Bestuff - early social media

Thanks for everyone who read and enjoyed last weeks outdoor edition of the blog not least the pictures.
This week I'm going back a bit in time to around ten years ago before some of you were online even and looking at one site I loved in the before Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr were the social media of choice.
The main reason you join any kind of social media is to form connections with others,  in other words it's the cyber equivalent of face to face networking so you need to find thinks that link you to who share things in common.
The mainly British social media of choice in the 2000's was Friends Reunited that worked though connecting you to schools, colleges, university and workplaces to others who had connections to them.
Bestuff was an international site that did things in way that soon become more the norm.

Rather than looking at where you've been, it looked at what you liked such as favourite films, foods, pets, hobbies, dating likes and so on in groups created by users which you'd mark up as likes that added into a mosaic collection of your "Bestuff".

 New Stuff, new categories were listed you you could keep up and by going through categories you could find your "Bestuff" and share it.
It was a bit like a game where you'd go around looking for and creating things you'd share.
It's a bit like Tumblr where you look for thing you like, reblog and follow each other except it was a bit less high tech and didn't have the messaging sophistication.
There was a Friends section you could add those you shared the most stuff with and a messaging board and my best buddy on there is in that screenshot, Tribble, to whom we had a keenly felt relationship between us.
It closed down after a period of graveyard languishing a few years back but part of my past includes this early social media so when I think  back to things when this blog was in its infancy, I do think of those days by the "Big Computer" on sites like that before joining Google Plus and Tumblr.
Of the two I'd say Tumblr is the busier by far and Google Plus is one of those things I file under was encouraged by a group of friends who seemed to want to leave Facebook but then decided freebees were worth more to them than better privacy and control of who you posted too and promptly left me on there as I refuse to do facebook. Actually I have two accounts but do wonder from time to time about scrapping one completely since I seldom use the other.

Spring is in the air

After last week's much read and discussed at certain places post  if you're in Great Britain you'd of realized we recently had a warm sunny spell that if like me you live in a more rural area meant the farmers moved from trying to keep everything warm from last months snow to the exact opposite!

 These creatures have been keeping my company  on the smallholdings I pass while out walking, trying to keep myself fit as the go "Baa" making me feel my stomach and leaving me feeling hungry

 The leaves are beginning to grow where in the same location during the Winter I showed you all the area all covered with snow and if you look carefully there are Dandelions growing by the base of the tree trunk.
The signs are for the Farmers Market and Unprocessed milk you can buy from the farmers gate as some people prefer it to treated milk. Personally I prefer sterilized!!!

A group of Dandelions  near our wood stuck between housing developments and one of the most important 'A' Roads in the North-west Midlands. One just hopes it isn't built over.
On our village green of sorts, their are wild flowers between the trees and alongside the hedgerow presently there is a continuous line of dandelions rather like you would expect to see more of in country lane than the village centre  where also you hear the birds calling across the green dissected by the main estate road.
I haven't know too many village centres were between the shops, you can see and hear that much wildlife which makes even a trip to get a bottle of milk and Allied Bakeries finest can be most pleasant.

Staying warm - the only agenda that matters

One area when I tend to disagree with traditionalists is over the idea girls or any other female clothing needs to be all thin and feature either a skirt or a dress not least because I grew up in cold environment where it wasn't unusually for winters to be very white.

What it means is what heat our bodies give out isn't being trapped by materials that would help keep us warm leading to a situation where girls may feel get cold quicker just because of gender norms in fashion.
 In areas like mine, because of the cold, often girls did wear warmer clothing even if over a school dress to stay warm and they did include pants or even snow pants with super warm layers which were more suited for winter play.
You often had a thick padded coat with a hood on too keeping you warm.
Staying warm and looking after yourself should never be limited by ones gender because it is a basic human need for all of us.

 In some school areas Uniform policies are being adjusted to allow full gender expression and options for all such as Western Australia that decided last September to allow pants or shorts to be worn by girls and in some UK schools boys to wear skirts if they wish.
To me this is about time because uniform is about setting standards so kids look smart at school and avoiding competition in dress and not about being an instrument of gender stereotyping or oppression.

Classical sacd round up part seven - Mozart

Mozart on cd for me started in 1991 with the DG Mozart Masterpieces  25 cd set that I bought an awful lot of during that era.
Those discs were mainly drawn for performances in the 1960's and 70's usually from mid 1980's cd transfers from analogue tape rather than the late 1990's and onwards remasters for "The Originals" or "Collectors Edition" box sets so I felt it was time to look at newer performances that would sound better in super audio cd to go alongside them.

 This does actual breach that rule being a 1972 recording  but it was exceptionally well recorded in quadrophonic sound being one of the finest ever performances with Alan Civil's horn playing standing out.

This was part of a series of recordings made by Linn Records, part of the Scottish Hifi manufacturer that use modern instruments but with a smaller scale orchestra than has been the case in the past to great effect, letting more light and shade in. 
Technically these best my mid 1970's accounts on DG.

This is a set of performances by the label BIS performed under Historically Informed  Performance criteria, which is HIP in some classical circles even if some traditionalists like me feel it's flawed as a concept. This account using an early 19th century piano while being a bit faster than I'm used to, do work quite well bring Concerto 27 that can sound plodding to light.

I bought this on recommendation in September as it has all of Mozart's violin concertos plus a few other works performed by that modern day gem of a violinist, Julia Fisher. 
Mozart's flute concertos always interested me as our Head Girl was a Flautist so one often heard them but the recordings I had didn't breathe as much as the best modern ones which was why I tracked down this 2005 release complete with catalogue as these are the finest available to date.

I have two groups of recordings of the main Symphonies, one set conducted by Karl Bohm  mainly in the 1960's and a mainly 1970's box set by Herbert von Karajan both of which were featured in the Mozart Masterpieces series.

These two double sacd sets while using modern instruments do use a smaller scale and some elements drawn from in vogue period performances and were very highly regarded upon issue in 2008 and 10 with the very finest of sound by Linn Records.

Easter Monday Edition

 (Pix credit: North Dallas Gazette)
Today's the day all right when a certain bunny -no not Jennie- comes around this time of year bearing gifts for the young and very much young at heart and things like Easter Egg Hunts are run.

 But wait what are Theo, Peaches and Two-Faced up to here with that there Egg?
Is it something the Yokel Constabulary ought to concerned as I do believe that egg is in fact mine and how dare they try to claim it as theirs to eat in their very own seat by the window plus anyway as it has their own paw prints all over it, recovery should be easy later on.
They're not getting away having it made by one of England's finest chocolate makers with I believe some separate chocolates included just you wait and see!!!
Nom, nom, nom!