Sphinx redux

A slightly weird image for a 365 but I've had this blip in mind for a while now as a way of coming full circle over the year. What you can't see is that I was actually lying in a freezing cold frosty sand pit in Victoria Park, Bath with a semi-confused park attendant watching over me when I took this because my original plan was to make this model sphinx look like it was actually in Egypt! Lol.

Bear with me...

My first ever blip, one year ago tomorrow, was of the Sphinx on the Embankment in London. I think I knew I was going to blip that shot when I took it, but I don't remember how or why I found Blipfoto. I do remember my immediate love of the design of Blipfoto - I still think it's a great site - and the excitement of my first comment coming in.

I'm very happy with my first blip, although my second blip, Stan in hats, is probably my favorite blip ever (of mine). Firsts in social networks are quite important imho because they kind of set the tone of what is to come. As an aside, my first ever tweet was:

just cut myself shaving - bollox (no, that's not what i was shaving)

and I like to think that captures my subsequent use of Twitter quite nicely. Oddly, I mainly use Twitter for professional purposes! :-)

Anyway, I digress... the commenting and rating thing on Blipfoto is interesting and to a certain extent quite frustrating. I know I don't do enough of it but it's hard to find things to say. I do wish there was more constructive criticism in general.

Am I allowed to admit that rating on Blipfoto is frustrating? In his talk at The Future of Technology in Education conference earlier this year, Will McInnes argued that most social networks have a slightly 'competetive' aspect to them - which is what drives their use and makes them exciting. (I thoroughly recommend his talk to you btw - it has the funniest cat-related moment in it and gives a great view of social networking as it relates to education). My most successful blip by about a million miles was Stonehenge at sunset, which got about 1000 views in the first 24 hours and something like 18 5 star ratings. It also got 2 1 star ratings, sending it plummeting to the nether regions of the Blipfoto ratings board. I don't object to it rating lower than other people's blips - there a lot of great photographers out there and I ain't one of them. But when I look at my own top rated blips and see stuff with only 5 ratings coming out above that one, it does offend my sense of justice and fair play! :-)

Sorry, that's the one negative thing I have to say about Blipfoto and I know I shouldn't worry about it, so forget I even mentioned it - let's move on.

What am I going to do next?

I'm not sure. I think I want to change tack and I can't decide whether to just give up entirely or do something different. Odd, how Blipfoto seems to be an all or nothing thing - for me at least. If I carry on, than I think I'm going to put less emphasis on the photos and more on the writing and I'm tempted to spend the next year writing 365 entries about my life. Believe me, it won't be very exciting! That said, I'm not sure I'll have the stamina for it. On the other hand, my 50th birthday is coming up during this next year of blipping, so it seems vaguely appropriate. It may well never happen of course.

Stay tuned... those of you that are tuned! :-)

It's traditional to say a few thank-yous at this point but I don't want to start sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech. However, I will just say thanks to Sara for her patience and the time she's spent answering questions like, "should I blip this or that".

TTFN.