The photo: dozens of lamps made by elementary students using chopsticks for a local temple Noh Theatre event I went to last week. Made for a breathtaking entrance, nestled in amongst the garden near the temple tori gates.

Having my own drunken wake for m'little mate, Percy, drinking Kirin beer and attempting all sorts of long-set aside web activities in a temporary melancholy self-exile. Actually, it's also my Mum and Dad's 41st wedding anniversary today, so I'm finding myself awash in emotion and trying really hard to distract myself. I miss them so. Damn grief. Makes a blog (and life) rather dull, doesn't it. Sorry.... Let's move on to the more interesting web-tinkering stuff I'd like to share with you.

Technorati Tags: photography, web

Ecto. This is a desktop blogging program that enables you to write posts without being on-line. Why bother? Well, it is a really cool program that actually allows a lot more freedom than using the web-based MT interface and having spent most of today playing around with it I am pretty confident that it'll be my permanent blogging tool. I'm enjoying being able to see what I write in a big window instead of a little square, using spellcheck, easy category and tag checklists, custom HTML tags and all sorts of customisable bits and pieces. I decided to give it a shot for those times when I am traveling and have no access to the net but am feeling all verbose and shit (the way you do when you travel). I haven't totally ironed out some set-up problems, and somehow have managed to double post everything I posted so far today so bear with me if things seem a little strange over the coming days and weeks.

Flickr. I've had a flickr account for a while but I kinda figured - what's the point? I have my own gallery and blog. After spending a bit of time pottering around I am starting to see the joys of Flickr - a great sense of community and inspiration. So I have spent a bit of time tonight poking around the megalopolis that is Flickr, and decided to pay up and become a pro account member. You'll also noticed I added a badge down there in the left hand side sidebar. Here is my Flickr page. I'll probably start adding things there a lot more frequently now.

Photoblogs. This is meant to be a photoblog. But it's not really. Too many words, too small image display. I intend to set up a separate page exclusively for large, high-resolution photos with no words. Been meaning to do it for ages and I think tonight is the night. I get frustrated with how ineffective my photos look on the main page here, all small and low-resolutiony and crappy. I'm looking forward to setting up something new. While we're on the topic of photoblogs, if you haven't already, you should check out the great resource at photoblogs.org if you haven't already. Some really special work being done out there. My recent faves include yamasakiko-ji (superb) and J.R. photoblog.