Henry's Blog

Archive for December, 2009

As I’ve just discovered that I can post blogs from my Blackberry, I thought I’d take this opportunity (I.e. A very dull train journey to work) to jot down some of my online aims for 2010. I know what you’re thinking – dull, Dull, DULL! I think the same every time I spot a “10 greatest blah in 2009″ list on Twitter, so I don’t blame you at all if you skip this. But I reckon that by writing it down in a public forum, I might just have a chance of sticking to some of these…

Consolidate my efforts…

Having been doing internetty stuff for over 15 years now, I’ve collected quite a few different sites, projects and profiles along the way. Just as I think it will be for the internet as a whole, I’m going to aim to consolidate and reduce the amount of different places I ‘reside’ in 2010 – or at the very least try to reduce duplication and confusion.

Just off the top of my head I can list social networks I belong to (Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, FriendFeed, Yammer, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Google and Plaxo), websites I build/maintain (Melissa George, Elize du Toit, this one, My New York Wedding site, Our First Flat, Scilly Holiday), Projects I’ve started up (My social mash-up friend map, My family tree site, …) And many others I’ve probably forgotten. And that’s before I even start thinking about the sites I work on/with at Tamar. It’s a lot to remember! So I’m hoping to consolidate that down a bit… I think I’m going to start by closing my MySpace and Bebo accounts, since I haven’t got anything useful out of them for well over a year.

Take a photo every day

I know this seems slightly ironic given my point above, but little projects like this are what makes the internet fun for me. As I explained in a previous post, I’m going to aim to produce a “My year in photos” collection over 2010, with a photo for every single day of the year. And for those of you that follow me on Twitter and see what I usually Twitpic – don’t worry, I’ll try to keep the pictures of my son to a minimum, I promise!

Blog smarter

As I already explained in my very first post, I do quite a bit of blogging already – not just here (if you can even call my sporadic missives ‘blogging’), but on the Tamar blog, the Econsultancy blog, Media140 and a few others. But in 2010 I’m going to try to blog more – not necessarily *more* blogging, just smarter blogging. I definitely need to keep this place a bit more lively, and I might start inviting guest bloggers on if anybody wants to contribute. With my work blogs I’m going to try to blog more about subjects people actually want to read about – not just a vanity exercise. And particularly with my work blogs, I’m only going to blog if there’s a clear benefit to doing so – not for me, obviously, but for my work.

300 entries on my map by 2011

Another of my favourite little projects at the moment is my social mash-up friend map thingy (note to self: come up with a better name for it…). I’ve had some great new entries on it lately, including some famous faces you might recognise (if you can find them!). I think the map currently has 124 photos on it – by the end of 2010 I want to get that to 300, which I think is pretty achievable. Heck, I’ve got 700 connections on Facebook, plus well over 1,000 on Twitter – 300 is a reasonable-enough chunk of that to aim for…

Somehow top 2009

Thanks to the internet, I have been lucky enough to do some very cool (and some very odd) things the past few years. As well as an appearance in The Times, a few very unflattering appearances on London Tonight, a totally libelous appearance in a book (and several subsequent mentions on the radio because of it) and meeting a few cool famous peeople, 2009 was topped off with an appearance on BBC1’s ‘Imagine‘ and a trip to Downing Street. I’m not entirely sure I *can* top those. without doing something illegal, so maybe this is a tough one – but at the very least I’d like to think I’ll get to do other interesting things in 2010…

As a regular reader of Andrew Collins’ blog, I thought I’d take a leaf out of his book and post a screenshot of me on the TV last night. After all, these things don’t happen too often, so I’m going to revel in it just a teensy bit.

If you want to see me in action, you can watch it on the iPlayer for the next 6 days – I don’t say a lot, but the rest of it is a great watch so knock yourself out…

What’s your favourite? My personal favourite is from the episode “Lisa’s Rival”, which sees Homer watching over a very large stash of sugar…

Marge: Homer, when are you going to give up this crazy sugar scheme?
Homer: Never, Marge! Never. I can’t live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the bluenoses with my cocky stride and musky odors — oh, I’ll never be the darling of the so-called “City Fathers” who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about “What’s to be done with this Homer Simpson?”
Marge: Look, just get rid of the sugar, OK?

Almost the moment I hit “publish” on my post last week – “4 Movies to Get you in the Christmas Spirit” – I remembered a  number of films I’d missed. Not to mention all the people that responded to this and told me other films I should have included. So I thought I’d do another post with some of the others that I missed:

Die Hard 2 (1990)

It might be a random choice to get you in the Christmas “spirit”, but Die Harder (as I believe it was subtitled) stands out against other action movies for it’s brilliant Christmas-time setting – what’s better than Bruce Willis in his wife-beater fighting baddies? Him doing it at Christmas in an airport, that’s what!

Stars: Bruce Willis, Dennis Franz, Bonnie Bedelia and a bunch of people I haven’t heard of since…

Fun Fact: The Russian title for “Die Hard” in all of the four movies is, “A Hard Nut to Crack”.

Favourite Quote: Maclane (Willis) “Oh man, I can’t fucking believe this. Another basement, another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?”

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

Obviously this isn’t entirely a Christmas movie alone, since it’s set over the course of an entire year – but that obviously means it’s bookended with some great Christmas action. This is another movie that’ll probably see me being accused of having rubbish taste in films, but what the hell – I’m a big feel-good fan, and this (and the sequel) has that in spades.

Stars: Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Sally Philips, Celia Imrie

Fun Fact: Both leading actors’ names, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, are mentioned in the book. The first on “Tuesday 24 October” and the second on “Wednesday 16 August”.

Favourite Quote: Bridget (Zellweger) “You once said you liked me just as I am and I just wanted to say likewise. I mean there are stupid things your mum buys you, tonight’s another… classic. You’re haughty, and you always say the wrong thing in every situation and I seriously believe that you should rethink the length of your sideburns. But, you’re a nice man and I like you. If you wanted to pop by some time that might be nice… more than nice.”

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Not only one of my favourite movies to watch in what the Americans call “the Holiday season”, this is also a great film to watch when you want your fill of New York landscapes. As somebody who got married in New York, I can never get enough of a bit of Empire State on celluloid, making up slightly for the fact that I don’t live there. The Christmas scenes in the film, and not to mention the wonderful New Year’s Eve set-piece, really get me in the mood for cold nights surrounded by loved-ones, not forgetting copious amounts of alcohol and food :)

Stars: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher

Fun Fact: The orgasm scene was filmed at Katz’s Deli, an actual restaurant on New York’s E. Houston Street. The table at which the scene was filmed now has a plaque on it that reads, “Congratulations! You’re sitting where Harry met Sally.”

Favourite Quote: Harry (Crystal) “I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Following my earlier, gush-tastic post on my evening at Downing Street, I’m collating the other coverage the event got – partially for my own purposes, but also for anyone else who was there and wants to connect to other bloggers / posters from the night. Plus, I’m going to add in some good TwitPics of the event that I’ve found…

• Sarah Milne has posted Part 1 (of 2) of her summation of the event, on her blog “My Journey with William“. Reading Sarah’s story makes me feel guilty for having had such a relatively stress-free life thus far, and I’m proud to say I’ve met her now. Update: Part 2 is now also up.
• Mrs Brown herself posted an excellent story on the Huffington Post – plus, as you’d expect, she’s been tweeting follow-ups all day long.
• Tom Scholes-Fogg of Young Labour has posted a short summary of the event on his blog.
• Sue Atkins of Positive Parents has a very nice blog about the event; Another great tweeter who I met for the first time last night.
• Mr Richard Bacon apparently talked about his time at the event on his brand-new 6Music show today. I wasn’t able to listen as we were out, but I’m going to catch-up with it on the iPlayer tomorrow – so should you!
• Sarah Brown has set up a new Flickr account, where she has posted a number of great shots from the event.
• Musician Kevin Hewick has written a mammoth blog about the evening, though I resent his use of the term “Hooray Henrys” obviously! :D
• The lovely Holly Shaw has a very nice write up of the evening on her blog “Transplants, Tantrums and Tiaras”.
• Sandy Calico has a great run-down of the evening, with some nice photos and some funny stories.
• Hamish Thompson has a good account of the evening, with a very good explanation of the Million Mums cause too.
• Ben Matthews is one of the founders of Twestival, and you can read his blog here.
• The team at MumsRock have a nice round-up of the evening, including a very funny story about label supporters…
• The brilliantly-titled “Notes to self plus two (and the need for red shoes)” has a good post about the party.
• The Confident Ladies have a nice blog covering their day at Downing Street too.
• The lovely @tinypoppet has a great coup with her coverage – she’s actually been to Downing Street twice…
• Grace Fletcher-Hackwood has covered the even on her GAFH blog.
• Last but definitely not least, you can read the official coverage of the party from Downing Street themselves at Number10.gov.uk

Pictures from the event, almost all of which were posted by Sarah Brown herself:

Please do let me know (in the comments) of other pictures/blogs I’ve missed, and I’ll add them in!

On Friday the 4th of December, 2009, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a party hosted by the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown. Brown is a big Twitter advocate, with almost 1 million followers, and she apparently decided to hold a party for a selection of the people she interacts with on Twitter. Which is pretty cool!

The party was entitled the “Downing Tweet Christmas Party” and was held to celebrate / publicise the Million Mums campaign, a campaign by the White Ribbon Alliance, that Mrs Brown is the chairman of. Among the attendees were patrons of various other charities, campaigners, political bloggers, people connected with Million Mums and a smattering of celebrities.

Having been pretty gob-smacked to have been invited in the first place (I assumed the address-request sent by Brown on Twitter was simply going to result in a Christmas card!), I was pretty damn nervous to be heading to Downing Street. A few searches on Twitter originally reassured me that the sort of people going were just others like me – Twitter regulars and all-round normal people. Then, on the morning of the party, I started to notice a few famous people tweeting about it, including Richard Bacon and Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru Murthy. Cue a total brown-trousers moment from me, suddenly glad that I decided to take a tie after all.

10 Downing Street is a pretty spectacular building, and I was amazed at how much of it we were allowed to wander freely around – I stood staring at a painting of Maggie Thatcher for a good few minutes, wondering why she looked so uptight, ha ha! The party took place on the first floor, with the several-hundred attendees allowed to look around and peer through doors and windows quite freely.

Highlights of the evening for me included:

• Singer Beverley Knight doing a live performance of her songs “Shoulda Woulda Coulda” and Gold, standing in front of the drawing room (?) Christmas Tree. She was lovely too, and I even got to chat to her for a bit.
• Introducing myself to Richard Bacon, who I had a nice chat with. He’s certainly a snappy dresser too!
• Wandering up and down the famous stair-case, looking at all the past Prime Minister pictures
• Shaking Gordon Brown’s hand – though I didn’t actually get to say anything to him, as he was being “networked” by a number of good networkers
• Other famous people that were there but I didn’t get to speak much to included Kirstie Allsopp, Peter Serafinowicz, Caitlin Moran, Emma Freud, Rebecca Front and that guy from the X-Factor who spends too much time shaping his beard… I’m thinking Brian? :D

I also had a chat to a few random MPs who I’m ashamed to say I didn’t really recognise – though Alastair Darling’s wife introduced herself to me, and we had a bit of a joke about how annoying it is when the neighbours hold a party!

I didn’t get to take many photos, since cameras and phones are taken off you at the entrance (though very politely!) but there are a few included with this post, and I’m sure there will be some more when the official photographer pictures get posted online.

I’ll shut up about this now, since I know a few people on Twitter are already getting annoyed by my babble. But I should urge you before I sign off to go over to the Million Mums website and register yourself – it only takes 10 seconds, and since we’ve all got mothers of our own I think it’s pretty relevant to everybody!

Oh, one last thing… yes, it was JUST like in Love Actually! :D