: I don't think I like this job, what have I done?
Thursday: Wasn't so bad
Friday: I could probably get used to this; I even kinda like it.
I think I was suffering from a case of culture shock - simple as that.
The office itself is young and vibrant and full of the type of mistakes young companies can thive on and compensate for; its a world away from the increasingly corporate, increasingly commercial &lt;em&gt;old&lt;/em&gt; job.
One thing that &lt;em&gt;has&lt;/em&gt; surprised me is that the SEO work done here is not a million miles away from the SEO work I conducted at the old place. i.e. The information I gleaned from that twelve month project was pretty much bang on the nail and had I have been allowed to stick at it a bit more ... bingo.
So the only real news to report is that the new job is going well and, to make matters better, we're all going go-karting Monday afternoon. Game on.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111795638697974810?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111795638697974810/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111795638697974810' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111795638697974810'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111795638697974810'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/06/coming-around.html' title='Coming Around'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111748163972867572</id><published>2005-05-30T20:23:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-30T19:33:59.730Z</updated><title type='text'>Feels like Sunday</title><content type='html'>Some of the money left to me by the fine folks at the old &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com I used to buy some Turner Classic Movie Poster Postcards - although I haven't found a suitable location for them yet Im sure they'll be lovely.
So, its the night before the &lt;strong&gt;big day&lt;/strong&gt; and I feel like a man about to face an angry jury rather than an adventurer about to face his latest challenge; so much intrepidation! Its ridiculous. Tomorrow will be shits &amp; giggles. Afterall, no more office politics, no more commercial pressure, no more witch-hunts and an extra £70 (or so) in the monthly pay packet. Easy street.
As well as buying a kitchen this weekend, I also managed to finish John Grishams &lt;em&gt;The last juror&lt;/em&gt; as well as his latest hard-back, &lt;em&gt;The Broker&lt;/em&gt;; both were excellent and where enjoyed in the beautiful sunshine beating down on my back garden.
No more talk for now; early to bed.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111748163972867572?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111748163972867572/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111748163972867572' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111748163972867572'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111748163972867572'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/feels-like-sunday.html' title='Feels like Sunday'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111720829304636596</id><published>2005-05-27T16:28:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-27T15:38:13.050Z</updated><title type='text'>Numb</title><content type='html'>So thats it. All done. Its strange in that I don't feel like I thought I would. I mean, theres no joy, no sorow, just ... well nothingness.
When I first got back I had an overwhelming urge to email folks at the old &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com to ensure they enjoyed the leaving lunch and to make sure they stayed in touch; I think I was in a bit of cuture shock - the sudden realisation that the people I have seen practically every working day for the past three years Im not going to see anymore.
So I sent off a few emails and then went into the back garden. The cats were huddled around the new bench (or love-seat as Clare likes to call it) we had delivered today so I huddled up with them and before I knew it I was sound asleep.
I woke only a few moments ago to the sound of one of the cats throwing-up.
As I type this I look out onto what will either be a humid night or a storm in the making; think I should bring my sneak's in from outside.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111720829304636596?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111720829304636596/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111720829304636596' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111720829304636596'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111720829304636596'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/numb.html' title='Numb'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111700496887593947</id><published>2005-05-24T19:05:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-25T07:09:28.876Z</updated><title type='text'>Yeah, we know</title><content type='html'>The role I am vacating was advertised on the internet. The recruitment consultant said for that much experience and for those skillsets the salary should be at least 20% higher than it currently is; tell me something I don't know.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111700496887593947?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111700496887593947/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111700496887593947' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111700496887593947'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111700496887593947'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/yeah-we-know.html' title='Yeah, we know'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111679036933478890</id><published>2005-05-22T19:51:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-22T19:32:49.346Z</updated><title type='text'>Check-in</title><content type='html'>And so another wonderful, productive weekend draws to a close.
In no particular order this weekend was great because
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We completed the front room to such a degree that it finally feels homey and the only thing missing is art for the walls and a cushion or two&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We spent time with the cats&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We watched the &lt;a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335245/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9b258ZmI9dXxwbj0wfHE9bGFkeWtpbGxlcnN8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1"&gt;Ladykillers&lt;/a&gt; (better than I thought)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We had a lovely meal at &lt;a href="http://www.wagamama.com/"&gt;wagamama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The house is nice and tidy&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The weather was glorious at all the right times and stormy when we were safely inside&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
Whilst eating our &lt;a href="http://www.wagamama.com/"&gt;japenese meal&lt;/a&gt; we decided that now is a good time to actually start concentrating on loosing weight. In a fit of the moment I decided to loose 14 pounds by the time &lt;a href="http://www2.warnerbros.com/batmanbegins/index.html"&gt;Batman&lt;/a&gt; hits our screens in the UK; June 24th. Its a lot to ask but Im determined to finally shed some pounds and make better use of my &lt;a href="http://www.totalfitness.org/home.htm"&gt;gym&lt;/a&gt; membership. So I've setup a sideblog to track my progress towards the attainment of the &lt;a href="http://batbody.blogspot.com/"&gt;BATBODY&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111679036933478890?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111679036933478890/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111679036933478890' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111679036933478890'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111679036933478890'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/check-in.html' title='Check-in'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111643894495219757</id><published>2005-05-18T18:33:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-18T17:55:44.963Z</updated><title type='text'>Humbridge</title><content type='html'>On my way out of the office tonight I stopped by the desk of my 'equivalent' for the travel team; I head up the insure team. He'd started his &lt;acronym title="Introductory Level Management"&gt;ILM&lt;/acronym&gt; course today. This was the training they'd been promising for months &amp; months. The training I never thought Id see and, ironically, the training I never will; at least, not at this place. So we talk a little and then he makes an off-the-cuff remark that festers with me until I get in my car for the drive home
&lt;blockquote&gt;I've been trying to drum up interest for your role on my team but you've put everyone off it&lt;/blockquote&gt;
Bullshit! (I exclaim whilst gripping the steering wheel a little too tightly)
If anyone has been put off the role its because the role itself is rubbish. Had someone have told me, like I tell whoever asks me nowadays, that you will not get a chance to develop code, you will not be given training for the role, you will be poorly paid (considering you manage seven developers), you will manage a team of developers responsible for very little actual &lt;em&gt;new&lt;/em&gt; development and the commercial and administrative pressure is immense; I would have thought twice about excepting it aswell.
I look over occaisonally at the Analyst Programmers on a splinter team of my overall team (did I mention the hierarchy was a little messed up?) and think of where Id be had I have taken that role instead? Developing new and exciting code all day. Very little Commercial pressure. Very little administration. But thats something which I can move on from in time (read nine days).
So have I put people off of the role? I don't think so. Im simply telling the truth. Besides which, he (mr.equivalent) can hardly talk. If anyone has been shouting from the roof-tops about how dissatisfied and unfullfilled they are its him ... anyway ... Im clearly still not quite over it so Im going to recouperate over a vege tikka massala.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111643894495219757?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111643894495219757/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111643894495219757' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111643894495219757'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111643894495219757'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/humbridge.html' title='Humbridge'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111630963542648525</id><published>2005-05-17T06:40:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-17T06:00:35.433Z</updated><title type='text'>Back</title><content type='html'>A little over two hours ago, with a yelp and a meow, Badger walked back into our lives. At 4:34am Clare and I were awoken by the sudden flurry of activity as a stampede of cats came rushing up the stairs. A loud "Meow" and a flash of black and white furr
&lt;blockquote&gt;It's the boy!&lt;/blockquote&gt;
I exclaimed. It was the most heroic three words that have ever been said in such a sleep-induced state.
Smelling a little funny and clearly not having eaten for 48 hours we watched him gorge on &lt;a href="http://www.iams.co.uk"&gt;Iams biscuits&lt;/a&gt; before he later joined us on the bed for a well earned cat-nap; I stroked him for what seemed like an hour.
I then decided the only responsible thing to do, as well as emaling the RSPCA and council, was to walk 'round to all the LOST CAT posters and amend them to let the interested people of Wallasy/New Brighton know that may boy had returned.
So now that happiness and a sense of calm has returned to the household Im going to make some changes.
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increase the &lt;a href="http://www.animalfriends.org.uk/"&gt;cat's insurance policy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increase my own insurance policy to include redundancy pay&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Actually set-up that standing order to &lt;a href="http://www.wateraid.org.uk/"&gt;WaterAid&lt;/a&gt; (like I promised to last year)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Stop investing so much in my &lt;em&gt;pension fund&lt;/em&gt; and start using it to save for items for the house, items for Clare, items for the cats ...&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;With regards to the above, stop wasting so much money on &lt;a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk"&gt;eBay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
Some would say that Insurance is a bet that something &lt;em&gt;bad&lt;/em&gt; will happen to you. From now on I've decided to consider it more as a back-up &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; something bad happen to me, because if the past 48 hours have taught me anything, its that bad things &lt;em&gt;don't&lt;/em&gt; just happen to &lt;em&gt;other people&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111630963542648525?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111630963542648525/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111630963542648525' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111630963542648525'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111630963542648525'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/back.html' title='Back'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111625729675358368</id><published>2005-05-16T16:21:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-16T15:28:16.756Z</updated><title type='text'>Badger</title><content type='html'>My beautiful baby boy, Badger the cat, has gone missing.
My heart breaks a little more each passing second.
I called in sick today and explored the neighbourhood three times over the course of several hours, hoping to spot him. I've handed out flyers and stuck up posters; these have already generated three possible leads but I've yet to see sight of my boy.
I've just finished emailing some mug-shots of the handsome devil to the &lt;a href="http://www.wirral.gov.uk/wirraldogs/lostpetsview.asp"&gt;council&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="www.rspcawirral.org.uk/"&gt;RSPCA&lt;/a&gt; so that he can appear on their websites.
Each time I look into his pale green eyes my pale blue eyes well with tears and sadness swells inside me.
I must be strong for Clare and Boo. I keep myself busy by painting two walls of the front-room in &lt;em&gt;Walnut&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111625729675358368?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111625729675358368/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111625729675358368' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111625729675358368'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111625729675358368'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/badger.html' title='Badger'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111615366857233426</id><published>2005-05-15T11:33:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-15T10:41:08.576Z</updated><title type='text'>Yawn</title><content type='html'>Having enjoyed some fantastic weather yesterday todays taks include looking 'round some newly developed houses so as to get a better idea on how to decorate ours, actually putting some colour on the walls of our front-room (it's a bit of a beige box at the moment) and thinking about what we can do in terms of decoration/modernisation of the kitchen.
For some reason Im feeling a bit down at the moment. I think it might be business worries. Not worries about the new job, but worries about the side-line Im thinking of starting. More details when I can be bothered. Damn lackadaisical attitude.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111615366857233426?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111615366857233426/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111615366857233426' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111615366857233426'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111615366857233426'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/yawn.html' title='Yawn'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111600638581343220</id><published>2005-05-13T18:26:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-13T17:49:15.730Z</updated><title type='text'>True to form</title><content type='html'>Zoiks! What a day.
Two more people resigned today from the team; one for professional reasons, one for personal reasons. Developers are dropping like flies.
Im starting to feel a small bit guilty for all this. Im not really too sure why, they would have left with or without my presence, I guess its just because they were both from my team and so feel I should take &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; responsibility. But then I start think that I'd be stupid to accept &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; responsibility. If the company treats its staff badly (reneges on promised bonuses, reneges on promised training, actively creates a blame culture, fails to stamp out witch-hunts, generates huge profits but doesn't share the wealth in annual bonusses or salaries) then this is &lt;em&gt;bound&lt;/em&gt; to happen. Even if the staff &lt;em&gt;feel&lt;/em&gt; as though they are being treated badly ... its a recipe for disaster.
So anyway, the team is now 20% lighter (or at least it will be in one months time) and Im trying to stay positive about my new job; Im still getting "that'll be a nightmare commute" comments from almost everyone I tell. I've now adopted a policy of "Blah, blah ... this is my new job ... blah, blah ... I know it'll be a bad commute but at least its experience ..."
In a week or so's time I may just resort to "... bad commute you say, Fuck you!"&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111600638581343220?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111600638581343220/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111600638581343220' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111600638581343220'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111600638581343220'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/true-to-form.html' title='True to form'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111584170239548101</id><published>2005-05-11T20:49:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-11T20:07:13.303Z</updated><title type='text'>Tag Clouds</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0505a.shtml"&gt;Jefferey&lt;/a&gt; doesn't like them but Im intrigued by them. I actually find them quite nice to use. What intrigues me more, however, is how to create them. Half way through &lt;a href="http://skazat.com/justin/currents.cgi/2005/4/20-red_clouds.html"&gt;this walk-through&lt;/a&gt; the logic clicks and all is clear:
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Count up all the words&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;the (10) big (15) cat (20)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Find the smallest amount and subtract from the others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;the (0) big (5) cat (10)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Add each of these figures to a 100% font size&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;the (100%) big (105%) cat (110%)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Set these, via CSS, in &amp;lt;span/&amp;gt; tags&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Badda-bing; Tag Clouds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
At least I think thats how it will work. Ill need to toy around with a &lt;a href="http://www.movabletype.org"&gt;Movable Type&lt;/a&gt; template first.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111584170239548101?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111584170239548101/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111584170239548101' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111584170239548101'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111584170239548101'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/tag-clouds.html' title='Tag Clouds'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111583992032523301</id><published>2005-05-11T20:09:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-11T19:32:00.340Z</updated><title type='text'>Star Wars Episode 3</title><content type='html'>The first two films stank. The &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt; part of either film I truly enjoyed was that of the lightsaber battle with Darth Maul in Ep.1; everything else was boring pap (&lt;a href="http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/features/special/starwarsepisode3/9/review.asp"&gt;George&lt;/a&gt; even admits as much). So the news that Episode three was everything that Id longed for in the first two (according to &lt;a href="http://viewaskew.com/news/sith/"&gt;Kevin Smith&lt;/a&gt; at least) was welcomed but I was still dubious. Then, the present &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com announced that it would treat all staff to a free viewing of Ep.3 (with buffet thrown in) on the 26th. A free buffet. A free cinema viewing to a film I almost have to see (having committed to watching five of the six). Cinema within walking distance of a few beer-selling restaurants. Outing planned on the night of my penultimate day.
How could I refuse?
The irony is that Im now actually looking forward to it which means that Ill hate the film and my prophecy of wasting another 2 hours of my life will come true. Still. Free buffet.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111583992032523301?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111583992032523301/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111583992032523301' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111583992032523301'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111583992032523301'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/star-wars-episode-3.html' title='Star Wars Episode 3'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111584008200077228</id><published>2005-05-11T19:32:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-11T19:34:42.003Z</updated><title type='text'>Whats on the box</title><content type='html'>This appears to be a cool TV guide service; Until I stump up the cash for a &lt;a href="http://www.tivo.com"&gt;TIVO&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.onthebox.com"&gt;onthebox.com&lt;/a&gt; will serve my needs nicely.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111584008200077228?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111584008200077228/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111584008200077228' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111584008200077228'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111584008200077228'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/whats-on-box.html' title='Whats on the box'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111584047242117433</id><published>2005-05-11T19:01:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-11T20:11:20.200Z</updated><title type='text'>Holy Smokes, Lois</title><content type='html'>I've just spotted a former school friend on the box in a docu-soap no less. Lois (I forget her last name) is 'the new employee' in the solicitors firm featured in the &lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4512925.stm"&gt;BBC's No Win No Fee&lt;/a&gt;. Her boss is a prick and she was late on her first day due to ".. the Manchester traffic .." I hope that isn't a tale of things to come for me.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111584047242117433?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111584047242117433/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111584047242117433' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111584047242117433'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111584047242117433'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/holy-smokes-lois.html' title='Holy Smokes, Lois'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111566720869543530</id><published>2005-05-09T20:25:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-09T19:33:28.716Z</updated><title type='text'>Just as I planned</title><content type='html'>I phoned my new boss, as instructed, and it turns out he had some good news for me - he wants me to start one day later than planned! This now means that I've got a four and a half day holiday from old &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com before starting with the new &lt;em&gt;dot&lt;/em&gt;com; how cool is that?!
Whenever folks leave my current employer I always ask them if they are planning on taking a short break before starting their new jobs and then, nine times out of ten, ridicule them for not scheduling their time better; looks like I now get to practice what I preach.
Im writing this from Clare's &lt;a href="http://www.apple.com/ibook/"&gt;iBook&lt;/a&gt;. Its actaully pretty cool as it gives me the opportunity to browse the net and feel more a part of our lounge-based social scene. Clare, Badger &amp; Boo my get to see more of me from now on - with laptop on knee or course.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111566720869543530?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111566720869543530/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111566720869543530' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111566720869543530'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111566720869543530'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/just-as-i-planned.html' title='Just as I planned'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12398372.post-111564803115038457</id><published>2005-05-09T15:10:00.000Z</published><updated>2005-05-09T14:13:51.156Z</updated><title type='text'>Daddy wants a superDrive</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZchris.houghQQhtZ-1"&gt;Pimp my goods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12398372-111564803115038457?l=metaparty.blogspot.com'/&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/feeds/111564803115038457/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12398372&amp;postID=111564803115038457' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111564803115038457'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12398372/posts/default/111564803115038457'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://metaparty.blogspot.com/2005/05/daddy-wants-superdrive.html' title='Daddy wants a superDrive'/><author><name>misterchris.</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/07978922723914504284</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='01189701808357983115'/></author><thr:total xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'>0</thr:total></entry></feed>