1. Where does this find you? Tell the story of how you got here.

In terms of location, I live in the SE of England, though I?m a Yorkshire lass at heart. I moved south to be with my partner, more years ago than I care to remember.
Work-wise, I?m a post-grad Literature student. I?m not sure what I want to be when I grow up; in the past I?ve been the world?s worst bar-maid, an itinerant fruit-picker, and even had a few proper jobs too

2. Why do you moblog? How do you use the site?

I followed a friend http://moblog.net/Helen/ here, nearly four years ago. My 2000th pic is coming up very soon! I?m a bit of a technophobe, and not remotely artistic, so I?m a bit bemused that I ever mange to post anything at all.
The combination of words AND pictures Moblog offers appeals to me. It?s a way of sharing a slice of my life with family and friends, though my blog title ?Plato?s Cave? reflects the fact that any one image is just one of many possible representations of reality.
Surfing the site is a great displacement activity when I?m supposed to be researching or writing; the diversity and global dimension is particularly stimulating.

3. Your pictures have enormous presence and individuality; why Jane Doe?

I?ve a love/hate relationship with the internet, and have had a range of IDs on various sites over the years. After spending a summer away, I decided to come back incognito. JD has stuck, and I?m happier with her than with any of my other online personae.

4. Give a brief summary of three albums, books or movies that mean a lot to you.

Metamorphoses (Ovid) When I was a kid I was fascinated by myths and legends. This is a real treasure trove of Classical mythology, with even more sex and violence than the Ladybird versions I read as a child : )

Hotel World (Ali Smith) One of the best contemporary writers, I love all of her work. She does amazing things with the English language, and makes serious socio-political observations, but often with a keen sense of humour, and always with a lightness of touch.

?The Bicentennial Man? (Isaac Asimov) I am particularly fond of short stories. When I was a teenager I read stacks of science-fiction, especially John Wyndham, but also Asimov, Clarke, etc. I actually did a science degree first time around, but when I went back for my BA, the first essay I wrote was based on this story (I used it for a discussion of Cartesian dualism.) NB Don?t watch the film version!

5. If you had more free time, what would you do with it?

Where to start? Read more books, watch more films, listen to more music, travel. Spend more time with family and friends. Learn Ancient Greek, Latin, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic. Just how much time more free time would you let me have?

6. If you could change one thing about people, what would it be?

Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby from The Waterbabies made a big impression on me as a kid. It struck me as incredibly obvious that the world would be a better place if people were more considerate, to be frank if they were simply ? to use a much derided word - nice. I?m not a great one for organised religion, but ?Love thy neighbour? strikes me as a pretty good place to start.

7. You have a choice: either take only black and white photos for the rest of your life, or only take photos of plants. Which is it?

I?ll go with plants, as long as I can include landscapes in that definition ? then I could sneak a few figures in too : )

8. What will be the biggest event of the 21st Century?

The present global recession. The short term repercussions are going to be incredibly painful. The one glimmer of hope is that it may lead to a reconsideration of the whole nature of capitalism, growth and consumer society. A simpler, less materialistic lifestyle might be better for the planet as a whole, in the long term.

9. How would you like to be remembered?

I honestly don?t care. However, I?ll leave behind two kids. I hope I?ve given them a good start in life, and that they?ll grow into strong women who make a positive impression on the world.

10. What thing would you most like to do these holidays?

Spend time with my family, which is exactly what I did : )

Posted by Jane Doe

1. Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.

This is me more or less the second the rentals agent was gone from
showing us into our short-lease apartment in Vancouver this summer,
craning my neck out of the window at all those gorgeous glassy
reflections (you know me and reflections). I was hopelessly underslept
and I had that almost-deafness you get from listening to constant
aeroplane engine drone for nearly 10 hours, but I was just so jazzed
to be back in my favourite city ? we spent the first few days having
conversations that mostly boiled down to: "Dude! We're in Vancouver!"
We had three fabulous weeks there, and got married :) I still get
homesick when I think about it.

2. Why do you Moblog? How do you use the site?

I think I got here through
">an online friend; that coincided with my taking a renewed
interest in photography (round about the time that cameraphones became
a thing, funnily enough).

I use the site in the same way as I pursue my other hobbies: I
practice by making lots of mistakes, to get feedback about what works
(and by its absence, what doesn't), and hopefully get better at this
whole photography thing. One of the things that kept me on Moblog,
rather than putting my pictures on, say, Flickr, is the sense of
community here, and the fact that everyone is just so damn nice
em> :)

Lastly, I am just a sucker for the pretty, and this place delivers it,
in spades.

3. Why itchy?

Long story, but it boils down to "my preferred username was
taken" (this on another site, in another online incarnation; I seem to
have had several!). I've met quite a few online friends/acquaintances
at one stage or another and even some of those I now think of as real-
life friends still call me Itchy, so it must work on some level.

4. Give a brief summary of three albums, books or movies that mean
a lot to you.

Sigur R?s: Takk

This album is basically my desert island disk. When I'm happy, it's
uplifting; when I'm sad, it's comforting; when I'm exhausted, it's a
lullaby, and when I'm working, it's perfect background music. I have a
one-hour train commute to work, and there are very few things more
pleasurable than listening to Takk while the sun comes up on
a frozen winter world. Magical.

Lost In Translation

I never get tired of watching this. The cinematography is gorgeous,
the casting perfect, and the dialogue quietly funny and acutely
observed. So many good lines, and that ending ... almost the perfect
movie.

Microserfs, by
Douglas Coupland

This is actually my husband's favourite book (I honestly couldn't say
whether I have one), but I think it's pretty great too. As well as
being dorky and dryly amusing (a bit like my husband, oddly enough),
there's a really sweet aspect to it, and I love the motif of personal
growth and forming a creative team with other like-minded individuals.
Coupland seems to have been publishing variations on the same novel
over and over again for the last decade or two, but this one stands
out for me.

5. Which historical figure would you most like to have been?

Oh, man. That's hard! I'm not crazy about the idea of living in times
past, because I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of modern
advances in dentistry and ophthalmology ? I've enjoyed my share of
both. But okay, let's stick with the question: I'd say someone like
Amelia Earhart, for her spirit of adventure in an era when women were
still supposed to be fragile and decorous, and for her
unapologetically tomboy-like qualities.

6. What is your favourite personal possession and why?

I try quite hard not to get too attached to material things, but I
suppose it would have to be either my big Collins dictionary, which my
mum bought me as a present shortly before I went off to university, or
my violin, also bought by my mum, but when I was rather younger and
just making the transition to a full-size instrument ? it's over 100
years old, and I rather like it, though I don't practice enough. On a
more functional level, I'd have to nominate my G4 PowerBook, to which
I am almost permanently attached. For all my antimaterialistic
aspirations, I will be devastated when it finally gives up the ghost.
We've bonded, you know?

7. If you could be a superhero what powers would you have? How
would you use them?

Well, only for good, obviously ;o)

I'd quite like the ability to show people themselves as they actually
are, rather than how they perceive themselves to be. Often, people
carry around quite negative, judgemental thoughts about themselves,
and I'd like to be able to show them when they are being unduly hard
on themselves. Low self-confidence or self-esteem can be a huge
barrier to success, and I want people to succeed at whatever makes
them happiest.

Of course, powers like that could cut the other way, too: there are
some people out there (though thankfully few) who could really use a
good smack to the head with my reality-stick ;)

(Of course, the more facetious answer to this question is that I'd be
some sort of vigilante who took revenge on all those people who get
off escalators and just stand there. I'm not really sure what
kind of superpower would be most appropriate there: maybe the ability
to give people a clue? ;o)

8. What will be the biggest event of the 21st century?

The moment the internet gets, literally, under our skin, Matrix-style.
Once that happens, everything will have to change. Of course, it's
only going to increase the already-present gap between the haves and
have-nots, which is quite a sobering thought: how do you even get an
interview for a job when all those shortlisted are going to have
implants? Of course, all this might take much longer than the next 92
years ...

9. If tomorrow was your last day on Earth how would spend the day?
And which planet would you go to next?

Hmm. I think I'd go snowboarding in Canada in the morning, have a spot
of lunch in Barcelona, wander through Slovakia's pine-forests in the
afternoon and have dinner and fireworks in Edinburgh. If I thought my
transport was up to it, I'd probably try to sneak in a quick trip to
New Zealand after it got dark here, and squeeze a bit more out of my
day.

As for where to go next: wherever had more gorgeous scenery than
Earth, though that's hard to imagine. Mars might be pretty, albeit
chilly at night. And I'd miss the trees.

10. What will be your epitaph?

While I'd like for it to be something deeply profound, I suspect the
reality will be closer to "Ate too many cookies, then ran around a lot."

Posted by itchymoblog

1. Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.

well I was born here and was fortunate enough to be brought up here amongst the sea, streams and standing stones. later my family moved here, splintered off to here and finally ended up here. when I left home I went here then here then spent a glorious five years here. a job opportunity led me back up here, where I now live. I feel a mild sense of alienation from all of these places, and a vague feeling of patriotism to at least one of them. mark all the points on a map then join them up and they make the sign of a skewed, inverted pentogram or something.

2. Why do you Moblog? How do you use the site?

I was introduced to the website by someone years ago. I used it aimlessly at first, taking pictures of little things that interested me. then one evening I was bored and frustrated so I decided to put together a fifty part series (plus prologue) to express just how I felt. I realised after that that a moblog is a powerful tool that can be bent and moulded to your own meaning. it can be used to express anything from personal battleaxes to sincere sentiments. then I got kind of bored of the website for a while and took two and a half years out before coming back to document personal stories, fabulous things I've seen and monkeys. my moblog is neither a record of my life nor an exhaustive catalogue of my personal interests, it's merely an occasional creative outlet for minor fascinations.

3. Why billion?

I think it comes from a fascination with how numbers look in their written form. certain numbers when expressed with letters, like fifty one, thirteen and five four nine look beautiful on the written page. billion is one of those special numbers in that it is numerically very large - 1,000,000,000 - but can be represented with just seven letters, or sometimes two (bn) or sometimes one (b). it's similar to the way you can refer to yourself with a single letter ("I") when really you are referring to many, many much larger things - your thoughts, feelings, personality, physical presence and all of what those things entail. I deliberately don't put a capital letter at the start of "billion" to emphasise how simple the word is when related to what it represents. not a big fan of capitalisation. I tend not to think of billion as a big number like 1,000,000,000 but rather think of it as 7 (bil + lio + n = 3 + 3 + 1 = 7).

this must all sound a little weird.

4. What wish is, as of yet, unfulfilled?

learn to play drums...visit every continent... become a father... kiss the blarney stone... convert to buddhism... master the game of chess... freejump off ayers rock... spend time with eddie izzard... convert to sikhism... build my own boat... rid myself of stupidity... impress friends with card tricks... discover a new particle... laugh in the face of adversity... convert to judaism... fix that crack in the bathroom... become an expert on wine... direct my own feature length film... cook excellently... swing from trees... lift the stone of destiny... convert to atheism. when I think of the number of wishes I haven't yet fulfilled versus the ones that I already have, I feel as if I have my whole life ahead of me :)

5. What little known fact about yourself would reveal something about your character that you think is important?

*thinks...

hmm... the obvious internal contradiction of this question is that as soon as I reveal a "little known fact", it suddenly ceases to be just that (depending on how many people actually take the time to read this blurb, and frankly I wouldn't blame them if they didn't). does that imply then that when one exposes an important fact about one's character to a wider public it suddenly ceases to be important and factual, but rather an unimportant falsehood? who knows? does it actually matter? and who really cares?

I dream of flying. I've heard this is fairly common, but when it happens to me I often become aware that I'm dreaming mid-flight (or flying mid-dream) and so manage to enter the dream, take control of my improbably realised propulsion through the air, and carry on doing so for as long as the dream will warrant. this, again, may be a common experience amongst people who dream, but I have no way of knowing as I can never really experience other people's dreams. flying without the aid of a vehicle I think of as the pinnacle of imagined pleasure. whether this shows an infantile rebuke of physical reality or a simple yearning for scientific impossibilities is up for debate. I'm willing to accept that either situation may be equally true or indeed false.

6. What smells evoke strong memories for you?

you mean from childhood? well I guess they would be peat, coal, sea air, stinky ditches, goats, chimney smoke, damp moss and tangerines. in adulthood they would be marijuana, lamb curry, dry ice, polluted rivers, carpets of rented accomodation and other, more sensually satisfying things which I probably shouldn't mention.

7. What is your favourite personal possession and why?

the answer to this question, without any shadow of a doubt, is my hat. the story goes like this...

many years ago I lived with a young fella who used to sport this very fetching hat. we left the house at roughly the same time and headed off in two different directions. I discovered some time later that his hat had got mixed up with my things (I did not steal it) and so I've claimed it as my own until he asks for it back. no word as yet. boy have I done a lot of things in this hat. I travelled the length of europe in this hat. I've been to the coolest clubs in this hat. I've swam in the ocean in this hat. I've worn this hat to every gig I've played. on a now-scuppered memory card from my old mobile I had many many pictures of many many people wearing my hat in many many different places. I bloody love my hat, man. I can't express how much it means to me.

8. If you could be a superhero what powers would you have? How would you use them?

what, you mean apart from being able to fly? well, I think most of the successful superhero characters were created by people who, through no fault of their own, felt excluded from the life around them. so with this in mind I'd like to say that my superhero power would be divine perspective. I'd like to see inside the minds of the superhero creators, feel what they felt when they made these wonderful characters who could fly, see in the dark, use super strength etc. turn the super power back on the creator. by natural extension I'd like to be able to see inside the minds of historical figures - darwin, einstein, hitler, aristotle, shakespeare and kubrick would be first on the list. I want to see inside everyone's mind to understand them. and I really, really, really want to fly.

9. What event changed you forever?

damaging my hearing! it happened about a year and a half ago after a series of exposures to loud amplified sound, a period of deep anxiety and an ill-fated flight which left the hearing on my left side permanently distorted. I also hear a lot of sounds in my head that aren't really there (tinnitus) but other than that I can hear as normal. the importance of hearing protection can't be over-emphasised as many venues with amplified sound are poorly equipped and badly engineered. a pair of foam or plastic ear plugs cost as little as 75p from a local chemist and could spell the difference between comfortable listening and permanent damage. serious musicians should consider investing in a pair of custom-made elacins. the benefit of hindsight can be a real bitch sometimes.

10. What do you think your job was in your previous life? Tell us why...

I don't believe in these kinds of things.

Posted by billion

Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.

I live in a small suburb just outside Aberdeen, and am about to head into the city where I work as a design lecturer at the college there. Been here 17 years, originally studying here after moving from a very small town (although it claims to be a city!) in the North East of Scotland called Elgin. I’d lived there around ten years and previous to that had lived in Middlesbrough and Inverness as a child.
I arrived at this job after working as a graphic designer for various companies and then deciding it wasn’t challenging me enough. I now work between lecturing and studying for my masters.

Why do you Moblog? How do you use the site? Why PrincessJun?

I originally moblogged after hearing about it on a tech programme and thought it would be a great way for my friends to keep up with our holiday to Tokyo. This was in 2006. I’d blogged on other sites previous to this and hadn’t really got anything from it, and on some occasions found it a miserable experience, so was wary of actually getting involved in the moblog community initially. However the more I posted the more I realized it was a really nice online group and have ‘met’ some great people and am thoroughly enjoying it! I now find myself looking at stuff and thinking that it would be good to moblog it, and it has even been responsible for me buying my digi SLR recently, as I was inspired by some of the other shots I have seen. I mostly use it to keep friends and family up to date as they are all over the place, Canada, Australia, US, and various parts of the UK, but also to be part of the moblog community.

PrincessJun is the name of my favourite character from the Japanese cartoon from the 70’s/80’s ‘Battle of the Planets’ (or ‘Gatchaman’ in Japan). I was obsessed as a kid, and was really chuffed one Christmas when one of my presents was the Battle of the Planets annual, and as anyone who visits my blog will know, I also love anything Japanese!

What was your childhood obsession? What happened to it?

Keeping a diary. I kept one for 7 years non-stop and then as I got into my mid-to-late teens discovered boys and then college life, which subsequently took up most of my time, and stopped writing in it!

What 3 things would you bring with you on to a deserted island?

Can I bring my partner?! - If not, then my camera, sketchbook (I’ll use my finger dipped in berry juice to draw, or a burnt bit of wood as a makeshift charcoal stick) and sunblock (I have fair skin….)


Feeling or thinking? Discuss.
Hmmm, as in which came first? – I think they are both connected, as for what I am currently feeling and thinking? Glad it’s Friday and happy that there are now only two weeks left of this term!

What keeps tripping you up even though you think you have learnt to avoid it?

The inability to ask for help – I try hard to not be so independent and not do everything on my own - taking complete responsibility for every problem, small or large, but it’s difficult and I trip up every now and again!


What little known fact about yourself would reveal something about your character that you think is important?

I can cry incredibly easily at any old emotional moment in a film or programme – but only when watching on my own.


What makes you smile? What makes you frown?

Other than friends, family and partner who can all make me do both, probably just getting time to be creative, either on the computer or with paints, pens, pencils etc - things that make me frown are people who are rude and the frustration of being beaten every time at various wii and playstation games by my other half!

What event changed you forever?

Probably being pretty ill in my early twenties and then getting through it – I came out the other side a much happier more focused person.


What do you think your job was in your previous life? Tell us why...

Hmmm…… I would love to think it was as a great artist, but if the laws of reincarnation are observed and you come back with a little more knowledge each time then I must have been the village idiot….. :D

Posted by PrincessJun

1. Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.
In my study in a Victorian terrace in a Midland UK town that has more waterways than Venice. I’ve lived in lots of towns but this place makes it easier to do stuff I want to do – be a cyclist, hold an academic position and be at home a lot to see my kids.

The UK isn’t my country. I grew up in NZ. One day met a woman visiting my home town on a working holiday from the UK. She wanted a light and casual holiday romance. We’re now married, have two kids and own a house together. Best laid plans, eh Ruth?

2. Why do you Moblog? How do you use the site?
A few years ago, I thought I’d share my photos with folks back home. It turned out that Mobloggers were more active online than my 20th century friends and family. Mobloggers checked in regularly, commented, rewarded me with highlights and added me to their pool of friends. After a while I found myself logging on every day and thinking ‘that’s one for Moblog’ when I took photos. The community seduced me and co-opted my intentions. As soon as my family find a cheap deprogrammer, I’ll be free.

I use Moblog self consciously as a record of stuff that happens and an outlet for a hobby that was always been very personal. It also provides a space for idle interests like the ‘Lost Notes’ blog. Most of all, I just like the people here and enjoy looking in and commenting on their lives … like a peeping Tom using an intercom.

3. What's your favourite subject to talk about? Why?
I had worked in ‘learning’ related jobs for about 12 years without it ever occurring to me that perhaps this is really what I’m really about (I’d originally trained as a community psychologist, you see). Once I clicked that understanding learning is what really interests me, I didn’t change how I spent my time, except I started to do it with more love. Actually, that’s not quite true. I now spend large chunks of my spare time working on a PhD on the topic too.

Learning is an easy topic to talk about. I’m basically interested in how people grow to meet the challenges in their lives. Learning without teaching. I’m sure you can talk to me about that … I’ll soon be a doctor.

5. What's your most vivid memory from childhood?
The childhood memories I go back to are the ones that don’t operate according to adult logic. Peeping around the living room door on Christmas morning to see a huge sack by the tree. I thought that Santa had accidentally left all his deliveries behind and this was going to be the best Christmas ever. It was a big tent.

Skipping out of school with friends to see a kid who wasn’t allowed outside at all because he’d just been circumcised. He stuck it out the window for us to see.

Believing my brother saw a ghost in my Dad’s overall’s when they were hanging on the clothes line. I mean really ... haunted overalls?

Watching a marionette show at our local shopping centre which finished with a puppet striptease. The underwear was like something I had never seen – all clips and wires and belts and pulleys and socks that went all the way up your legs. Mum explained the complex mechanics of women’s underwear to me. I never quite understood it and concluded that women are a strange species indeed if they need all that under their clothes.

6. What is your biggest fear?
Sometimes I get myself into some real messes – stranded in Wellington, lost in Seoul, left penniless because of poor planning a few times when I was a student, capsized off the Coromandel coast, crashed my car through inattention … these I can laugh at now and think that a little adventure doesn’t go amiss in anyone’s life. Even so, it would be awful if some how I drew my children into a dangerous situation of my own dozy making simply because I wasn’t concentrating.

7. A picture or a thousand words?
Ah now, I looked into this. We do a lot of publishing at work. We pay around £300 per photo. The same place will pay £2,400 for 15,000 words knowing that it will take about 20 days work. Making the adjustments that works out at £1599.99 for a thousand words which you could write in a couple of days versus £300 for a picture. Even if you sold a picture a day, a thousand words comes out on top.

8. Tell us about the most heroic act you've ever performed.
I wonder if this counts - for ten years I volunteered for a community counselling agency in NZ. I started when the service was run by just 14 students, all volunteers, working out of a church cupboard. We built the agency up until it was 100 strong with a number of paid staff and permanent offices. My volunteer involvement was a huge priority in my life and eventually I became the director of one of the branches. That admin stuff was okay but the most important thing I suppose was being there at 3.00 in the morning to listen to someone considering ending their life. It feels funny to call that heroism because it cost me nothing but it was pretty important to some of the people I talked with.

9. Tell us about your most embarrassing moment.
Sometimes I say stupid things usually when I’m not being genuine … or when I’m being inappropriately genuine.

10. What would your biography be called, who would write it, and who would play you in the film?
Jack Kerouac wrote so lovingly of his friends and he made them seem so creative, wild and sexy. I’d like him to have a crack at my biography except that he’s dead and if he wasn’t, he’d be drunk. Even so, his books had such a huge impact on me when I was 18 that it would be like dinner with Jesus to be the subject of his writing.

I’d like a young Noah Taylor to play me. He’s got a nice energy to him. But for the life of me I don’t know what the title would be. Maybe ‘Untitled’. I always have trouble with titles.

Posted by taniwha

1. Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.
This find me in Buenos Aires, Argentina, working as tourist guide.
I was born in Gualeguaychu, a very beautiful town located at 240 km from Buenos Aires, (on way to Cataratas falls).
I'm the youngest of 7 children. My mom died when I was 3, and I was adopted by an amaizing couple, and moved to Buenos Aires city.
When I finished highschool, I studied Tourism and started traveling arround my country and I lived almost a year in Foz do Iguazu (south of Brazil) when I was 23. There I met my father's son, and when I got pregnant I came back to Buenos Aires, where my son was born.
Then, I was 24, and I had to search for a permanent job. I started working as manager assistant at a Biotechnology lab, and was working there for 12 years Was very hard changing beautiful sceneries for an static view through a window, and the freedom of going from one place to another for the routine schedule of a full-time job at an office, but was a great experience and I met there not only my best friends, but also love. (perhaps the fact that my couple was my chief is a cliche, but still romantic).
Last year I resigned to that permanent job, and returned to tourism activity as tourist guide in this wonderful city of Buenos Aires. As I live in a 3rd world non economically stable country, and as any fortune-teller notified me about the mundial crisis of this year, probably mine was almost a kamikaze decision, but I'm still happy to try!

2. Why do you Moblog? How do you use the site?
Despite the fact that these days I don?t have enough time for Moblog, I love to be in contact with people of different countries and love photography.
And at moblog I found great people and terrific photographers.

3. What's your least favourite subject to talk about? Why?
Definitively financial stuff... they are boring, and I believe that accounters made of financial stuff something so complicated in order to justify their jobs.
When somebody try to explain me something related to financial's, my mind starts to travel arround (to all the nice places that I could visit if my financial?s were better!).

5. What's your most vivid memory from childhood?
I have lot of beautiful memories from childhood, let me tell you two related to perfumes:
-the smell of the lime trees on the back street of my home, where I used to meet my friends to play, or going arround.
-the picture of my mom in the kitchen, with the curlers in her hair, preparing every saturday evening the exquisite tomato sauce for "la pasta del domingo"...

6. What is your biggest fear?
Fear of heights.
I really want to try with parachuting in order to face my fear... (is it crazy?)

7. A picture or a thousand words?
A picture
One picture can tell us lot of things that thousand words can not describe...

8. What's wrong with the world today?
the politicians...

9. If you had ultimate control, how would you fix it?
I would force the politicians to live as the person who had the worst living situation on the earth.
Like this, they would make an effort to improve and transform it into a decent living situation.

10. Tell us a secret, something only you know
Mmhh... Do you believe me if I tell you that I don?t have any secret? (jeje)...
Well, I?m destroying this secret by sharing with you: last week I ate a chocolate that my son had bought for dessert, and I told him that was the dog (Sorry son! I love chocolates).
_________________________________________________________________

Posted by CHESO

1. Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.

Zevenaar, the Netherlands, Latitude: 51°55'40.45"N 6° 3'48.94"E (to be annoyingly precise)

How did I get here? Ahem, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin . . . .
(where's everybody gone?)
Born in Singapore in 1963, baby Martin was an inquisitive little fellow. Let me tell you about the time he . . . . . .
Wha? Skip a bit? Well ok then, if I must . . . . . . .
. . . . . then I left the army and settled in Holland with my Dutch girlfriend (now ex-wife and mother of my two sons). That was in 1987, an interesting period, let me tell you about the time I . . . . . .
Wha? . . . . Skip? . . . . More?
Well ok, quick summary then:
Moving house, making plastic bottles on the night shift, getting married, learning to speak Dutch, moving house (again), driving, driving, driving, driving (I’ve been driving large goods vehicles all over Europe for the last 21 years), driving, becoming a father (twice), nearly killing myself on two wheels (or rather, off two wheels), getting divorced after 15 years, moving house, meeting Anja, falling headoverheels (who’d’ve thought it? We're talking poetry-writing, permanent-inane-grin-wearing stuff here), “The Gran” dying, Mum & Dad emigrating to Australia to join my Sister, moving house, discovering Moblog, slowly coming to terms that I should be doing more with my time here, and then thoroughly kicking the arse out of it by shooting off in eight different directions at once without a clue how to achieve what I'm trying to achieve but enjoying climbing up this incredibly steep learning-curve as I go.

2. Why do you Moblog? How do you use the site?

Why not? There's no law against it! I'm an adult, it's just a piece of harmless fun, I'm not doing any harm! Please don't take it away from me, please, I'll be a good boy!
*pulls self together*
I was looking for a blog-site for a while and stumbled upon MoblogUK. I’m away from home during the week, on the road in the truck, and thought it would be a good way of letting the “home front” know what I come up against while I’m away. Primarily directed at my partner, Anja, but also as a way of keeping in touch with my sons, Nick (now 16) & Mike (now 14), who I see every other weekend and my parents and sister in Western Australia.
Moblog for me has grown into a very important part of my life, I've met a lot of wonderful people, incredibly interesting and inspiring characters, from whom I've learned a great deal, and to whom I'll always be very grateful.

3. What's your least favourite subject to talk about? Why?

Quantum physics, string theory and the nature of time.

I forced myself to read Stephen J. Hawking's “The Universe In A Nutshell” cover to cover once. I read and re-read it line after line, paragraph after repeated paragraph, page after coffee stained page until I got to the end, closed the book and went “nope, sorry, haven’t a clue what you’re on about there Stevie-boy”.
So if you "ask me one on quantum physics" you'll totally shut me up (a tip, if you're stuck in a lift with me after a couple of pints).

4. What song means the most to you and why?

Stairway to Heaven, Led Zepp.
Maybe cliche, don't care.
As far as I'm concerned the greatest song ever written and ever performed. I could play it most of the way through at one stage, on the guitar, pretty competently. Fingers have gone a bit rusty these days. It makes the hairs on my forearms stand right up, still.

5. What's your most vivid memory from childhood?

The freedom, generally, we enjoyed. Going outside right after breakfast and staying out all day, rain, snow, whatever, we (my sister and I with the rest of the "gang") would walk for miles and miles, building, climbing, getting mucky, cold and wet. Then getting into a too-hot bath and your skin would ache because you were so chilled through to the bone.
Then tucking in to a plate of beanz-on-toast-with-an-egg-on-top like it was a banquette.

6. Are humans fundamentally good?

Sjeeez!
Well I am,
I hope,
fundamentally,
and virtually everybody I know is, so from my point of view, yes they are, mostly.
(With the odd exception of course, I mean Peter Sutcliffe was a bit of a twat.)

7. A picture or a thousand words?

Oh a picture, every time, perhaps accompanied by a few words, but “a thousand”? that’s rabbiting on a bit, IMO, he said, rabbiting on.
I'm rubbish with words, bit of a problem with dyxslecxia (see?) as a kid, still stumble a bit here and there, computers help, and predictive text.
I can knock up a half decent picture for you though.

8. What's wrong with the world today?

Not enough rabbits.

9. If you had ultimate control, how would you fix it?

Breed millions of those great big Dutch long-eared "Thumpers", they're so cute, how could you go out and start a war if you had a great big floppy pet rabbit outside you had to look after every day?

10. What is "the greatest thing you'll ever learn"?

Well I’ll not have learned it yet now would I?
But the greatest thing I've learned so far is that "Red Dwarf" is probably the best series ever to have been seen on tv,
and never to sign up for anything Nige dreams up on Moblog, it'll cost you hours and hours of your time, tons of soul-searching and significant hair loss. (he said, putting his name down for the next scheme).

X, Jxl

Posted by JokerXL

1. Where does this find you? Tell us the story of how you got there.

I'm on a train going to the Sheffield Documentary Festival to talk on
the subject of Non-linear Narrative and do a Show'n'Tell of my work
in the area. I'm focusing on Osama Loves (www.osamaloves.com) which
is a participative journey narrative - think Dave Gorman meets A Long
Way Down with a bit of Pete McCarthy thrown in for good measure - and
Sexperience (www.sexperience.uk.com) which uses anecdote/first-hand
experience to provide sex education beyond the easy answers of self-
help manuals. Someone Twittered me this week to tell me that if you
Google "sex" at the moment Sexperience comes up #2 of 680,000,000
returns. I missed the train I was supposed to get because I was
having a meeting with Antony Gormley and I was in no hurry to leave
his studio - it's not every day I get to meet a true artist of his
calibre. Even took a sneaky pic for Moblog (http://moblog.net/view/861614/antony-gormley-and-my-pen).

2. Why do you moblog? How do you use the site?

Much though I love telling stories with words (www.arkangel.tv), I
love even more telling them through still pictures. My Moblog is
called Simple Pleasures because it strives to capture in images the
day-to-day things that for me make life worth living - and living
well. Sometimes I list the Simple Pleasures represented in the image
- most of the time I let the pictures do the talking.

3. What's your least favorite subject to talk about? Why?

Money and finance. It's so dull, I can't work up any enthusiasm for
it. My wife once asked me would I mind if our older son (only a
toddler at the time) turned out to be gay - I said as long as he
doesn't turn out to be an accountant I'm happy for him to be whatever
he wants to be.

4. Now that the worst is over, what's your favorite, and why?

Music. I love it. Can't sing or play but it's central to my life. I'm
into art of all kinds but music is special in the way it by-passes
the intellect and goes straight to the heart (and cahones, if you buy
the Carlos Santana line - which I do). As Walter Pater said: All art
aspires to the condition of music.

5. What's your most vivid memory from your childhood days? Paint us a
picture.

Sharing Saturday mornings with my best friend every weekend from
shortly after starting secondary school. The routine was up to town
(central London from the suburbs) for a long Space Invaders session
in some dodgy old arcade; Foyles and various other bookshops for
browsing and judicious purchases; Forbidden Planet for comics; a bit
of a wander; then back out to the burbs for a tennis or table tennis
session; rounding off the day nicely at a local cinema (there were a
good half dozen within walking distance - now all flats or gyms or
razed to the ground). Very happy, carefree days punctuated with
Simple Pleasures.

6. What is the best purpose to which media -- any form of communication
media, from clay tablets up through radio, magazines, books, movies,
television, et cetera -- has ever been put?

Love letters.

7. How important is the visual element to presenting a feature to the
world?
What if you were the only audience?

I'm a very visually oriented person, so hugely important, though not
always moving pictures - often a still image captures the essence
better. The technical 'quality' of the image is not critical - in the
same way Polaroids have a magical immediacy (as does Super 8) so can
mobile phone shots. That said, the cameras in phones are getting so
good I guess that aspect of moblogging is on its way out - shame in
as far as having a distinction between regular camera and phone
camera added a touch of the Polaroid-magic to the activity.

8. In your view, what's wrong with the world today?

People lose sight of the Simple Pleasures and what is truly of value.

9. If you had ultimate control, how would you fix it?

I would call in George Benson (in the absence of Nat King Cole) and
have him wander the Earth on a neverending tour singing Nature Boy to
each and every one of us:
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved in return"

10. Ask yourself -- and answer -- the question we most obviously left
out.

Q. What's the best track of all time?
A. Flamenco Sketches by Miles Davis (on Kind of Blue)

I'm going to have it at my funeral (on the way out - the way in track
is Acknowledgement by John Coltrane from A Love Supreme). I was
introduced to the record at college by Adam Barker, a former
Commissioning Editor at Channel 4, back then room-mate to David
Baddiel. So my first encounter with it was as a circle of black vinyl in a 500 year old room, 144 square inches of intense Miles with that far from square tie and cool blue suit beside the record player - a scene I can still picture vividly in my mind's eye. I love the track because it brings with it great tranquility.

Posted by arkangel