Look - I wasn't going to do this for several reasons - mostly because there are actually only 7 of you out there (and I love everyone of you - you are all special in different ways - even you, Bob) and
publicaddress.net has at *least* 20 (million) readers who vote them in every year as New Zealand's favourite blog (they are good but that's besides the point!)
I know I've been slack around here for the last couple of years - making people come back to check comments instead of adding a comments feed; not posting regularly; not spell checking; pilfering conversations and passing them off as blog content. I know. I KNOW!! and it's not like I'm promising to
change or anything.. I'm just.. you know.. asking you to do something and get NOTHING IN RETURN! no wait.. let me reposition that.
I am still
here* and, more importantly (and thank goodness) so are you (you are still reading this, right?) good.
My favour is to ask if you could manage to find five minutes before April 14th (NZ time) to
vote for thejamjar.com in the blog catagory of the NetGuide Awards. I know I don't have any chance of winning, and that's not the point anyway; I would really love to have more than the one (I voted for myself) vote (I got really embarrassed after I hit the "submit" button) in the system!**
(cos I know if you don't , there will only be one vote, did I mention that? only one. Mine. And a comment. I made a comment. One of those comments someone hopped up on cheese sandwiches might write after watching
MiramarMike as close to butt naked as any woman outside his marriage would ever hope to see and is now suffering a big dollop of regret mixed with a swirl of
whakama (about the "voting for myself" thing, not the "seeing Mike close to butt naked" thing))***
* August 2nd 2008 is this blog's 10th Anniversary
** Yes I am whining again
*** sorry.
vote. thnx.
[edit] I spotted
this and
this advertisement (original size as displayed on site) over at
stuff.co.nz
I had this idea about Earth Hour. I had this idea that if I went to Federation Square, I would share this moment when the lights of Melbourne would go out, and we would feel a sense of community and awareness of the planet.. or something. I thought it might even be moving, and worth doing, worth sharing.
Fed Square had a fair turnout for the Earth Hour. Some had candles, most were just standing around. But as 8pm came and went, it was very difficult to determine that anyone knew that it was time to turn the lights out. As time passed it seemed that more lights came *on*. It got lighter, and brighter, then a choir of Baby Boomers on stage began singing *really* old songs like Michael Row the Boat Ashore and Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham and other such classics your elderly teacher might have made you sing on school bus trips.
Boom: 8:30pm we were heading out of there. Earth Hour was just really lame.
Walking home, we were pleased to see bars like Spleen and Lanes Edge were bathed in candle-light, and the flower vendor on Swanston Street had all his stall lights out. A fair number of civic buildings including the Melbourne Town Hall's clock tower and Cathedral were in darkness but mostly, the town was full of people and as bright as ever.
[Update] It looks almost spectacular, but that wasn't the experience on-the-ground.