Big shout out Sunday no 4...........

This week i am 'Big shouting" out to this site. Its one of the sites that Cherith discovered ages ago and now i am hooked to their crazy stories. Yes, the Alfred Hitchcock Birds Barbie Doll is a real product and yes you can have one, pre-order here. Sites like this, with useless information like this are what make the internet great. The wasting of time whilst reading about such nonsense is sublime and for some reason i love it, so Big shout out to Neatorama and all the other sites that are such a beautiful and tasty waste of my time and yours!

Glastonbury.........

We have been watching some of Glastonbury tonight on the BBC. We have caught loads of small parts of performances but managed to watch the full set by Amy Winehouse, read about it here. In a nutshell it was a car crash of epic proportions. She was a mess, her vocals seem to have descended into a complete shambles and her behavior was less than rational, its sad to watch.



Jay Z is on stage right now. He began his performance by "singing" wonderwall by Oasis in an apparent jibe at Noel Gallagher who said Glastonbury should not have a hip hop act as a headliner. Regardless of that matter his endless shouting about bitches and constant massaging of his own ego is kinda lame. I appreciate that he is talented but he is giving me a bit of a headache, i mean SO WHAT BRO, you can talk really fast over some samples? YAWN..................................

Cherith has also been blogging about JAY Z at Glastonbury here. She is much more eloquent than i................

THE BOOKSHELF.........

Tonight Cherith built a new bookshelf for us. I watched! Yes, you heard, i watched. I threw out the empty packaging and made sure the camera was pointed in the right direction.......



Truth is, i am crap at building things, Cherith is very good at it and loves the challenge. She insisted that i did not help!! The bookshelf is better off without my contribution, trust me!

[crave]: creative chaos........

The majority of the photoshop work you saw in my time lapse the other day was for [crave]: (pictured below). Last year i designed the artwork for their latest album 'Waiting Games', i blogged it here, do take a look. These guys are awesome so it is great to be working with them again.....


as always the excellent photography is by Connor

Chaos@ragamuffinsoul.com

Big shout out Sunday no 3...........

I guess my first 'Big Shout Out Sunday' perhaps should have been to my wife! Oh well, circumstances dictated that it wasn't so here goes on no:3! My wife Cherith! I think she was, at first, very skeptical of my blogging but as time passed and she saw the wonderful addition that a blog can be to one's life she felt the need to get involved in this beautiful web world! Its pretty cool to share that interest now and i have to say she manages to always find cooler and better web stories than i could ever imagine. As she scans through Google Reader i always respond to her viewing with "wow what site is that on" or "oh send me that link." It is rarely the other way around!! Check out one of her latest brilliant finds here, its hilarious!
My wife blogs via Tumblr. Visit Cherith's Blog here

What traits do you have............?

As i read this great post i was trying to figure out where 'supersimo' fits in with each of the '12 traits.' The truth is, i need to work on a few, i need to newly discover a few and i need to get better at a few! So, i thought id pick out a few things that i already am working hard at or need to work harder at;

Connectors: "Most successful bloggers that I’ve interacted with have an insatiable desire to connect with as many people as they can." I have begun to work harder at this in recent months, via the blog, facebook, twitter etc I have met some wonderful people via these avenues. I need to keep this up though.

Perseverance: "Successful bloggers know that it takes time to grow a blog" I have been doing this for over 3 years, you need to be patient if you want to build community or attract readers. It can be frustrating but i am "in for the long haul", are you?

Curiosity: "They are curious people who are always asking ‘what if….?" Now, i ask this a lot but i don't implement that "what if" on my blog/web presence enough so this, i have to work on. I have been given a great opportunity to do this at work, given a clean slate to innovate and direct a new area of our business so here goes........

Read the full article here. Which traits are you working on?

My day off and 'new job'........

Ok, i am off work today BUT i have been finding that when i am off from my day job that i am seldom actually off from work of some kind. Last weekend we had a great couple of days off, switched off the phones, didnt look at emails etc etc. The thing was when i checked back into normality on Tuesday last week, the emails and messages had just piled up and left me with even more to do! Today, i am working on another Open Uni assignment and believe it or not i value the course and the qualification that i will hopefully gain at the end of it so i want to devote proper time to it, not just cram it in hurriedly. 10am is my start time so i thought id blog first! I also have some news which i am being cautious about announcing or dramatizing but it is quite exciting, i think it is anyway. The last year has brought about massive changes in my workplace, changes that are for the best and are constantly improving the business and our customer service. The one thing that has been slow to happen and has been an uphill struggle for those involved has been the website and online shop. To cut a long story short, it is non existent right now and over the past few weeks after some discussions and prayer i have decided to take on the role of managing this project. Once we are up and running i will technically still be managing a Christian Bookshop, but an online one, with less shelves to stock!! The hope is that i can utilize all that the web has to offer as a means to raise our profile and get you guys to buy books from us, Faith Mission are about to go all web2.0!!! As yet there are lots of details to sort out BUT i am very excited and enthusiastic about this challenge. I will still work from ballymena, so i have no major upheaval in that regard. So, as i get more news i will let you know.......................

Link Love........

I probably won't blog until monday now but thought over the weekend i would leave a rallying cry for some link love! There are some blogs i link to and regularly read who do not link to me, i am not bitter, honest! Anyway, who wants some link love?
Do you visit here and as far as you are aware i do not know about your blog?
If so please say hi, introduce yourself and lets link to each other?

Thanks for all the links i already enjoy :)

Books may Kill me.........

Ok Books might not actually kill me but i constantly struggle to juggle all the books that i am reading at any given time. I start a book, i mention it on the blog and i say that i will come back to it in more detail and then i do not! Sometimes this is because i don't finish reading the book, sometimes it is because i hated it and have major criticisms and do not want to run into trouble by saying that a particular book is crap. The reasons are endless but as you may know i sometimes mention my like or dislike, briefly and as far as i can manage, politely. I might have to admit that part of my reading tactics come from my "restless" nature as mentioned here, i do not settle well! The book pictured is where i am dabbling right now. Go to their website here and buy it here. There is much 'conversation' about this book, the topic of this book etc etc on the web, if you are interested just type 'emergent' into google. I have to say though, so far, in my experience the folks of this little land are largely ignorant of the 'movement.' I see people my age and younger who are aware of the authors, pastors and speakers who represent 'emergent' thinking, they might even embrace some of the thinking but that, i think is it! I have spoken to a few folks who are heavily involved in 'ministry' of one kind or another and their ignorance of the 'church' and its direction outside of their backyard is quite frightening. I sometimes see that as a 'Northern Ireland thing' but i think i am being harsh there! So, yesterday i was told that i read very widely. This is true, i don't always process the information as well as i should though. If i did, then perhaps i could review a book properly and actually do it credit on the blog but i am slowly realizing it is not a strength of mine. In this area i am not capable

"Not many of you should become teachers" just doesn't mean a speaking teacher who stands up in front of a crowd and preaches/teaches. With that i will endeavor not to promise you a book review as it is likely i will not produce the goods! If i did try, then books might just kill me!

Young me vs Now me.........

Ok, i didn't recreate the pose in the old picture so i guess this rather lame BUT what the heck, i like the contrast........



See better ones here
H/T Los

The "truth" about the Internet........

The ongoing evolution of the web is fascinating, the possibilities seem endless and dont we all wonder how it works? the answer from The Hugh Grant Squid Test

"The internet is made up of millions of brass pipes connecting huge underground reservoirs full of facts, ideas and nonsense. Information is pushed around the system using enormous steam-powered pumps.
Although it has been around less than a generation, the internet is now more than three times the size of Jesus. It continues to expand at the rate of two a year.

Here are most popular things people do on the internet (not counting looking at naked people):
1) finding recipes for teriyaki salmon
2) hiding
3) downloading morris dancers
4) origami
5) changing foreign currency
6) learning about bats
7) making smells
8) posting photographs of holidays in Suffolk
9) conducting séances"

H/T ubercherryred

So i found this at work..........

How stunned was i when i found this book tucked in behind another the other day? Its not too long since this post by Los made me aware of the book....................

What i am doing............

Let me break down my current workload for you:
1: Day Job, 5 days a week, 9 -5.30

2: atiG work recently in progress and completed involves artwork for upcoming events with Leeland, Jaime Jamgochian & Daniel Kirkley , David Phelps, Downhere, Starfield and [CRAVE]: (it is a top secret promo kit for the guys, sorry no images).

3: I am about to start artwork, concept ideas, themes for a local group who are about to start work on their 2nd album. I have been friends with one of the guys for years and whilst its not my cup of tea musically, which he knows, i am honored to get a chance to work on this for them.

4: Open University Degree. I am almost halfway through this years course and one year away from completing my degree. I am supposed to be giving about 10 hours a week to it!!

5: the fun stuff which sometimes seems like work but isn't really, YET. By that i mean, my blog, facebook, twitter and all the other networking, web2.0 aspects of my day. Right now, it has been good to me and there are a few things i cant really tell you about that may happen or may not so stay tuned, i might be about to get a whole lot busier....................

p.s. tomorrow morning i am looking after a book table in Church so, well, thats kinda like work to be honest!

Blog Break........

This is the constant tension for a blogger................



and with that i am having an internet break until Monday, i think! The reason? My head is fried, and i am looking forward to switching off this weekend, going to a "family gathering" on saturday night & spending Bank Holiday Monday with my wife................blog ya later!

Dig Lazarus Dig part 2.........................

I posted the wonderful video for this album's title track here the other day. All i said was, that the album is great. So, i have said a few times that my wife has a great blog and yet again she has written a great post about how we ended up with this album and, well, go read it here. Also, in other blog news, today is our BlogFather who art in Tennessee's birthday, so Happy Birthday Randy! I should say in relation to Randy that when my Brothers were in Nashville at GMA, Glenn from Downhereintroduced stevo to Randy as "stephen simpson from ireland," to which Randy is alleged to have said "oh wow, you are supersimbo's brother," he then proceeded to twitter me to let me know he was talking to them! I love web 2.0!

Dig Lazarus Dig.........................

I am not a big fan of Nick Cave but i must say, the new album is great......

Thinner.................

In the last year i have had people saying i have lost some weight, and yes, i have. Not loads but a little! More importantly though, is that my hair is getting thinner on top. I have noticed it the last couple of times that iv grown it a bit longer, the top kind of just doesn't grow so well....................



What do you do? Personally, i will take it gracefully and when the time is right i will consider the Los style!

The Pitch............

The never-ending tension for me in the blogosphere involves over-reaching to try and get something. Huh, i hear you say? Well, let me put it this way. If you had a brief opportunity to interact with a highly respected blogger/writer/genius would you suggest to him that perhaps he should check out your blog? Would you then offer him a unique chance to link to your blog by way of a post on his own site? The second ask is, perhaps over-reaching, i'm not convinced that it is but he thought it was. I must stress that i am still not 100% convinced that he is who he says he is. Ok, thats confusing, what i mean is that i am not sure if the person on Facebook is actually Seth. Its probably irrelevant, he isn't going to link to me, though he did read my blog if only for about 30 seconds!
My point is, upon asking for a link i was informed that "I just don't respond to pitches." I apologized and he vanished, like Keyser Söze but i am not offended, in fact i admire the honesty in telling me what i probably needed to hear. Will it stop me from pitching at people again? Nope! I have enough good experience with it to realize that sometimes it works. I have gotten to know some wonderful bloggers as a result of just asking "will you link to me?" I have managed to connect some fantastic musicians and artists to the work of atiG via a direct and sometimes bold suggestion that we want to work with you. Sometimes it doesn't work though, but here is a little tip for you if you are in a position to have a pitch thrown at you. Reply! Have the guts to say what "Seth" said (if it really is seth!) and don't just ignore it. I have sent emails, facebook & twitter messages countless times to people who, in my mind i was sure would reply and have gotten nothing..................and that my friends, really pisses me off. My first reaction is usually to wait a day or two, then type up an email that tells the person what a complete ass they are BUT then i don't send it! Kidding, i don't do that! It can be very rude though and oh yea im sure every other blogger on earth has this problem.
I shall close with the worst way this can happen to you! Twitter is great for sending messages, keeping up with people etc etc BUT have you ever sent a 'question' to someone and not got a reply and then noticed that they are in fact online, and answering questions to other users at an alarming rate? Ok they could be thinking long & hard about the question you sent or they could be that ass i previously mentioned, you don't know but your imagine certainly convinces you they are ignoring you! So, in future if i ask you something, pitch an idea or suggest doing something for me and you don't like it or don't want to, just have the decency to tell me. We all admire that

Charlton Heston......

Say what you will about Charlton Heston but as a child i thought he was Moses so he was pretty cool in my eyes. Heston died on Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills. His wife Lydia, whom he married in 1944, was at his side. No role was too big for Heston. In The Greatest Story Ever Told, he was John the Baptist; he played El Cid, along with Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy and General Gordon in Khartoum. And, in 1959, he won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Ben-Hur. Heston once said of himself, "I have played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses in my career. If that doesn't create an ego problem, nothing does."

I like Coffee..............

Robbie Williams has claimed that at one point he 'was' on a daily diet of 36 double espresso's and 20 cans of Red Bull, as someone who has flirted with coffee addiction for years i can state that Mr Williams is talking our his ass. That amount of caffeine would have left him dead! Anyway, Cherith reached me a magazine article to read tonight and i thought id blog some of it whilst i had a peek. Caffeine slows down digestion? ahh in my case it usually causes a full stomach to evacuate so i rarely drink coffee after a big meal unless there is a toilet situated nearby. Most of us can handle up to 300mg of caffeine per day and its best not to drink coffee after lunch if you want a good nights sleep. Here is where this gets weird. A recent study from Wayne State University in Michigan, found that drinking 6 cups of coffee or more per day can cut the risk of 'some' skin cancers by 31%. 6 cups is more than 300mg so its probably not going to be great of we drink this amount but we could cut the risk of cancer, see how i could be confused? Basically if i can handle the shakes & the s@*ts then i should drink loads of coffee and maybe avoid skin cancer which lets face it, i probably shouldn't worry about saying as i don't get much sun and i am whiter than the laundry room at a Ku Klux Klan Klub! Oh and just to put Robbie's claim into perspective, his 36 double espresso's is 7200mg of caffeine and thats before the 20 cans of Red Bull, which i should state is 'pee in a tin' ................consider how shaky that would make you?

In conclusion, i like coffee and will continue to drink 300mg or less per day. Robbie Williams, on the other hand might be a liar!