I’ve had this little blog for over four years now. It really started as a fun alternative to my two main blogs, Zombiecoder (a now-defunct web standards/best practises web development blog) and kay lives here, my (still on-going) ColdFusion/programming/technical blog.

What I discovered is that while kay lives here is necessary as a single point of reference for what is essentially my professional career, I have far more fun writing over here and on my metal festival blog, hell bent for metal. I don’t take it at all seriously, and in fact I probably break almost every rule of good blog management by posting randomly, sporadically and inconsistently – all the things I tell my web site clients not to do. But goddamn, it’s just fun – and sorry to anyone reading this (I understand one or two people do), but I’m writing this mostly for me. I’d still do it even if no one else read it.

So aaaaanyway, the fabulous Steff of Steff Metal has just published an ebook called the Grymm and Epic Guide to Blogging. Her blog is a real riot and she does all the right things including posting consistently and almost every day. Whenever she starts recommending jewellery sites and etsy stores my PayPal account starts groaning. And she went to Wacken last year, so she’s a true metal sistah, or something like that.

The ebook is cheap as chips at US $15 and as everyone knows, PayPal is not real money anyway so I picked it up because I thought it might be fun to read. Being a web developer and former SEO specialist, I’m not expecting to learn anything too radical but Steff’s writing is always so bloody enthusiastic I figure some of it might rub off on me. She promises it won’t have ‘any corporate salesy stuff or “I know best” talk’ and the few pages I’ve flicked through so far certainly support that.

So if you’re a blogger or thinking about becoming one (no doubt it’s the fame, fortune and rabid fandom that’s attracting you, right?) then go pick up Steff’s book. It’s cute, funny and useful. What more could you want?

There’s this awards program run by AWIA each year, for Western Australian sites since 2005 and as of this year, nationally. I always enter all of the good client work that Clever Starfish, the web business I run with my partner Dave, produces. We won the best small business site category in 2007 and although we had three finalists in 2008 (including two sites in one category), no winners.

This year for a laugh I entered my blogs into the blog category, which is judged mostly on content and usability and hardly at all on design, code etc like the other categories.

The crazy news is that I’m one of three finalists.

Clever Starfish has two finalists in three categories as well. There’s still some more finalists from SA and QLD that are not announced until later this month but the list of so far is available on the web awards web site.

The winners are announced at a dinner on November 6 – an el-swisho affair billed as “black tie with a web twist” which I generally take to mean I can wear big boots, fishnet stockings and have crazy hair.

Wish me luck!

Picture: The Forum in Rome. I’m going to Rome. Next week. Heh, did I neglect to mention that? No?

As of this month, the Aussie Bloggers’ Forum has been up and running for six months. Congratulations to the admins – community building is an art and they’ve done a great job of nurturing this one.

The Aussie Bloggers’ Forum is open to anyone with an interest in blogging – not just Aussies! There’s areas for WordPress, Blogger, Moveable Type and other blog platforms, as well as monetizing, blog pimping and using social media. But the real fun is in the Kaos and Mayhem forum, where pretty much anything goes. Some of the longest (and still) running threads are about what you’re cooking for dinner, TV shows like Dexter and how your day is going.

I have a soft spot for forums and for me, sometimes it’s nice to hang out online with people who are geeky enough to have blogs and visit forums, but who are not web developers. Not that I don’t love all you web developers.

Just sayin’.

Who believes I’m the 313th, 326th and 344th noisiest blogger in Australia?

Well, Jon Yau, the dude behind AustralianBlogs.com.au does, according to his Winter 07 “State of the Australian Blogs-osphere” post. He admits his methodology is a bit dodgy but it’s all good fun.

Notably above me is the always mouth-watering Abstract Gourmet at 112 AND 113, Simone’s fabulous Enjoy Perth at 145, and Wordish Krissy’s Too Askew at 293. All interesting reads and not all techy stuff either.

I can’t help it – he’s just so cute! He’s taken over the extra chair in the office – the one that was meant to be for quasi-work-experience-student Luke, who has instead rediscovered World of Warcraft. He sits there all day even though we wake him up and bug him every half hour or so. The cat that is, not Luke. We haven’t seen Luke in a while.

So, day 15 of Photo Project is here and I haven’t yet lost interest. In fact, the “blog every day” thing has really gotten me motivated. Who knows where it will end.

You wanna make a new prediction, Tuna?

Due to unfortunate scheduling, tonight was also the Web Women dinner, the first dinner meeting that we've had. So basically i'm exhausted, I've been talking non-stop for the last four hours and my head is chock full of new people and interesting conversations.

Despite being assured that I wouldn't be kicked out of the club if I didn't blog about the meeting, I couldn't help myself. Just for Jon, the story of how the goatlady came to be will follow. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm knackered.