However, thanks to OpenDNS I have one less sucky thing to deal with. Somebody told me about this service when the whole Karoo / ask.com debacle first came to light, but I’ve only just gotten around to signing up for it. No more ask.com for me!

It’s already proved how much better it is. I’ve just moved a domain name from one host to another – generally the switch takes at least several hours but as soon as I switched to OpenDNS the domain appeared at the new host. I know this because checking it on a machine that I haven’t yet switched to OpenDNS still shows the domain at the old host, even more than an hour after the change.

There are other useful things about OpenDNS too. You get a nifty control panel which allows you to blacklist sites either by a domain or by blocking whole categories, which is a nice feature for parents. You can also turn on logs which gathers stats about everything you do on the internet, add domains to a whitelist, create shortcuts and probably other things that I haven’t looked into yet. There’s a full list of features here.

On the whole, it seems really good. I’ll keep using it on a per machine basis for a while before switching via the router, just to be sure nothing bad happens like the internet exploding on me or something. :)

At the beginning of this year I took an extended break from my regular online activities (including Jaiku, a rarity for me!). I went over a month without checking RSS feeds, micro-blogging, checking Facebook etc. It really did me a favour too, gave me time to step back and take stock a little. Anyone who knows me will realise how much of a ‘web 2.0′ addict I’ve become, and while I still find those things fun I’ve slowed down a lot.

There are changes coming in my life – my daughter will be 15 this year which means that being a full time mother isn’t quite so full time as it was these days. By that I mean in the sense of she is relying on me less and less. Which also means that soon she’ll be pretty much gone altogether, before I know it she’ll be packing herself off to uni, and I need to prepare for that and have something constructive to do with my time. Preferably involving money! Not that I’m expecting or even wanting to earn fortunes, but I need something. I have two choices in mind and I can’t quite decide between them, one of which is going to depend a lot on personal circumstances as it will take some initial capital to get up and running. At this moment in time said capital is nowhere on the horizon, but things may change in the next 6 months or so.

The other big change is a house move. Not a move we’re making by choice but rather one that finances have forced us into it. Carl has struggled to get work at the start of this year and it’s really effected our finances. Unfortunately the world of contracting can sometimes be a gamble, and this time we lost. However, the move will also mean a fresh start and the release of one hell of a lot of stress for both of us, so now that I’ve resigned myself to it I’m actually kind of looking forward to moving. New house, new beginning. Of course that also means that I’ll be really busy over the next month or two packing, then unpacking, then probably decorating and getting settled in.

So, those are the major things. Mostly anyway, there is one other, but I’ll save that for the next post. Wouldn’t want to bore you all too much with the details of my life, I might scare away the few people who still actually come here in the hope of seeing a new post. :)

On a lighter note, I have plans for at least one other blog in a specific area, possibly two. Yeah, I know my blogging hasn’t been that regular here, but that’s mostly because it’s a personal blog and really, my life isn’t that exciting! So I thought a blog with a more concentrated subject area will make me focus more. That’s the theory anyway, we’ll have to see how it goes in practice. I’ll announce here when it’s up and running, though it might be a while yet as I’m trying out various bits of software to see which suits the most (i.e. I’m having fun playing with new toys!).

If you’ve read this, thanks for reading! And if you’ve been here before and are wondering where I spend most of my online time these days, you might want to check my Jaiku profile. I’m addicted to the place, and have made some wonderful friends there (the community is fantastic, there’s far more interaction than I’ve found on Twitter). If you want to get in on the Jaiku action, you could always request an invite from Jaiku Invites – since Google bought Jaiku out it’s been in closed beta as is the way of all things Google.

And that, as they say, is all about it. For now at least.

What have I been busy with? A number of things really. My personal life has had a few ups and downs over the past couple of months, which has left me a little stressed out. But it’s not all bad – on the 8 July I’ll finally be realising an ambition that I’ve had for a couple of years now, I’m doing a one day course (along with lots of ‘homework’) to get my first degree Reiki certificate. I realise a lot of you don’t even know what that is (go here for more info if you want to find out), and those who do often give me a sidelong glance as if to say I’m nuts – but hey, I’ve been used to that all my life and I no longer care! Suffice to say it’s made a huge difference to my life, and I’m really excited to be finally completing the first stage.

I’ve also been attempting to learn Ruby on Rails, though I’ve gotten sidetracked a little with that. It’s been great fun so far, and even though I’m nowhere near having a clue what I’m doing yet I’m determined to persevere. I doubt I’ll get to a professional level with it but I love learning new stuff, especially new geek stuff. Though if by some miracle I did become a RoR expert I wouldn’t object to being paid to do it of course.

I haven’t been completely inactive around the web though, I’ve just been using different mediums. My latest obsession is Facebook, and since they brought out their applications platform I can say for definite I’m not alone. If you’re also on there feel free to add me as a friend. Just do a search for Jackie Plage, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person with that name on Facebook. Twitter posts from me also appear semi-frequently, though in the last few days I’ve been exploring – and loving – Jaiku. There’s probably a post about the differences stored up in the depths of my mind somewhere which I may do in the next few days. Despite outward appearances, they’re actually very different.

I’ve been neglecting my blog I know, but I’m not going to promise it’ll get any better in the near future. I’m having far too much fun doing other things right now. :)

Widgets

You can now use last.fm widgets on your blog / website. The widget choices we have are recently played / top artists etc., a quilt made up of the covers from your most listened to albums, a playlist player and a radio player. You also get four colour choices – last.fm red (which looks pink to me), black, blue or light grey. You can see the ‘recent tracks’ and playlist widgets in action on my sidebar. I was thinking of adding the album quilt too, but decided that might be slight overkill.

Playlists

Playlists themselves have been around for a while, but whereas previously they only played snippets of a song, they now play the full length tracks (providing they’re available in the last.fm catalogue). Using the aforementioned widget, that means you can easily share your taste in music with your site visitors. The only ‘catch’ is that your list will play in shuffle mode – this is presumably to get around licensing restrictions.

Charts display

It’s now possible to select different periods of time for the charts that show on your profile page. You can choose between your overall charts (as it’s always been) or 3, 6, or 12 month rolling charts. We’re also told that more customisation is on the way.

You can view the official announcement here.

I’m referring to my new domain name zensbits.com where you will find my tumbleblog / tumblelog / whatever you want to call it, which is hosted by Tumblr.

Tumblr is a strange thing. Essentially it’s a blog without comments. I have wondered myself what the point of that really is when I already have a blog, but I’ve become kind of addicted to the simplicity of it all. Tumblr has a great little bookmarklet through which you can automatically embed video, images and quotes. For lazy people like me, it’s ideal. So I’ve gone from wondering what the point is, to being amazed at the simplicity of it all, and then to question if I really need another place to post stuff, and finally to thinking sod it and becoming wholly addicted to hitting that little ‘share on Tumblr’ button. I’m also routing my shared items from google reader through it, so that saves having yet another feed for people to track, and it keeps my links of interest (well, of interest to me at least, I don’t know about you) all in one place.

Anyway, the point being, I decided that my little tumbleblog was here to stay, and so I got a brand spanking new domain name for it.

Update

I’ve also set up a music tumblelog at music.zensbits.com

The picture itself isn’t what prompted this post though, it’s the comments that follow it. Apparently, the mere mention of ‘jesus’ and ‘dogs butt’ in the same sentence is enough to bring out a whole coach load of what I can only describe as christian nutjobs. A few sample comments are below.

Quote 1:

That picture makes me sick! Jesus died for your sins and your saying He resembles a dogs butt! I feel like throwing up but whoever posted that I just want you to know that I’ll be praying for you and He will love you no matter what you’ve done. Thats why He died such a brutal death. For your sins. Please have that taken off the web though. I’d appreciate it sooo much. Thanks

Quote 2:

I dont know what your see there but jesus cannot and i mean cannot be on a dogs but your a sick person. ill be praying for you.

Quote 3:

i am sick to the bone about this picture. i will praye and praye for you. i hope you dont go to hell for this even though you most likely will because your an idiot. you should be so lucky to have someone in your life lovee you like Jesus does. all i can say is repent your sins. as far as i’m concerned you are both the devil and judas them selfs.

I realise that not all christians are such idiots, and there are some more reasoned comments from those with more intelligence on that post. But what is it with these fanatics? Do they really lack that much intelligence? I have absolutely nothing against faith, but blind faith and plain idiocy is something else entirely.

Also, I’m pretty sure that jesus wouldn’t really give a damn if he was able to be seen on a dogs arse or not.

This is where iStalkr comes in. iStalkr collects your feeds from all around the net and puts them into one handy page, which in turn has a feed that others can follow (although the feed links back to the entry on iStalkr as opposed to the original source). In addition, you can have your very own ‘Stalkrs’, and you can also ‘stalk’ other people. The huge advantage to this is that much like twitter’s friends page you can see both your own and your ‘targets’ (friends) activities all in one page.

The interface itself is very slick and has a high level of useability. Each item gathered from your feeds appears as a headline, so it’s easy to see all the content at a glance. Next to each item is a drop down button, clicking on this will reveal the full entry. This makes it very easy to go straight to the content that you’re really interested in.

I’m not sure when it launched exactly (seems like only a few months ago), but it’s pretty new and in beta stage. Consequently there will be a few bugs, perfection can’t be expected just yet. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit it but I managed to somehow bring the whole site down yesterday! Possibly something to do with removing my last.fm feed. The lead developer, Dan, seemed happy that I’d helped discover a bug, but I’m still feeling slightly shamefaced for breaking his beloved site. I must add, the site was brought back to life quickly enough though.

All in all, I’m really loving iStalkr. It has a great interface, supports openID login, and is a great way to keep up with friends and make some new ones too. The team also seem very open to user contributed feature suggestions, which is always a good thing. It’s early days, but it’s already showing a lot of promise. If you’d like to stalk me, you can do so here!

I’m not really sure what came over me. I’ve spent weeks wondering what on earth all the fuss was about, thinking it was probably just the latest “web 2.0″ trend and it’ll likely disappear if I ignore it for long enough. Then I had a mad moment and thought I’d try it out. I’ve been hooked ever since.

It’s turned into something of an addiction. I now have twitters coming through my browser, my IM client, through Twitterific, and even my mobile phone. It has a strange addictive quality that’s not easily explained, one of those ‘you have to try to understand it’ kind of things. I do see now why it’s so popular. For a start, it’s a great tool to keep in touch with friends. You can keep track of what they’re up to, and join in the conversation at any point (or not). I’ve also found it good for discovering new geek toys – whenever somebody posts a link to something that sounds interesting I’ll go investigate.

All in all, I can now see me being a Twit for quite some time to come. And I don’t care who knows it either!

Should you be interested, here’s my Twitter profile.