Quite a number of years ago now I was once asked to be one of two judges for a children’s story competition. Kids from all around the state (though it might have been all of Australia actually?) submitted the text and illustrations for an original story that I then had to pick a winner and a runner up from. I think in the end there were three or four hundred entries to get through. Some of them weren’t that good I’d have to say, and I figured that the kids had probably been set a class project and some of them weren’t really into it at all. Thankfully most of them were though and there were about half a dozen or so that were truly inspired!

The judging took a long time and I was actually quite surprised by that, I recall. Mainly because I had to really apply myself to the whole thought process of it due to the fact that some of the stories were well beyond their years…..and I don’t mean in a “mommy and daddy helped me out with this one” kinda way! No, they were particularly easy to spot and weed out! These stories were obviously done by kids but they just had that something extra! Something which, I felt, I really needed to apply myself when it came to analyzing every step and process along the way. I mean this was a kids competition after all, but I found myself having to analyze thoroughly and justify every decision that I made…..and I just would never have expected having to do that at all.

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Oh no! The telemarketer from hell is back again and annoying me constantly. This woman just won’t take NO for an answer! I think I’m gonna have to resort to SCREAMING AT HER and hanging up the phone almost immediately! I have to say that in times like this it sucks that I was brought up to be so polite and patient with people!

I first mentioned her in this post a couple of weeks ago – though back then I thought it was basically the end of the matter. Not so my friends! I’ve since had one call from her – in which I repeated that I was not interested in coupling my cell phone account to my Internet account because I was happy with the way things were – and told her that I was busy so I had to hang up (which I did).

A couple of days later she calls back again and tells me that I seemed “interesting”? Well, thanks for that….but where the hell did THAT come from? I asked her to please repeat what she just said so I could be sure that I heard her right. I DID hear her right but, it turns out, she meant INTERESTED, not INTERESTING!

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When I first started this blog not all that long ago I had to decide on a short little “catch cry” to describe what people might expect when reading it – just a descriptive passage that I could then transpose wherever I saw fit. I quickly came up with “The musings, mutterings and everyday meanderings of author, artist, craftsman, musician and webmaster, Cameron Miller.” It was apt and basically said who I was and a few of the things I’ve done so far in my life.

I realize now that I should have given things a little more thought – if only because the word “musings” is an oft said one in the realm of weblogs!

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I’ve had a bit of an epiphany.

I’ve just realized that I’ve been totally disregarding a section of the general public that may, from time to time, have a need to look up my name for say……A SCHOOL PROJECT! I have to admit that I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake here and completely forgot about just who my potential audience may be. Yes, I’ve neglected the kiddies and may have a potential Dooce-like situation brewing? Not that I’m actually in a position to be fired from my job, per se’, but it could damage my reputation as a children’s author and even affect sales. Of course I could just say “Hey, get a life!” – after all Madonna sells books without any problems……..but then I’m not exactly Madonna now, am I?

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OK, now what’s with this?

Tell me that this is “planned” and that not everyone gets this banner as an option when they finish the Blog Survey at MIT? Tell me that the ONLY reason I have it is that the program they use to check out the site picks up certain keywords (such as your name) when it does it’s business, and then makes up a banner in your honor? Tell me that others get their own name as a banner option when they do the survey? I mean that would make perfect sense, yeah? If you check the code out it actually says “http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/images/survey-cameron.gif“.

And if not – who the hell IS Cameron and why does he, or she, need to be freed?

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What’s the story with Technorati lately? Or should I say more specifically My Technorati?? Now I know they’ve been re-vamping the site over there in Technorati land – and it’s looking pretty good I have to add! What first clued me in that they were doing that? Well OK…..My Technorati link down towards the bottom of the right hand side went from a small graphic to one about eight times bigger, before morphing once again into a completely new graphic about four times bigger than the original. I also gained a secondary link “Blogs that link here” and a smallish graphic “snapshot” of my own blog. Erm……why?? Why would I need a snapshot of the blog that I’m ALREADY LOOKING AT ANYWAY????

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A close friend of mine told me recently “It’s cool checking out your blog every so often, cause if I think you’re talking crap or rambling on a bit too much I can choose not to read it – as opposed to a phone call where I have to listen to everything you say in a linear kinda way”. After my initial shock of being told I talk crap – then realizing 1.5 seconds later that I actually do talk crap sometimes…..and I do tend to ramble on (like I am now) – I basically saw the merit in what my friend was saying.

It’s true! When you check out blogs you can “chop and change” what you want to read. You can choose to read some things and choose not to read others. I know that when I’m surfing blogs sometimes certain topics don’t hold that much interest for me, while others are deeply interesting. I don’t just mean the “random” blogs I come across here, but blogs I go to daily. I will usually read everything on my daily list, but some things I re-read over again because I have a particular interest in what the blogger is saying, while other entries I’ll just glance over and “get” the general drift of them.

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For some reason I’ve developed some very strange eating habits lately. The habits are good – for the most part anyhow. They’re just strange!

For instance, unless I’m at my parents I don’t think I’ve had a “proper” meal since Amy’s been gone? By this I mean something that’s fully prepared and served up – although, now I think about it, tuna casserole would be the one type of meal that is fully prepared beforehand. For the most part though I’ve had half-assed meals cooked or prepared sporadically.

Most of what I’m eating is vegetables – carrots, sprouts, broccoli etc. – and raw at that. I just prefer some raw vegetables to cooked ones. I found out a couple of years ago that I was apparently one of the “one in eight people” who can really taste the absolute bitterness of Brussels sprouts? Until then I just thought that they tasted crap to everyone but apparently they don’t? Most people can’t even taste the bitterness at all? I love them raw, but cooked….eccchhh! Something my mum has been doing lately with me is to leave the sprouts uncooked and put them on my plate with the rest of my meal or, sometimes, on a side dish. One thing I also discovered about them (just the other week in fact) is that if you eat one and then take a swig of Coke, or Pepsi, it starts burning your damn mouth out for some reason? Well it does for me anyhow. I am a little weird after all! I mean I’m the guy who eats raw lemons until my tongue and mouth bleeds (cause it hurts like hell after that). Then again I haven’t really done that for a couple of years.

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I must have been walking through the mall today with a huge “Talk to me. I’ll be your friend” sign emblazoned on my forehead? For some bizarre reason I had three people – all women of later years – basically start whole “relationships” with me and I can’t for the life of me work out why? In each instance it was like no-one had listened to them in decades and they just felt they could “unload” everything on me? Not that I really minded – after all I was doing sweet nothing anyway. I just found it odd. Is there some great need all of a sudden for people to reach out to others? Were these old biddies always like this and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time (or wrong place at the wrong time depending on your stance), or could they spot something in my face which I wasn’t consciously transmitting? Who knows?

The first lady who bailed me up was in the post office. I’d just paid my car registration and was checking out some of the printers and scanners they had for sale when a woman sidles up to me, kinda hermit crab like, and starts talking about how great Windows XP is and how she swaps knitting patterns on the Internet. Erm, BIG DEAL!!!

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OK, I think there was something in the ether’s yesterday as I’m feeling much better today. Not 100%, but a lot better than I was. I threw myself into some site coding/updating/rejuvenating today and that seemed to do the trick. Thinking about other things definitely helps! Playing with pups helps too – though it rained a lot today and there was much of that “wet puppy” smell in the air! Still, there was plenty of loud barking (I join in too sometimes and that really gets both dogs going) and crunchy puppy treats to be had. It’s funny how most of the pasta I buy is for the dogs. For instance I bought six packets last week, of which I’ll probably only have one….maybe two. The rest is for the dogs and they do love it. Hell, it’s gotta be one of the cheapest treats too!

Apart from the website stuff I haven’t actually been that productive today, though I have been reading a lot – both online and off. I’ve been invited to “guest blog” for The Smirk which I’m really looking forward to. It’s not for another month but at least that’ll give me enough time (hopefully) to actually think about something to write. There’s been some pretty impressive guest posts already so I’m more than a little nervous!

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