Woohoo! There is life on the web

Posted in blogging on 23.02.06@933 by pjh

I checked my referrer logs today and discovered that it’s not just the robots and search-engine crawlers that know about my site. I’ve had visitors. That’s not a typo, it’s in the plural. So here’s a warm HELLO to both of you and any who follow.

Admittedly, you were very odd visitors and I don’t reckon you’ll be back, but you’re the first, and will always be special to me.

From Slovakia with Love

Visitor #1 hails from that most central of Slavic European countries. You were searching google.sk for information on kraw maga, that very practical Israeli martial art. I’ve been practicing krav maga for about nine months, and it’s been great for my general fitness and streetwiseness.

I don’t expect to ever get into a fight, but it’s a good confidence booster for those nights that you’re coming home a little later than usual. I recommend it to everyone, especially if you can find a good instructor who’s more interested in the practical side than in strictly following the curriculum.

This was an odd googling, since I couldn’t replicate it. Also, until this page, kraw maga didn’t appear anywhere. Perhaps google is doing some automated anglicizing of slavic search terms. Even then though, I shouldn’t rank anywhere for ‘krav maga’.

From Canada, looking for somebody else

Visitor #2 came from my very plain home page. They got there by google.ca, searching for someone named ‘Phil’, which clearly isn’t me. Leastwise, they’re not anyone who knows me well, since I always go by ‘Philip’ and try to educate the Neanderthals who truncate names in an effort to be chummy.

Trying the search myself though reveals that I’m not alone with that name. Most of the links that actually contain the whole name ‘Phil Hellyer‘ are Australian. There’s a cheesecake recipe, a couple of links for the Bluegrass restaurant in Alice Springs, and a couple for the Mount Dare homestead.

I ranked 3rd, after the cheesecake and a spurious link about the Canadian politician, Paul Hellyer (no relation), despite not having the distinct word ‘Phil’ on my home page. Clearly google knows something about forming diminutives, unless it’s part of its general spelling-fixer. That’s a pretty good ranking for something approximating my own name without having quotes around it. If they’d spelled me correctly, I’d have been number one.

Toastmasters Icebreaker speech was just fine

Posted in evolution on 22.02.06@892 by pjh

Last night I gave my first prepared speech at Toastmasters. Wow, was I nervous. My legs literally trembled while I was on stage, in front of a group of about 30 not-quite strangers.

I’d written out a speech on the weekend, and had practiced it to myself, with a timer. I figured out roughly how long each section was going to take, if I remembered the words. I also set myself break-points so that I could finish on time. That was essential — I rambled and forgot half of my speech, but used the traffic-lights to get back on track subject-wise. (More on that later, but for now I’ll just say that I hit the six-minute limit dead on.)

I wrote out my speech. I practiced in bed at night. I put key bits on cue cards. I put the cards in my shirt pocket, and didn’t use them. I forgot half of it, and used up the time anyway.

Nobody noticed. I flatter myself there, but its true in general. They didn’t know what I’d planned to say, so for all they knew I was word-perfect. They saw some of my nervous habits, but nobody mentioned my knees knocking together. It’s all good because they expect the first speech to be off a bit — the purpose is to discover speaking talent that you already have. The flaws I can work on.

One former club president told me that it was fabulous. A union boss, a pretty good speaker himself, told me that he’d voted for it as best speech of the evening.

I got lots of good feedback, and I’m sure that my next speech will go even better.

Refinancing a loan—when to do it?

Posted in money on 13.02.06@888 by pjh

Yesterday a friend asked me when he should refinance his personal loan. He’s 18 months into a seven-year term, and wants to take advantage of lower rates. His conceptual trouble is that internet loan quotes are always in years, in the UK at least. This makes it difficult for him to compare his current loan with others. He’s wondering whether he should wait another six months until the comparisons make sense to him.

The general question is this: When does it make sense to shuffle your finances?

The general answer is this: When it’s cheaper in the long run to shuffle them now rather than later.

For example, his current loan has a clause that forces him to pay a penalty of two-months’ interest. Is he going to save enough on the total interest due by refinancing now? Is it going to get better or worse over time?

Some people have loans, particularly mortgages, that carry a hefty penalty if they pay it off within the first few years, and then either have no penalty or a smallish one.

He’s going to refinance it now with a shorter term and a slightly higher amount. He was going to wait until his annual bonus came through, but his car has died and he needs to replace it now. His credit-card juggling is a story for another time.

Polished writing—for what purpose?

Posted in blogging on 06.02.06@645 by pjh

It’s a very strange thing, the balance between posting interesting things quickly and getting the writing to a certain level of polish. The stated reason for this blog is to record interesting things for myself, to act as my memory and commentary. That reason requires no more polish in the writing than is required for later comprehension. At the same time, this is a public record, visible by any who care to read it. In writing for you, polish is essential. Where then is the balance in the writing from the reason and purpose of this blog?

It must be for me, because if it isn’t there is no passion, no feeling, no interest, no posts. It must be for you, because otherwise there is no impetus, no pressure, no polish. There must be a balance in a semi-polished informal style of writing that serves both purposes. I don’t know what the end result will be, but I cannot have a series of posts that are unfinished and unpublishable. Everything must be made publishable quickly—to delay is to have a reason to delay and an expectation of improved quality.

Without that expectation, there is no profit in delay. So publish, and be damned! Relax, write, say nothing that you’ll be ashamed of later, and publish. Worry more about polish when there is an audience to care. Which they mightn’t. The reader may care more for the style as it was when first read, than any ideal reached for thereafter.