The biggest problem with the “pills” that help you quit smoking? Craving. Oh my lord the craving is like nothing else. Seriously, if you stop smoking, after three days of the worst cravings you’ve ever had in your life they tend to go away. But with the pills? Oh no, the craving isn’t really bad, but it’s just nagging, consistent nagging, for days, and days, and days…… I Actually think it might be worse than going cold turkey.

Anyway cigarettes sorted, it’s time to sort the weight out now…

Ok so that aside, the success of CardiffTweetups.co.uk has been phenomenal, and it’s really tweaked my interest in photography. More and more pictures are getting added to flickr and to the portfolio, and today, I took delivery of a spectacularly good Manfrotto tripod and head.

My interests have been tweaked even more by people actually telling me about the things that go on around Cardiff so that I can go take pictures. Which leads me with an interesting decision.

The blog is taking a life of it’s own, and the photography has no longer become “a story of my progression and development”. In fact it’s starting to turn into something that needs it’s own photography site, a dedicated photography site.

I was already planning on mcrowlegroves.com for my professional career etc but at the looks of it….
mcrowlegroves.com – Professional Online CV
mcrowlegrovesphotography.com – Photography portfolio and really really small mini blog purely photography based
thelongmile.com – Perosnal Blog and Site

Hmmmmmmmm….

Yet something about the layout is bugging me. There’s been more hits on the site than ever before thanks largely to twitter integration, (no doubt a lot of you are reading this from twitter) In fact 46.97% came from twitter and all spent an average read time of 10-15 mins per visit. So long enough to read the posts and have a quick look on the site. Yet for some reason something is still bugging me about the way the site looks, And the fact very few people are commenting. Have I got this model completely wrong?? Or is the look and feel of the site putting people off?

That last one is actually what I wanted to talk about. There is something about the way this site looks that’s bugging me, and whilst there’s no denying that pixeled has put a lot of work into this fabulous template (which I have brutally destroyed in several places to work as I want) there’s still something that’s not right about it. I always consider the first month of a websites life as it’s ‘mutation’ period. Where things can be shuffled and moved without causing too much of an issue. Even completely changing the look and feel of the site if need be. Consider it an RC stage (release candidate).

I think over the next few days I’m going to experiment with different themes over on the test site, and see what I can come up with, but I really need your help, and your suggestions. I EMPLORE YOU to PLEASE leave some COMMENTS and tell me just what you do and don’t like. Even if it’s a tiny little comment saying “The website is too dark” or something. ANY feedback is useful, and I would really appreciate it. Remember if you don’t want to leave your email address in the comments use admin@thelongmile.net instead.

I really look forward to people reading this and the feedback, so please, just a few minutes of your time to drop a comment. Please?

Are we so desperately hooked on technology that we can’t live without it? Are we so desperate to stay connected and have the latest gadgets and gizmo’s that we simply can’t see beyond them or even consider living without them? Why is it that ten years ago we were perfectly capable without a Mobile Phone, yet now, if we loose our’s we simply cannot cope without it?

Take me for example. Back in school, everyone had a mobile phone. I didn’t. But it was by choice, I didn’t want one, I thought they were over complicated and unneccesary. True I had a PDA (ok I was a geek I kept my appointments, class diarys, homework assignments etc in there)  but I didn’t neccesarily need it. I liked it, but I didn’t need it.

After a few months, I decided to get one, I kind of needed it for my parents to keep in touch with me as I started going out. But I soon after became dependant on it. I liked the freedom. Now a few years on, I have an iPhone. On Monday, I had to send it back because of a fault… at which point I panicked, I suddenly realised I would be without my precious iPhone, my contacts, my applications and god forbid I would be without a phone for possibly a week.  So much so, that I immidiatley went out and brought a cheap unlocked phone (got a great deal by the way, 15 quid… but that’s not the point) anyway, I was consoled, relieved, but it got me thinking..

Are we so dependant on technology that we cannot live without it… How would you be if you lost your phone, or your computer, or your laptop, or you were told you had to live without the internet, or the computer? Could you really do it? Could you really honestly say you would be able to live without technology for the rest of your life? or even a week? How addicted are you to your phone, or the computer. Face it if your reading this, your on a computer, and you probably found me from twitter, so you subscribe to services, you subscribe to twitter, you probably have facebook. Could you go without? Could you honestly put your phone down for a week, a month, forever?

I don’t know if I could. Technology is a neccesary part of todays life, and it’s coming into our lives and our homes weather we like it or not, but do we really need it? Go on, comment, just how addicted are you? and would you really be able to give it all up?

If you like this, tweet it, comment, tell your story.