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Wood Smoke

Matt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:31:25 +0000

It just happened again! I tweeted about this last winter, and I may be repeating myself but I *love* living in a city where I can open the window and get a good waft of wood smoke. It evokes memories for me of Mousehole in Cornwall as a child. Just as soon as le ramoneur has visited, I shall be lighting a fire in our chimney.

These days it may be un-green to light a fire when it’s cold (wood is better than coal, I know) and it’s really not good for city pollution. For me though it smells like magic, and that is what this city is. Round every corner and down every rue there is something new to be discovered every day. Some days I hate it, and I may have to leave it, but magic is what it is – a city which hasn’t lost touch yet with its past.

matthewneale.net

Matt — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:54:08 +0000

I’ve resisted buying a domain for many years. Around ten years ago all my peers were hurriedly snapping up their names, and I couldn’t really see the point. The whole business of choosing someone to buy the domain from, and choosing who to host it, and administering it, all seemed a bit much when all I really needed was an email address. In the end I signed up for HoTMaiL (as it was then) for free and never looked back. Perhaps it wasn’t cool, but it was simple.

After starting this blog I thought about it again, but the same thoughts came to mind, and anyway, this is not intended to be a pro-blog, it’s just for me to record my progress on.

In the end though I finally succumbed, and this blog is now matthewneale.net. You may have noticed, you may have not, in theory it shouldn’t make any difference and matthewneale.wordpress.com is still active and will remain so.

The reason for the change of heart is that recently I’ve put the URL for the blog all over the place – it’s on Twitter, LinkedIn, Seesmic and Plaxo, it’s on FriendFeed and Facebook, it’s even on my CV. I only realised just how many places when I tried to change them all to the new domain. My feeling is that if I am going to have my main internet presence somewhere, it really should be somewhere as permanent as possible, and somewhere I can control independently of where I host it.

It’s dead easy now anyway, I just paid a tenner via PayPal and WordPress did the rest. [This is not an advert for WordPress.]

The funny part is still to come though, the day before I made my final decision, I saw this little advert on my WordPress Dashboard:

WordPress tip: Be the master of your own domain – make this blog easymattnealeonline.com for just $15 per year.

For those who read my post 2 weeks ago, you’ll know why this made me gawp and then laugh. Strewth! This is one of those moments when you’re sure someone in power must be watching.

10 things I’ll remember about you…

Matt — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:46:42 +0000

Purely for amusement – ten slightly odd captures from around my desk and office in the weeks leading up to my last day at Comverse. I wanted to be able to remind myself in future of what I saw around me every day. Each photo has a description if you click through to the photos on flickr.