Keeping The Lights On

I just spent a few minutes reading my previous anniversary posts, only to realise that I had already said most things that were relevant to the current state of my blog. On the bright side, at least that means I'm stable, rather than in decline.

As RSS dies out and FB becomes the entry point to the Internet for most people, I do often wonder how long exactly I will be writing here. Of course there's not really much effort required in keeping it trickling on, but the fact that I'm actually writing this on the 26th says a lot.

There is of course some vindication here - the volume of writing here went down well before readership, which backs up something I've always maintained about how I write for myself first and foremost. That said, it is nice when a friend who I haven't seen for ages tells me in person that they agreed with a restaurant review of mine I wrote. It's nice to relevant, no matter how rare that is.

And of course there's the big 10 year anniversary post next year. I definitely couldn't leave without writing that. Till then, I guess, and thanks for reading!

Film: Chennai Express

Even though it seriously pains me to admit it, there was only one reason I really even considered watching this film. And yes, in that respect it certainly paid off, but the added bonus is that I had already managed my own expectations before sitting down. And as such I'm not even that upset that it sucked so bad.

The real shame was that Chennai Express actually started out half decently; in fact it was rather good while the action took place on the train after which the film was named. But then something went seriously wrong, resulting in some seriously stinky WTF moments... one which even involved a small person and another that involved diesel smuggling. Bizarre.

The film was funnier than it really had a right to be, and in my objective and unbiased opinion Deepika did manage to perform pretty well (and I loved her South Indian accent), good enough to validate my opinion of her place in Bollywood anyway.

But still, there's no way I can recommend Chennai Express while keeping my integrity intact. Which is a shame because the potential was definitely there.

Google+ Comments Disabled

I like to think I'm quite technically apt. I also like to think I'm more flexible when it comes to technology too, although I will admit that as I get older I demonstrate more of the whole "if it ain't broke" attitude. But after three or so months with Google+ comments enabled here I've decided to turn them off. I just don't understand how they work.

Firstly, I get no notifications. This one seems to appear a lot on Google searches, so it seems I'm not the only one with the issue (or misunderstanding of how they work). The bottom line is that I don't get any; and this has caused miscommunication between my friends and me at least twice now. It's pretty unforgivable, and more so if it's by design.

There is also no way to list all comments by time like you could with The Old Way, and users need a Google account to leave comments - which means no nicknames or anonymity. No moderation isn't really a big deal for me, but I have had to remove comments in the past so I guess that is a useful feature to have lost with Google+ too.

So yes pretty dire, and although I'm happy to accept that it's me (any my distaste of "social" features) and not them, I am equally happy to turn them off.

I just checked and it appears that existing Google+ comments are removed when I disable. They come back when I reactivate, but in the meantime for posterity I've gone through all my posts up to the beginning of the year and copied any Google+ comments into the posts themselves - something that was mercifully a small task thanks to the lack of many. If there are any comments that I might have missed which you'd like to still see, let me know and I'll extract them in the same way.

SMBC

Okay this comic isn't actually about female lawyers, but I couldn't resist reposting SMBC's latest:



I won't elaborate further except to say that really, honestly, I love females. And lawyers.