Are you sick of reading really bad copy for a product the writer obviously has no clue about? Are you annoyed by some of the terrible writing on blogs using various advertising methods? Well go ahead and nominate your faves for the Farties. Movies have the Razzies, so bloggers need the Farties. Seems fair enough to me.

First thing that strikes me about this blog is the fact that they have managed such a clever url. As with any site its good to have a url that allows you to say exactly what it does. Stock Market Blog is exactly what it says on the tin. Its a blog that tracks stocks and offers up sources advice for trading successfully on the markets. Each day it features a decent length piece on a stock related news item of the day.

Unlike many such sites it loads rather well with little or no banners adverts to slow the site down to a crawl. In addition the site has no pop ups to speak of so you don’t have that annoying problem so prevalent on modern sites. Quite helpfully the site has the stock’s chart below the story so you can follow its long-term progress to the point of the news. This might be a good place to start if you are planning on migrating from virtual stock market trading in somewhere like Second Life to the real thing. The key to doing well in the stock market is information and this site goes a long way at providing you useful snippets you can use. This post is sponsored.

There is someone called the root of all evil or John Chow as he was known to his mum and he is giving away a Nintendo Wii. To enter, all you have to do is write a blog post about it and link to his site. This is my addition to the loads of bloggers trying to get their greasy hands on a Wii. The contest is sponsored by 1234Pens.com which is bloody nice of them. They make promotional pens for all occasions and purposes.

It seems everyone is trying to get into using Voice over IP. I am quite often offering advice to people on how and what to use for their chats. Many are rather amazed that I have in fact been using VoIP since iChat was first launched by Apple all those years ago. While I am sure that most of you, dear readers, are au fait with VoIP, I am guessing you might be rather sick of repeating yourself over it. Why not send you inquisitors over to this forum which is about Vonage. Now I know Vonage is just one of ways of doing it but its a fairly good overview of what it all entails.

I have to admit I far prefer talking over the internet with my headphone/mic combo that I do with a normal handset. Its great I don’t have to hold the bloody thing to my head anymore. This post is sponsored btw.

As I have said on this blog before one really does not want to think about lawyers, other than ones who are friends, until one really needs one. Its good to see that lawyers are starting to embrace the web and putting info about themselves up so that you can can make an informed choice. One such a seattle personal injury lawyer who has quite a good website with lots of information that you would find useful when in need of their services.

The site includes a hand button on its first page which allows you to submit your case and there are easy to find fields to contact them on the right side of the page. It was obvious the site was designed by someone who knew what they were doing rather than some neophite. If you are in need of lawyer in Seatle. Head over and take a look. PH Law sponsored this post.

Fortunately I do not embarrass easily, so I have no problem pointing you to Solaris, where Steve lists his Canadian blogs of the year:

gnotalex (or Pierre, which is his first name…) actually doesn’t make political posts that often. but when he does, it’s always informative and insightful in some way. so, aside from being a funny guy (another supposedly iconoclastic notion against people’s supposed impressions of the typical Conservative voters), the man is in no shortage of awareness and ideas.

And thanks much for those kind words.

Except the “funny”? What is this “funny” of which you speak? I am a very serious blogger.

Of course, when discussing the activities of a professional comedian like citoyen Dion, I might accidentally make humorous remarks. What choice do I have? The guy cracks me up.

the blog québécois

First of all in my guise as Marty I have reviewed the book How to Label a Goat by Ross Clark which has a good ole’ bash at Red Tape. One of my 100 word tales appears over at the Storyblogging Carnival which has a healthy number this fortnight. If you like a bit of short fiction its a good collection. One of Laurence’s tales read by my betrothed Kim Benson and produced by me is up over at Podcast Pickle, please give us a listen and a vote if possible.

And finally back that music pamphlet; there was an interesting piece on it over at the American Enterprise Institute entitled Creative Destruction the Musical. CB Music has also covered the piece. Oh it wasn’t mentioned in the COTV this week but I was.

While not my writing it does worry me to see Christopher Booker being censored by the Sunday Telegraph. The bits left out can be found here.

This looks like a wonderful site for aviation and space flight nuts, although it certainly helps if you have a spare million to spend. Ah, we can all dream. Space flight might be just about affordable by the time I am due to pop my clogs.

About two years ago, shortly after I had completed a handgun training course in Nevada (yes, you read that correctly) I went down with a close mate to see the Blue Man Group perform at the Luxor Hotel in Vegas. They were crazy, nutty, loud, bizarre: in short, downright brilliant entertainment. Possibly the most adrenalin-charged act of its kind one will see outside of white-water rafting. They are now in London. Go see em!

Get a load of this beauty, the new soft-top Aston Martin DB9. Wow. Wow again. Can there be any doubt that these cars are among the most drop-dead stunning machines now being struck from the hand of Man? I am drooling with anticipation at watching this Aston and a bunch of other combustion-engine beauties in a week’s time down at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the company of Andrew and a number of fellow blogger car lovers. I cannot wait.

Thanks to seeing it plugged over at Instapundit, I clicked on Amazon the other day to buy “Old Man’s War”, by writer and blogger John Scalzi. The book is about a guy who, at an advanced stage of life, decides to join the military. I am not going to reveal the outline of the plot – you can get an idea if you follow the link – but any book that is likened to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers but with a more rounded worldview gets my attention. Scalzi is a fine blogger ,and I look forward to reading him. I’ll post a review up when I have read it.

The only problem is that there are so many decent books out there that I wonder how I can find the time. I still have Neal Stephenson’s Baroque trilogy to wade through, dammit.

The biggest news of the week is that you can now pre-order James “Anglosphere” Bennett’s new book on Amazon. Having read a pre-release copy I can tell you it is well worth the read. I agree with it almost 100%.

In other political news there is a small debate going on between George Soros and Medienkritik . It centers on Soros’ assertion that democracy cannot be introduced by force. Update: the exchange has mysteriously disappeared from Soros’ site!

I used to be fucked up on drugs…now I am fucked up on Jesus (Cheech & Chong) This lot clearly make a case for C&C’s comedic quote.

BestofMe is up for this week over at Owners Manual.

WJ Philips is at it again: this time he is painting objectivism as another Zionist conspiracy. Any objectivists reading this site care to go correct his juhenhass screed? Mike taps into a discussion launched by Stephen Green on the nature of the current election.

And some more political fun can be found over at Zachary’s place with a nifty browser game where you try to prevent the Dems from taking over Washington. Those itching for Halloween fun can follow this link provided by Ghost

And, of course, if you need a bit of creepiness in your life, you could always go buy my book The Gathering Dark and other tales. It is October, and Halloween is rapidly approaching.

It’s there and should be obvious to anyone who reads this blog. You will need to wait a few hours after the actual broadcast for the BBC techies to get the latest program (on the RNC) up on the web.

Update: it is about 16 minutes in, at the beginning of the Ann Coulter segment.

...bloggers who combine a taste for heavy metal music with a taste for heavy metal politics.

The BestofMe is up at Owner’s Manual for your reading pleasure.

The Carnival of the Capitalists is up for your money-grubbing pleasure.

That other Carnival, the one of the Vanities, is up for the week over at Patterico’s Pontifications.

The newest results are in for the King of the Blogs.

In a moment that could either be described as spastic or waggish, I came up with a rather interesting contest. First, to make sure I wasn’t totally off my trolley, I sent an email to my fellow rocker, Michele. She not only likes the idea but is rather enthusiastic about it. Inotherwords, it is either a bloody good idea, or she is as nuts as I am. Assuming the latter, here is my idea:

I am (as some of you know), and have been, for a few months now, putting together a band of 30-somethings to record an album (and to tour). We are looking for original stuff. I thought it might be a good for a laugh to run a “your perfect rock lyric” contest. In this we get people to suggest lyrics to a rock song they would like to hear. Of course, if my band uses any, some, or all entries we will give credit where it’s duo and a share of royalties.

The deadline for entries is Valentines Day 2004 and the prize is yet to be determined. I can predict it will be music (or about it) and purchased via Amazon, however.

Musical swots may include an MP3 of the music they suggest should be used with the lyrics if they wish. It would help if you told us what sort of song it is (ie ballad, rocker, anthemic, power ballad etc), so we can get a general idea of how it should be sung.

Unlike pop idol or any other of those efforts, we promise not to humiliate or badger you in Cowell-esque manner.

Judges will be Michele, John, and I. Our top 5 will be posted on both A Small Victory and Dodgeblogium.

There are those times in a creative person’s life which you remember very well. One such time for me was when I started writing my first “real” novel (Land of Hope). About 5 hours into the writing it suddenly struck me what I was doing, and I said in a loud voice, “holy shit, I am writing a novel!” It was not long after this, of course, when I realised that writing for nine hours on the trot was a dumb idea because most of what you produce is pants. I did manage to salvage quite a few of the ideas but tossed about 40,000 words of total bilge.

I had another such moment on Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning at about 4:30, but, unlike the above one, someone else was needed for it to work properly. Whilst my bandmate John and I were waiting for a large multiplayer map for Unreal II XMP to download, he began to play a tune on his keyboard. As you do, I naturally started singing along. The odd thing was that both the tune and the lyrics I was singing were original, with the words off the top of my head.

At first I thought I was singing in my head, that was until John began to sing along with me. Next thing I knew he had a piece of paper in his hand scribbling down my lyrics and his musical notation. By the end of the download we had lyrics, a tune, and instrumentation for our first original song (as a band). It was both a most cathartic moment for me and one of the most pleasant experiences I have had in many a moon.

Whilst dling the next big map, we finalised the song. I asked him whether this was the normal way to write tunes (he had written original music before, but not lyrics). John assured me that is was the first time he had ever heard of it.

What kind of song is it, you ask? We, for our sins, have written a power ballad. I can’t wait to sing it in public. Next time I hope we produce a good ole’ rocker.

Excellent! A Free sports service, for once! I just registered and it’s dead easy… no intrusive questionnaires to fill in, either!

Rugby highlights come to sport.telegraph
By Ed Burmester, Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 29/11/2002)

After registering your details, you can watch all the scoring action and listen to the main talking points of the game at the click of a mouse.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a miserable failure according to Silent Running, and who are we to argue?

Dave rocks. Nuff said.

via: Henry

NB: This is the winter solstice rant. Those wishing to skip this and merely get to the fiction bit may go to the extended entry portion.

The end of year is always a time for reflection and lists of best and worse for the year. This piece will be have a little of both, which is amusing because I am normally not a big fan of end of year round-ups. January 1st is just another day on the calendar, not different from the day before or the day after. However, as it is the time of year for office parties and family obligations, my social life dies on the vine as of today. To be fair, it is amusing how the date that London dies for Christmas is moving closer and closer to the actual day and things pick up more quickly in January these days. There are even things to go to between Boxing Day and New Years eve these days.

It has been a tough year, but I have learned a few things. Bureaucrats are as evil as I always knew them to be, no matter where they work or what part of the world they hail from. They entire raison detre is to perpetuate their kind and make sure that their job is there the next year. As far as doing their job or helping their customers, forget about it. Employees of banks, those failed civil servants, are equally to be maligned. The amount of effort it takes to get someone to do their job in a bank is amazing. One must only to have problems to find that everyone else one knows is in the same boat. I can think of only one person that I know that has good things to say about his bank.

A former girlfriend of mine,Jessica Eckstein, did a series of banners for my book Statism Sucks! They appeared on Gameranger over a couple of months. Feelings on them were mixed, but everyone was talking about them. Here is one of the three for your viewing pleasure.

More of Saturday night’s antics at Perry’s house.

...And I want a Moog and a Harpsichord and a Hammond P3, plus my keyboard all on the left side of the stage! In bigger venues, I want a black baby grand piano…

Marty listens as he hears Growing Old Disgracefully’s royalties being sucked away by the purchases of the band’s pianist, John.

Perry practices his hard rock grimace in preparation for his backstage antics on G.o.D.’s next tour.

JFM has been a very long time reader of Rich Galen, who writes a political column on his own website; except for now. He has been hired by DoD to work in Iraq to help reporters get stories out to regional news outlets about all the good activities in Iraq carried out by regionally based Reserve and Guard Units. He has just started a new series of reports starting with how he got into this program and his journey out there. He hopes to be posting in future about what happens to him in the course of carrying out his duties.

All this may sound a bit dull, but, do try these samples, as he writes extremely well about things from the inside as they really are with a sharp eye for what people really want to know.

It’s called Free Democrats, and I found it via Harry. Incidentally, Harry is having a bit of a blogger get together next week, and many of us will be attending.

Now this is just pathetic. Matthew Stinson (formerly known as A Fearful Symmetry — no wonder he changed his name) is attempting to draw traffic with gratuitous references to Britney Spears, Kobe Bryant, Anna Kournikova. etc.

Whereas I try to boost the number of visitors here the old-fashioned way — with hard work, good writing, and the threat of deadly force.

When someone says “blog,” I reach for my revolver.

radio face
Mitch Benn
(IMWP)

Mitch Benn, whose gig I reviewed yesterday, was kind enough to give me a copy of his latest CD. Unlike some musicians, his comedy does translate well onto CD. You have fifteen tracks to ensure that you will laugh yourself hoarse. All of his stuff is clever but several of his tracks are Spitting Image at their prime quality. Tracks like ‘Imagine You Were Mine’ (a stalker love song), ‘Macbeth (My Name Is)’ (Eminem as Macbeth), ‘Tabloid Journalists’ and the hysterical ‘Rock & Rock Hall of Death’ are worth the price of the CD all by themselves. Anyway, I can’t do this CD justice. Its like Monty Python Sings, every song is a corker. Just go buy the bloody thing!

Rating: 5

On Friday, I learned that my director in the movie-short;The Fallen, is back from spending the summer doing two museum pieces. I shall be getting together with him, after I attend the Tory Party conference. I am covering this event for The Sprout. Lucio seems to have retained his enthusiasm for using me in other projects.

On another note, I am sorry there was dearth of posting on Sunday. BT’s part of my DSL connection was down so I could IM but not get to the internet.

On the subject of Growing Old Disgracefully, things are moving along. Those involved are: old enough to know better but still young enough not to care.

I’m in the middle of a mini-Instalaunch. My ersatz nude Wendy Mesley post seems to have caught the attention of Metafilter, a message board, which is directing a steady stream of traffic my way.

It’s a nailbiter, folks. Can I get eight more hits in the next half hour to surpass my previous daily record?

This might seem like a petty little achievement to you; but then, I have sort of a petty little life. And I wouldn’t trade it for all the tea in China.

Or maybe I would. Anyone got any idea as to how much tea there is in China?

Woohoo! Another hit!

Update: Two hits short. I have failed. I am a rotting heap of garbage along the silver rails of the Success Express. Stupid, stupid, you BIG STUPID!

All I want for my birthday (which is coming up in a couple of weeks, hint, hint) is a set of those fancy Ginsu knives that you see advertised on TV.

So that I can RITUALLY DISEMBOWEL myself!!!

God, I’m such a loser. Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.

G’night!