Michael Harling's Blog, page 13

I’m Calling It A Draw

Bagpipes: 1 Human: 1

Burns Night came. And went. And somewhere in there, I piped the microwaved haggis (meat and vegetarian) in to the tune of A Man’s a Man for A’ That, while my wife read Address to a Haggis, both works by Robbie Burns. I put a great deal of practice into that performance but, alas, you wouldn’t know it.

The best thing I can say about my piping is that I was the best bagpipe player in the room. Consequently, everyone thought it was great, whereas I knew better.

This is...

Looking Back, Then Back Some More

I read an amazing thing on Facebook the other day, which is an amazing thing in itself:

From where we sit now, in 2022, 1970 is 52 years in the past. If you go back another 52 years, you will hit 1918.

That is somewhat jolting, especially for us folks who remember 1970 and recall it as more or less civilized. I mean, we had an electric can opener and everything.

The rest of the population can only look upon that fact as a theoretical oddity. To my own children (now, of course, no longer...

You Get What You Pay For

As loyal readers will know, this blog recently moved from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Now, before I go into my rant, I’d like to point out that I am relatively happy with the move, and it did save me hundreds of £££, which was the point.

But, as the saying (and this blog title) goes, you get what you pay for.

WordPress.com / WordPress.org — know the difference.

It seems ironic that I made the more drastic move from Blogger to WordPress.com because FeedBurner—for my convenience—sudde...

You Get What You Pay For

As loyal readers will know, this blog recently moved from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. Now, before I go into my rant, I’d like to point out that I am relatively happy with the move, and it did save me hundreds of £££, which was the point.

 

But, as the saying (and this blog title) goes, you get what you pay for.

 

WordPress.com / WordPress.org — know the difference.

It seems ironic that I made the more drastic move from Blogger to WordPress.com because FeedBurner—for my convenience...

Manufacturing Space

In my New Year’s Day post, I advised you to “watch this space.” As a reminder, this was the space I advised you to watch:

As you can see, it is space that is filled. But my wife came up with an ingenious plan that would allow us to manufacture space where none existed: by downsizing a bit (just a bit) we could turn that space (read: I could build something) into an as-needed craft area. Granted, this involved getting rid of a fair number of books, but we felt we were up to the challenge.

...

Happy Anniversary to Me

Twenty years ago today, I posted the first entry in Postcards From Across the Pond, which makes Postcards one of the oldest continually running blogs on the Internet.

No shit.

And Postcards wasn’t even my first blog.

To get a sense of just how historic I am, Justin Hall started Links.net—widely accepted to be the first ever Web Log—in 1994. My first web post was 26 March 1996, just two years later. I don’t know what Justin is doing these days, but I’m still at it. Granted, that merely m...

Out With the Old

Wow. 2021. WTF happened there? Bit of a shit-show, wasn’t it?

Well, Happy 2022. Let’s hope the New Year is nothing like the Old One, or its older sister, 2020.

I’ve been spending a good deal of the day off-loading stuff I have collected over the various lockdowns, hobbies that I once thoroughly enjoyed but now—with more freedom and less confinement—just don’t have the time, or ambition, for any longer.

2020 was a Shit Show. 2021 was a Shit Show. Here’s to 2022.

I didn’t do anything u...

Little and Large

It started back in March, when a friend of mine asked if I would play the bagpipes at her Burns Night dinner in 2022. I thought it would be a hoot, so I said I would.

Yeah, I play the bagpipes. Sorta.

I took them up in June 2000, and by the time I moved to Britain in 2002, I was doing fairly well. I even joined a pipe band for a while. It helped me stretch, but it soon became apparent that I was out of my depth. Still, the fact was, I could play a variety of tunes, and I could play for ext...

Moving. Again.

Once again: I am moving. Once again: not physically. Once again: you shouldn’t really notice anything.

It seems only a few months ago that I moved this blog from Blogger to WordPress, and that’s because it was. The 15th of May is when I spent an inordinate amount of time and money moving this blog into WordPress.com to join all my others. I was pleased to have all my blogs under one roof, even though the added hosting and domain parking upped the yearly cost to over £550.

Then, a few weeks...

Milestone

A long-anticipated milestone arrived this past month. It’s sort of an anti-milestone, but in my view, it is significant: the month of November 2021 was the first month I have not sold a book in 14 years.

I hasten to assure you this is not a complaint. If anything, I am humbled and totally gob-smacked that people have continued to buy a book first published in 2008 containing essays that were, even then, ancient history. Even the most recent of the Postcards books is currently ten years old. T...