Caught in the act of keyboard bashing again

The incurable itch

There are times when I delude myself into thinking I am a writer, but the reality might suggest that all these years of blogging are pretensions to an ability I barely possess. "An inveterate and incurable itch for writing besets many, and grows old in their sick hearts." The Roman poet Juvenal's Satires X.

However, the translation from Latin suffers from so many kinds of paraphrasing and interpretation that it has become the more popular variation: "Writing is an incurable itch that affects many." Whilst I might have that occasional itch, it has become quite benign. I cannot be bothered to scratch it, nor is it so serious that I need a salve for it.

It is like learning to live with an infirmity; the inadequacy rings loud in your head, urging you to stop and pursue something else that belies a modicum of talent. On the other side, perhaps persistence counts for something. You do it long enough, it becomes practised, and you grow better at it. You gain the confidence that the little you manage to express can pass muster.

When I woke up just 25 minutes ago to think of something to write before the day's end, I felt it might be a jumble of incoherent words landing in an order that might suggest lucidity, but is clearly a malady bordering on insanity. Who really cares? Just bash the keyboard with your thoughts and see how itchy you really can get.

An old blog hits 10 million page views

A blog adrift

When I reflect on this blog, it is maintained at my leisure, not to pursue any agenda or shift opinions. I work in the information technology industry, I am probably too old to be considered a geek, I could be curious, sometimes observant, and it is quite likely that I see things differently from others.

Many topics I write about are the concern of activists, yet I am not one. I like to see fairness, justice, communication, and understanding among people. I am not thoroughly lettered, but I have learnt through life the importance of being able to express oneself quite clearly in any language used, to avoid misunderstanding.

I have had no formal training in journalism or the creative arts; it has never been my intention to turn this into a professional pursuit, but almost 22 years of this blog is no mean feat. I do not criticise myself for not being as prolific as I would like to be, I write as I am inspired, urged, or persuaded.

A blog immigrant

I had been blogging for about 7 years when the local hosting service I used decided they were bored with it. I guess the trend was shifting from the written word to podcasting. I do not blame them, but I was left in a quandary, with the prospect of migrating about 1,500 blogs along with all the engagement elsewhere, without migration tools.

I lost the comments, interaction, many graphics, and links in the process, along with the statistics that exceeded 10,000,000 page views a month. By 2011, I was simultaneously publishing blogs at the now-defunct location of akin.blog-city.com and on Google Blogger with the domain name of akinblog.nl; that old hosting location closed on the 1st of January 2012. [WayBack Machine: Akin (Old blog)]

A blogger's thanks

Here, I have ploughed my furrow in near obscurity without seeking fame or creating any sensation for the purpose of popularity or going viral; all that does not really matter, but I am glad for the readership and engagement that have followed my blog since December 2003.

Early yesterday, my blog reached the milestone of 10 million page views since it moved to Google Blogger. Someone somewhere considers my viewpoints interesting, and that is quite gratifying. I do not take the following or readership lightly; it is your interest and engagement that made this happen. Thank you very much.

A private blogger not blogging for money

Not for the money

As recently as Tuesday, I was asked once again if I was generating any income from my blog, to which I answered no. I could say that I have been asked this question consistently from around the third year of my blog being in existence.

There was a time I thought I could generate passive income by allowing advertisements on my blog, but more than just upsetting the general look-and-feel of the blog with adverts interspersed in places I would rather they did not, it was nigh on impossible to control and manage the content being shared from my blog space, I had no alternative but to remove the feature.

On another note, I do not consider myself that much of a self-promoter or influencer that depends on the oxygen of traffic, footfall, likes, and comments to survive. I write because I like writing about things, that I have an audience that is just one of good fortune and interest rather than some deliberate effort to please or attract custom.

Always worth my while

However, I have found myself in certain forums where I have talked about my blog and from that garnered interest from others to read and view my musings. A blog in its 20^th year is probably more than a novelty, to me, it is also a thing of pride that it started during a time when everyone seemed to have something to say until they got disinterested or distracted by some other trend. I continued regardless.

I can even remember there was a time that a website titled, ‘How Much Is My Blog Worth?’ existed, you keyed in your blog URL and it produced some arbitrary figure, at least for my amusement more than anything else. In some cases, I have been asked to write for others, a task that has proved quite onerous compared to what I would generally publish on my blog.

It is my space

It is the autonomy and control that I enjoy, no one can review, edit, or alter what I have written on my blog, and as I am not beholden to anyone in terms of monetary or market demands, the freedom to express myself in the frame of reference of how I see and understand things is untrammelled. That does not mean I am licentious and reckless, as I can appreciate how publishing over 20 years might just have some historical viewpoint that might offend someone.

I have also been advised that from all that I have already written, I probably have enough to publish books on different themes, subjects, life and so on. Though my seeming ability to knock out blogs does not seem to have transferred to the needed skill to write long-form stories you would find in a novel. My autobiography languishes in bits and pieces strung together on a premise I cannot begin to assess well enough for any coherence.

To take the words of Tina Turner and adapt them to my situation, I am just a Private Blogger not blogging for money but doing just what I want to do. Then again, I am open to ideas, including those towards commemorating 20 years of blogging in December 2023.

Then the 3,000th blog was written

Finally, another thousand

I earnestly wanted to reach this goal and it is not for the want of trying. By the end of 2019, I was only 4 blogs short and somewhere between the easy or herculean task of tapping in gibberish to typing in complexities, before I relented.

I was on holiday with my lover, Brian, and when I was asked what was the best time we had together, it was every moment I could look up and see him, his interesting mannerisms, the touch, the feel, the kiss and the many things we did together considering we have a long-distance relationship that for now only offers a rendezvous in South Africa.

In my needless striving

Yes, he did urge me on, he said I could do it, but I had exhausted myself to writer’s block, no straining of myself to reach an arbitrary target for which the only reward is self-satisfaction mattered more than doing other useful things. So, I aborted the scheme and we walked off to the V&A Waterfront where we met with and had a long conversation with two ladies, mother and daughter, Brian presumed, I should have put on my second pair of glasses to notice.

In terms of achievements, it is not particularly great, I had written 1,000 blogs in just under 5 years, the next thousand took a little over 4 years and then at 3,000, over 7 years have passed before making the mark. I could list out excuses as long as a 3,000-word thesis, but to what end apart from a propensity to needless verbosity. Besides, the excuses have not changed much in 16 years and sentiments has expressed before remaining the same.

Blog - A millipede to the mille

Blog - 2,000 Blogs at AkinBlog.NL

To the next, with thanks

I don’t know if this is a grandfather age of blogging, but I am thankful to all my readers and supporters who have through the tough times and amazing times participated in my journey, read my stories and marvelled at some of the indecipherable musings without judging me too harshly.

Maybe, the next thousand blogs would happen in a shorter period of time, I would not know, I will just keep on writing, telling stories and sharing experiences. When we get there, there will be a blog announcing the new milestone.

Thank you, one and all.

Celebrating 16 Years - Brian Jenkins' commemorative blog

Introduction

Two weeks ago, in one of our conversations, I told my dearest Brian that the 16^th anniversary of my blog is coming up and I would like him to write something for me to publish on my blog to celebrate the day.

Reticent and shy, sometimes unsure of his articulacy, he hesitated but in passing kept to mind the anniversary and self-deprecatingly suggested he couldn’t do much worth publishing.

However, well ahead of schedule, I received an email written to celebrate the day, in which he expressly said was not for publication, but as you read his piece, you will notice it was written in the context of something to be published. His honest flowing prose with innocent flair shines through.

I had to go back to Brian to ask if I could publish this as it was just too good to be kept between us. On the advice of another friend, she suggested it be given the pride of place as the sole blog of commemoration.

It does me the great pleasure to have my partner, my boyfriend, and my love to do the honour of this anniversary blog below. Thank you, Brian, love you so dearly.

Making A Connection

Every day we meet different people in different situations and places, but there are some people we meet who are just exceptional and make a deep impression on our lives. It has been said before that when we meet someone for the first time it is only within a few seconds that we would have already decided on whether we will like that person or not.

Meeting Akin for the first time is a story I could describe in so many delightful ways, it was like something scripted for a movie scene, but that is a story for another day.

I couldn’t believe this man was talking with me. I was so fascinated by all he had to say, instantly I was captivated. All the noise and distractions in the background of that night couldn’t distract my focus and attention on him but as the night came to its end and we exchanged contact details and I remember thinking at that moment we would just become emailing friends and eventually forget each other.

We made plans to meet up for lunch the following day, being the gentleman that he is he honoured his word, we met for lunch but my departure back to Zimbabwe was scheduled for later that evening, I couldn’t get it out my head that I might never get to see this man again.

Spending that afternoon together I clearly remember just listening to him speak to me, it felt so spellbinding, I had never met a real person like this who can motivate, inspire and encourage another soul like this man before my eyes, a man who can make you realise things from a different perspective is an exceptional man. When the hours grew into days and we had gone our separate ways, still, it became undeniably clear that our connection had to be of pure divine intervention.

Discovering the Person

We kept constant communication via various channels, video calling became a new thing for me. Talking for hours on end and in talking with Akin, for those who know him, will know that Akin is a man of great depth, one of the very few good ones remaining, and I am blessed to know him.

With a great interest in getting to know more about Akin’s life story by just listening to him speak or by simply reading all about him through his blogs. It does not take long to appreciate that his story is the stuff bestsellers are made of, surviving cancer - the challenges and the triumphs, his views about life, in general, are so very insightful, which only leaves one even more inspired to want to become a better person.

It may only be a short time that I have come to know Akin, discovering his blogs, I look forward to reading what is on his mind his topics are always interesting and he presents it with such panache, one can only become habituated.

Over the past sixteen years, Akin had documented his life’s journey and experiences with great eloquence, and it is admirable, to say the least. I am positively sure even far before this electronic recording Akin has much more recorded resources out there that can be found that will be of even more great interest to share of his life, his thoughts, and experiences.

The more I read Akin’s blogs, the more I get to realise the man that he is, smart, caring, selfless, intelligent and knowing just how to use the wisdom he has received, also he has a great ability to impart that wisdom to others around him and that is purely astounding.

The strength of a man is in his heart, and his courage is gained by his confidence.

Discovering Akin’s blogs ignited a fresh renewal on my perspectives. I can only wish for you Akin, much more blessings and success as you continue to impart to those around you and to those who come to know you, the wisdom and knowledge you have and continue to inspire in us and give a positive outlook of life events and everything surrounding us.

I for one, I have truly been blessed, inspired, motivated and encouraged by you, and wish those who know you, and those who will come to know you get to learn much more from the experiences you share. You have a gift and it is worth sharing.

May you continue to receive more blessings, more wisdom and knowledge and may you never tire to share and enlighten those around you. I look forward to one day reading the book that you will one day publish.

A Decade on Twitter

A quarter of a century online

I review my life on social media that appears to go back 25 years when it was not a popular term. My first email address in 1994 and then a CompuServe subscription through which I participated in Usenet groups.

When I moved out to Ipswich in 1995, I found an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who I discovered unilaterally blocked adult websites. I paid him a visit and demanded that as an adult, my access to the Internet should be untrammelled, including the ability to view adult sites, as I am an adult and I do not intend to be policed if I am doing nothing illegal.

I guess he was embarrassed for the fact that I was unabashed, my request was granted that evening and he must have glad I did not have to visit him about anything again.

Throwing off and throwing down

Soon, we were on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), I think that was 1997, opening channels for all sorts of interests until people found ways to exploit vulnerabilities in the TCP/IP stack and knock you offline with DoS/DDoS attacks or those that broke IRC connections, called nuking. We had to implement countermeasures to prevent nukes and the takeovers of IRC channels.

As the popularity of IRC began to wane in the early 2000s, I was in a Berlin hotel when decided to start blogging in December 2003. I hope to have written my 3,000^th blog sometime this year. It was not for another few years before I joined another social media platform. In my early blogging years, I formed significant and lasting friendships from which I began to grow a social network.

Along the line, I joined other niche social media networks, many of which have fallen out use, favour or are dead. Then came LinkedIn, which many did not consider social as in other forums we participated in, I guess, we compartmentalised, trying to keep our strictly professional lives separate from our lives outside work. I have been a member since the 16^th of March 2006.

Can you hear the chirping birds?

One morning just before I left for work, I created a Twitter account and waited for a confirmation. Meanwhile, I travelled to Arnhem where I was working, and it was there that I posted my first tweet on the 8^th of February 2009. Today is a decade since I joined Twitter. As I relayed in a blog, I wrote a couple of days ago, I had to change my mode of communication from long-form writing of a blog to the contextualised concision limited to 140-characters. It was a challenge I took on with relish.

Blog - Tweeting beautifully without apologising for it

I might have been more prolific on Twitter and somewhat become less so on my blog, I have tweeted just under 153,000 thousand times with a following just short of 6,000. I find it a very useful forum for sharing ideas and for getting a prompt and effective response for customer service issues.

A call from beyond

In December 2009, just a couple of days before my birthday, I joined Facebook. I probably resisted jumping on this bandwagon for years. My first invitation to join Facebook came almost two years before when I eventually joined the person who invited me had been dead just over 9 weeks. His Facebook page then became a memorial to lay wreaths and bouquets of thoughts and reminiscences at different times of the Facebook.

Facebook also upended the concept of social media, because the network not only exploited proximity, it allowed you to mine your past. By the time you put in names of your old schools and old friends, many long forgotten, you were caught in a time vortex from which you had little an inkling how to escape.

Mimes and rhymes

Until early last year, most of my Facebook activity came from my Twitter posts and that linked was broken. I would comment on things I find on Facebook, but it is more likely that new posts would come from Instagram or blogs that I have written. I joined Instagram on Christmas Eve of 2014.

Most of my Instagram posts are accompanied by bad poetry or musings about the things I have observed. I have not convinced myself that Pinterest or SnapChat would add any value to my social media landscape. My social media life is lively enough as it is.

This all because of my decade on Twitter and long may we have the opportunity to celebrate life, happiness, love, and the freedom of expression.

It is my crystal (15th) anniversary of blogging

A new introduction

When my first blog was published on the 8^th of December 2003, I was in a hotel in Berlin when I had the idea to begin writing and as a matter of coincidence, I will be travelling to Germany again.

Reading through my first blog, I reflect on what has happened over the last 15 years, what has remained the same and what has changed. I am still English of Nigerian parentage, that sense of identity has not changed, rather become more ingrained, but I have returned to live in the United Kingdom which is fermenting under the ructions of the train wreck of Brexit.

Blog - A cliché too many - Introduction!

It is very likely my dad would be reading this, he is on Facebook, but I have not made a specific provision for my mum to join social media, she is probably preoccupied with other activities. The Internet has changed considerably in the last 15 years, there is no telling who else might get to read my blogs.

On the job

In October, I celebrated 30 years of an Information Technology career, I am still trying to make Microsoft products do what customers hope and expect they can do. Along the way, I am asked impossible questions, pressed to provide answers and expected to perform miracles.

Blog - On celebrating a 30-year career in IT

Nothing has changed in finding that the crazy and the outrageous idea needs to be kept at bay through forceful challenge and dispute. Solutions still require a good deal of thinking and I am no less excited by what can be done with the tools we have to work with.

The unconcerned purist

“Language is a tool of total expression.” That is a quote from my first blog, I still find myself a bit of a purist railing against malapropisms, neologisms, Americanisms and much else. I am probably not as pernickety and pedantic, there are times, I can’t really be bothered to react. I observe and move on.

I used to read the Daily Telegraph, it has lost many of its good writers, it is badly managed, and it has become a shrill village rag for Brexit, I cannot abide it, even if it were the last newspaper to hand. I have replaced the Economist with The Week and as I seemed to gather volumes of The National Geographic without time to read much of it, I stopped the subscription.

The crazy politics

When looking at politics, I must say it is the stump of the Liberal Democrats that appears to represent my views. The Conservatives are in a state of self-immolation over Europe as if that is news, the Labour Party has been hijacked by a leftist fringe of peddlers of unrealisable Utopia, it is depressing to watch the mess our politics have become.

It is about mantras rather than conviction, Brexit has sucked the oxygen out of any progressive activity in the UK for 30 months, it is as unrelenting as it is suffocating, we are led by crazies with an ideological bent devoid of any sense.

In the meanwhile

Now, back to my blog, I still love travel, it relaxes and refreshes me.

In 15 years, I have had an amazing life full of experiences of academic achievement, different jobs, surviving cancer, making friends, long before Twitter and Facebook became the rave.

I am thankful and full of gratitude for the years and everyone who has found something on my blog, you are welcome, and you affirm the purpose that inspired the 2,897 blogs that have graced this place.

Maybe, I would write more, I don’t know, but we must celebrate today. To follow the thinking of wedding anniversaries, this would be my crystal anniversary of blogging.

14 years, a blogger

In 2017, I have not been as prolific a blogger as I had hoped to be, and it is not for the lack of stories or opinions to write about.

The year has been eventful as I was caught up in the maelstrom of circumstances sometimes beyond my control and definitely beyond what I was ready to endure that I took some rather decisive steps about where my career was headed.

I suffered for that principled stance, but I would not have a story uniquely mine if I have not throughout my life launched myself from the platform of comfortable certainty in the uncharted space of uncertainty about many things including whether I had enough to see through the day, talk less of the next.

Yet, this is a milestone I must celebrate, the 14^th year of my blog and this would be my 2,846^th blog, I would not beat myself up for not having written more than this, I am just glad and full of gratitude for the times that have filled me with new purpose. When I started this blog in a hotel in Berlin, I would have never thought it would still be active, this long after.

I constantly think of living and of dying, each having some sort of purpose with renewal being the recurring theme like the need to breathe to stay alive. I look forward to celebrating more years of writing and hopefully doing more with what I believe is the gift of expression.

I hope I can invite you, the readers of my blog to contribute blogs towards the 15^th anniversary. Thank you for being there and being near.

Opinion: You can't honestly celebrate plagiarism

The truth in hypocrisy

The use of moral equivalences to deflect justified criticism and possibly shut the critic up is a well-used attack strategy as much as is the use of argumentum ad-homimen to take ground from someone who posits or comments.

In some ways, hypocrisy is a good thing if we cut to the truth of the issues. Like the example in the bible whether a man had a speck in his eye and the other had a beam in his eye is beside the point, fundamentally, the truth is, both the speck and beam do not belong in the eye and they both need to be taken out.

Ethics and rules

Which brings me to an issue that came up on my Twitter timeline this weekend about the fight by a media analyst to have material lifted off his forum properly acknowledged and attributed when used by others.

The other being a very popular Nigerian gossip columnist whose penchant for plagiarism with impunity is without parallel.

Whilst the media analyst had none of the following or popularity of the gossip blogger, he knew the rules and had a number of times warned the gossip of infringements before following Google’s rules to have copyrighted material taken down from the gossip’s website.

Criminal lack of foresight

The looming danger was that the gossip could easily be proven to be a repeat offender and consequently have her popular money-spinning blog taken down by Google and that would be the death of the golden goose.

Sadly, there are too many narratives to this matter and the least of them is the influence or the commercial opportunity the gossip blog offered the owner. Success measured by how much you make by gossip and abusing copyrighted material might count for much in Nigeria, but beyond those borders, it is disreputable and reprehensible, nothing to be celebrated at all.

Beyond this, it is unfortunate that the gossip never developed her business model beyond the rudimentary once she began to make money that what she now has is put at great risk for what one might uncharitably term, foolishness.

Portability is security

For instance, I used to have my blog hosted by a small company and it was referenced by their own URL to which I prepended the name of my blog. 7 years into my running the blog on that site, I was given 18 months to take my material elsewhere because they were we no longer interested in the business of hosting blogs.

Probably by prescience, I had started an alternative blog elsewhere, some years before, but had not published much apart from an introduction. I then painstakingly moved each of over 1,500 blogs to this new location over the next few months.

At the same time, I published simultaneously on both blogs to keep the old going and introduce people to the new. One mistake I decided not to commit again was to leave the name of my blog dependent on the URL provided by my host.

I registered my own domain name and that is now the identity of my blog. If at any time the content collateral of my blog is threatened, I simply have to move the content to another hosting service and transfer my domain name to that location.

Foolish to a fault

It then really beggars belief that such a successful gossip blog never considered polishing their act and adding a touch of professionalism to their product. Something that non-commercial blogs like mine have done for years.

However, making your blog portable by being able to move the content and retain your domain name regardless of where the content is hosted does not excuse the fact that both clout and reach has been used to ignore ethical practice in commercial dealings.

Check your values

Being a blog does not exculpate the blogger from charges of plagiarism, if the content you are publishing is not originally yours, you must reference, attribute and acknowledge and the indictment of plagiarism is even worse if the blog has commercial value.

There are things to comment the gossip blogger for, but this particularly is not one of them and the lack of foresight to protect the blog from being yanked off the Internet for being an abuser and infringer of copyrighted material is damning to the point of being just plain stupid.

For those who find the gossip a role model of sorts, the only thing to caution is check your values and check your value system.

Blogging: Why You Should Blog

Why you should blog

Recently, I have found myself telling people I interact with on Facebook and on Twitter to start a blog. I feel this is important because the structure of status updates on either Facebook or Twitter along with many other social media forums do not lend themselves to proper documentation, archiving, referencing or access.

Now, there are aggregator tools like Storify that allow you to pool the sets of thoughts that are posted on many social media forums, but the kind of thinking that informs social media postings is quite different from that which goes into writing a freeform blog.

It is fun to do

As I complete 10 years of blogging in December 2013 and look back at over 2,000 blogs, I can say I have a large Internet footprint that represents my views about life, social issues, political commentary, opinions, history and the occasional levity.

A blog is easy to create, my blogs, both personal and professional are hosted by Google’s Blogger, but accessible with domains I have purchased, though you do not need to have a domain at the onset, others use WordPress, Tumblr, TypePad and many other blog hosting platforms. [Best Blogging Platforms]

You have a story

The most simplistic advice I give about blogging is, everyone has a view, a perspective, a story and a life, usually made interesting by the voice we give to the experiences we have had – a blog is whom you are, where you are, how you feel and the way that situation affects you.

That could easily be four sentences every day, every other day, or every week, it all depends on how you are inspired, and it is not hard. As you develop the blogging skill, you can begin to touch on topical issues, research, opinion and begin to project as an authority on issues.

Your space, your face

Your blog is your space, you have control over what you have written, you can constantly return to review, refine, update and manage what you put out there and it is a reference point for others to visit and learn more of you in a space that you control.

However, the advice I share the most with those who want to blog is this – a blog should be written with the sense of a seamstress making a good skirt, it should be short enough to keep the interest, but long enough to cover the detail.

2,000 Blogs at AkinBlog.NL

So, there

When I wrote my thousandth blog on the 31st of August 2008, I really did think I would reach the next milestone in a shorter span of time, I did but just by a few months and it has been hard going.

2007 was my most prolific year, I wrote 400 blogs, I have not managed to write up to 300 a year since then. It has not been for the want of trying, I just have my seasons. Sometimes I could write up to 5 blogs in a day and at other times I barely get the same written in a fortnight.

What has happened

Since then, I think I have been more introspective and expressive about my private life, the struggles of being diagnosed with cancer, the treatment, the recuperation and recovery to a status I once knew, it is an ever unfolding story of experiences many of which looked so insignificant when they happened but on recollection gets woven into dare I say, a riveting tale.

In 2010 to early 2011, I had to move my blog completely to Blogger because the company providing the service decided hosting a blogging service was no more fun for them, it was not an easy task and I lost quite a few pictures and all the comments that were posted there over 7 years - sometimes patronising the services of a local company is not the best option if you are doing something for the long term.

On the 8th of December 2012, I will have been blogging for 9 years, in that time, I have seen bloggers come and go, many left in abeyance or abandoned and sadly the loss of a friend who I persuaded to start blogging in 2006 in the Dana Air plane crash on the 3rd of June 2012.

I now consider this blog a body of work, a journal of views and a compendium of ideas that range from bizarre to acceptable, that is the nature of the beast. My Thought Picnics with their freeform sharing of thoughts and meditations, the rage and anger about Nigeria, the pulling down of altars of outrageous practices in customs, traditions, religion and creeds, my espousal of rights in all their ramifications as the critical to our humanity and much else along with my sometime futile attempts at humour make up what I hope will be the record of my footsteps in the sands of time.

Keeping my own faith

I wrote this in my 1,000th blog; I have tried to stay true to Akin playing on the English meaning of the word pertaining to likeness rather than the Yoruba meaning which is more like a heroic warrior, I don't do heroics just the occasional histrionics.

It is about things too concerning to ignore and it is still essentially similar to what is known, compatible to what is expected and related to the unexpected.

I must also note that since then engagements on Twitter and Facebook have recently provided material I have blogged about from the gentle interactions to the robust exchanges, I rarely if ever suffer fools gladly but never as the first resort.

Gratitude

In closing, I want to thank all my readers and followers who have through the years found interest in my views, shared them with others or left comments, you are all appreciated. I also must thank those who on reading my blogs reached out to help in innumerable ways to bless me in times of hardship and difficulty - you are all the wind beneath my wings.

For the gift of expression and the nurturing of the same by reason of the many influences in my life, I am thankful to God, to my parents, to my siblings, to my friends and even to the fiends who cannot stand me, to Nigeria of fond memories and the Nigeria that makes my heart ache, to England and what makes me English, to the Netherlands that gave me a new lease of life in so many ways and the adventure of life and to the vivid imagination that makes me wonder if I really did write this when I return to read it sometime in the future - this is the toast to life and with hope never diminished, maybe the 3,000th blog.

8 Years from the First Blog

The first of many blogs

Eight years ago on the 8th of December 2003, I wrote my first blog at http://akin.blog-city.com it presented an opportunity to gather me thoughts about a whole range of issues and publish them as a journal and an opinion column.

Over those 8 years, I have seen bloggers come and go, some engaging, some disparaging and others who should not be let near a keyboard for reasons far too many to mention.

Blog-City served me well, until August 2010 when they decided they could no more run the blog service because of other commitments.

Where we are now

Since then, I first simultaneously published blogs on http://akin.blog-city.com and http://akinblog.nl whilst literally copying my blogs one at a time from the old site to the new.

My last blog at Blog-City was published on the 1st of August 2011 and the blog is set to close on January the first 2012, however, I must celebrate the 1,731 blogs posted, the over 4,250,000 hits and 1,215 comments on a whole range of subjects for which I have received accolades and brick bats.

Now, everything happens on http://akinblog.nl and I want to thank all my readers, fans, the linkers, the people who have left comments and most of all, the many friends I have made by reason of their reading my many stories of sadness, joy, childhood, anger, rights, sickness, survival, trials, victories and more else.

Thank you all for being there.

My blogs are at http://akinblog.nl

It is a long farewell

It is farewell to http://akin.blog-city.com from today as I have now posted the last blog there and decided to concentrate my blogging efforts at http://akinblog.nl.

A year ago, I was informed that the blogging service at Blog-City will close on the 1^st of January 2012 and it lead to a scramble to move all my material, over 1,500 blogs written in just under 7 years to a new location.

I had opened a blog at Blogger for the purposes of posting comments in early 2007 but from the end of 2009 as if I was prescient, I began publishing my blogs simultaneously on http://akin.blog-city.com and what became http://akinblog.nl.

The house move

There was no easy way of migrating my blogs that I really had to do it over about 7 months brick by heavy brick until all was done.

With my paid subscription running out at http://akin.blog-city.com I have decided to allow the blog to run in Read-Only mode, which means no new posts will published there until the blogging service expires on the 1^st of January 2012.

The statistics front, I have to-date had 3,828,382 hits since 8 Dec 2003 with 1,730 blogs, it is now time to drive my readership to http://akinblog.nl

Thank you everyone for reading my blogs.

Last blog on http://akin.blog-city.com

Dear Friend, Reader, Visitor, Fan, Inquirer & Search Engine,

I will not more be updating this site after almost 8 years of posting here, I started blogging here on the 8^th of December 2003; all new blogs will now be hosted on Google Blogger at http://akinblog.nl however, this blog whilst in read-only mode will remain active until the blogging service of Blog-City closes on the 1^st of January 2012.

Over the last few months, I have successfully copied all my blogs to Blogger and simultaneously published in both places.

Please ensure that all references made to http://akin.blog-city.com are now changed to http://akinblog.nl, the theme of my blogs remains Akin About Things Too Concerning to Ignore.

Thank you for visiting and following my blog and writings, though I am saddened that Blog-City is closing at a time that I have consistently exceeded 100,000 page views a month, the crew at Blog-City have always be responsive, helpful, considerate and kind – I wish them the very best in their future endeavours.

You can however still support my blogging efforts by clicking on the Donate button at the top right of the blog.

For my latest blog posting, please go to http://akinblog.nl

The RSS feed for my news blog is http://www.akinblog.nl/feeds/posts/default

With the kindest regards,

Akin Akintayo

FW75X885FRJ6

Blogger: Go and sin no more

Caring for my baby

It would appear one would have to take extra breathing classes to contain the stress levels that might arise from the dangers of losing one’s blog.

In 2003, when I chose the platform offered by http://www.blog-city.com it appears I had a vision that extended beyond that of the owners – I cannot say I had planned to blog for as long as I have been blogging but now into my eighth year, I am still at it and hopefully consistently too.

I first opened an account and blog on Blogger in January 2007 only for the purposes of being able to post comments to Blogger-hosted blogs that had restrictions in place that favoured only Blogger members.

Defaulting to Blogger

However, as 2009 came to a close, I noticed that there was very little innovation on Blog-City and on the day of the 6^th anniversary of blogging I began simultaneously posting my blogs to both Blog-City and Blogger.

Maybe I am prescient, I do not know, but in August 2010 Blog-City announced they were bored with the project and planned to close down the service in January 2012.

I panicked as I found there was no easy way of moving 1,500 blogs from Blog-City to any other platform, basically, they had lagged behind the curve so much, I was at risk of having a dud blog becoming a dead blog.

Why backup a blog?

A blog in my view was a repository, a data bank, if you like an online journal and by inference backed up by its presence online – in essence, there is no point having a backup of a blog if you cannot read back the data with a simple restore process.

In the end, I decided to cast my lot with Blogger and began moving my blogs manually, brick by heavy brick; stone by rugged stone until it all was done by February 2011.

I have maintained Blog-City as I have tried to divert traffic to my Blogger blog which I acquired a domain name for and is addressable as http://akinblog-nl

Over time, I have added features to help ease the navigation of the site and I have generally been happy with it.

It wasn’t broke, so they broke it

This morning Blogger was down, apparently, it was supposed to be down for just an hour of maintenance, it lasted 20 hours because some gremlin had entered the works.

It got me thinking and wondering about the major decision I made in August 2010, with a behemoth like Google behind Blogger it is a surprise that this ever happened, it was like cowboys were let loose on the corral shooting their guns and scaring the buffalo into a right roaring stampede.

Before that maintenance window, I do not think anything was broken on Blogger, it is fine that they need to keep adding features to keep up with the competition like WordPress or Tumblr, but this is a case of them ignoring an old mechanic’s advice, “If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.”

The blogs I wrote on Wednesday and Thursday have disappeared though we have been assured they will be restored, I have seen sorry but a humiliating grovel by those who did this might only start to comfort me, I will reserve the greater sense of displeasure for another time.

Blogger, go and sin no more.

The Blogger is Back note.

My Own Blog Writing Rules

Writing rules

The latest blog on NigeriansTalk.org lists the writing rules [1] of Alligator Legs and this was inspired from reading the writing rules of a number of writers who were invited by the Guardian newspaper in the UK to share a few tips about their writing habits, rules and creeds over 4 days in February 2010 in series titled Rules for writers [2].

After reading through all the rules I realised everyone seem to have some rules and the exceptions that came with caveats of levity allowed if the writer were writing like some other established writer.

My way

In other words, you must as a beginner go skiing on-piste but there comes a time when you dare to go off-piste and well you are responsible for the consequences of your actions. I publish what I have to publish, the damnation is for those who fear to speak their minds.

Now, I am not a writer in the broadest sense of being able to write novels and long stories, I am what is known as a blogger who writes in journal form about things which in my view are too concerning to ignore and I seem to have a set of rules I follow with my writing.

Be naturally inspired

Any time of the day is a good time to write, unlike many writers my inspiration is like a natural stream; slow and deep in some places, shallow and rapid coursing through rocks in other places but from the banks always a pleasure to behold.

My writings are always about things I know, things I observe, where I am at and how things affect me, if what I write covers all those topics, I would have written a long and interesting blog.

I usually do not wait for the thoughts and plot to be fully formed before I begin to type, there is something that links a workshop of processing in my head to my fingers that the whole picture begins to take shape and form as I type – so, just write and you can edit, clean up and rearrange the thoughts written later on, there is no time limit to editing your blog later on, it could go on for years in my case.

Have an angle or leave it be

Let the news take care of itself and never follow the crowd with the low-hanging fruit that everyone picks so easily, if all the angle you can get is the low-hanging fruit then eat out of the baskets of others you have nothing to write about especially if you are not the first to offer an opinion on that topic.

Your voice has a unique pitch and timbre, I would say that applies to writing too, many may disagree but my voice is my style, it has been cultivated over years but allowances are made for refinement and improvement but no parroting of a fashion or following some trend. Style is like make-up you either apply it well or make a mess of it and you look like a masquerade or a clown.

Do your thing, nicely

Use the word that means what you want to say, the privilege of a good education or even upbringing is not necessarily showing off erudition, if you are used to good meals do not pretend you love fast food to feel part of a crowd – do not let the experience of a good life be consigned to satisfying the lowest common denominator of communication.

Sentences should be full, complete and not too long whilst paragraphs that exceed six lines on your page can be off-putting. Allow for space between your paragraphs, what is aesthetically pleasing to the eye would probably be a pleasure to read too. I always put in my captions after I have written the full blog.

My blogs are normally 2 pages long, they do extend to 3 pages and rarely are ever over 4 pages except where analysis necessitates such length, usually, if the thoughts cannot all be contained in 3 pages I consider splitting it into two blogs.

Acknowledge a good skirt

Where the thought is not original, reference, attribute, acknowledge and courteously thank those sources if they are people you know, a blog is for your opinions and your thoughts, if you want to be a parrot, find a cage in an aviary.

Finally, as I sometimes paint pictures with my words and rarely use multimedia to convey my thoughts I follow this basic seamstress rule – Make your writing like a good skirt, short enough to keep the interest and long enough to cover the detail.

In my view, anyone can blog and like one of the writers said, if you can talk, you probably can write too.

Sources

[1] alligator legs: my writing rules | NigeriansTalk.Org

[2] Rules for writers | Books | guardian.co.uk

Imagine having blogged for 7 years

In gratitude

Imagine belongs to a day long ago that set the course that became a journey, it is my mind in the words that make up this blog.

Sometimes I read what I have written and how I have disembodied to sail in the waters of my blog to all the seven seas to beaches I dare not land as myself to wonder and to alarm but never in fear, even hostile coasts melted into welcome berths, the earth had become my dock.

More recently, it has been very personal; my story in chapters of pain, angst, recovery and hope, my succour and voice in therapy as I rose from the depths to climb with clambering hands to arms that were outstretched to help and relieve.

I can only give thanks to all those who have visited my blogs, inadvertently or as a routine, as readers who have become acquaintances and then become friends, you have drawn me out, lifted me up and created the profile that makes 7 years of blogging such great fun.

To you I commend the closing of http://akin.blog-city.com and the rise in its place of http://akinblog.nl my main vehicles of expression and a future as long as we could desire.

How wonderful you all have made it. Thank you very much.

Imagine!

This opera is shrill

Now doing Blogger

I feel I must address this issue once and for all and hopefully from an objective perspective. When I first started blogging, my blog hosting platform at Blog-City was one of the leading providers in the midst of the many fledgling offerings in 2003.

Just 2 months ago, Blog-City informed us that the service will close in January 2012 and thus began the race to re-host my blog on a platform that would not pull the plug at whim.

I eventually chose the Blogger platform because I had already started a blog there in 2007 and from the 6^th anniversary of my blogging I had begun co-hosting my blog there.

From the statistics of market share [1], WordPress leads Blogger which has consistently been second for at least 4 years.

The new life of Blogger

The lesson learnt from having patronised a small Scottish firm for a service I did not realise might end has been to acquire a domain name for my blog http://akinblog.nl something that would have made it easier to move traffic from my old blog to the new location.

In a sense, my using Blogger offers a sense of security and if I do have to pay for the service at least it might come with better exercisable rights than those I’ve had with Blog-City.

With Blogger has come the menace of spam something Blog-City protected me from including legitimate comments when the readers failed the numeracy test.

Pulling my hair at comments

Whilst I do appreciate those who have left comments on my blogs I am beside myself with a whole set of generic comments that could go on any of my blogs that they are beginning to have the appearance of benign spam.

Typical ones like, “I find this article from Google, it's really useful for me, hope I can post this in my blog.”

“It took me a long time to search on the net, only your site explain the fully details, bookmarked and thanks again.” This appears on a few blogs without context or purpose.

“I am doing research for my college paper, thanks for your helpful points, now I am acting on a sudden impulse.” On a blog on slips, slippers and saunas – I had to reread the blog, helpful points, maybe I need help.

Moving on from what is persistent nuisance I got this, “I think, that you are not right. I suggest it to discuss. Write to me in PM.” From Anonymous who wants me to send a private message to challenge my assertions to corroborate his opinion. Did I say, he? The person could as well be gender indefinite and possibly not human; I have seen primate type letters on television.

For compliments, I get the acceptable, “Thanks for the post.” To which one could plausibly say, if you have nothing to say, say nothing at all.

When, I got the comment, “Absolutely with you it agree. In it something is also idea excellent, agree with you.” My perspicaciousness for correctness and annoying propensity for pedantry in grammar could not be excited for the want of trying.

This Opera is shrill

However, having made my case about choosing Blogger which is generally a popular blogging platform with no particular frills, it goes without saying that one would assume that readers would be using of the popular browsers to view by blog.

As I responded in a comment recently, my blog is more text-based than having multimedia content, I simply have not mastered that tack yet and really whilst the razzmatazz of pictures, audio and video can spice up a blog, they might well be a distraction from the writing. I try to be good enough at writing to obviate the need for glitter and bling.

Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers gets used by 46.45%, 29.33% and 9.00% of the market respectively [2], adding up to 84.78%. A long-standing but somewhat obscure web browser in September 2010 comes a distant 6^th with 3.19% of market share on the pie chart and 5^th on the tables; it is called Opera.

Ranking below Safari and Mobile Internet, users of Opera must be enjoying the show in an empty theatre waiting for the fat lady to sing, but she has long since gone to bed.

My blog on a popular blogging platform with basically no frills displays well on the leading Internet browsers, I would not know how to reconfigure the broad and basic format of the Blogger platform to shoe-horn its aesthetic viewability into the narrow spectrum of Opera.

I am being asked or it is pestered to make my blog viewable in Opera, I don’t think so.

Sources

[1] Which Blogging Platform Do You Use? | Peltier Tech Blog | Excel Charts

[2] Usage share of web browsers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia