I’ve just renewed the domain for this blog. Even though I haven’t updated properly with anything in ages -  I just couldn’t bear to let it go.

Three years ago I started this blog because I was planning on a move to London.  I was nervous, but excited. I worried about my job, driving, where I would live – everything. A year and two weeks later it had finally come to fruition, and I touched down in shitty Terminal 4 ready to start a new life. Today, I’m here, and life is good.

I should make a better effort in writing everything down (the stuff that doesn’t have to do with food, for example), but it’s tough.  FPN emerged into more social media/PR by default of me preparing a job and country change, but the aim of the blog was always supposed to be ‘American in London’ crazy times.  So, here’s a few things I’ve done that I’ve been proud of in the last year:

  • Went bouldering (this weekend, actually) at The Castle in Finsbury Park. My muscles feel like they’ve been put through an organ grinder
  • Travelled to Turkey, France and Romania (and going to Spain at the end of the month!)
  • Got a promotion
  • Discovered Percy Pigs, and finally got a taste for salt and vinegar on chips
  • Went to Wimbledon
  • Failed at ice skating
  • Managed to spend a majority of my summer weekends outside
  • Sat next to two out of three Harry Potter for two separate meals (Rupert Grint at V Festival, Emma Watson at my birthday dinner
  • Was introduced to the wonders of Spaced (how in the world has that show not been shown on BBC America? American friends, you’d love it) and have subsequently watched the series twice in a row
  • Joined Cycle Hire, and am now cycling the streets of London on a mobilised Barclay’s advert

You can see why I haven’t updated the blog in a while.  Thanks to everyone who hasn’t unsubscribed. I’ll update sporadically, I’m sure. Not ready to give up on this baby yet!

Alright, yes. I know it’s been months since I’ve posted on here. I have no excuse other than the food blog has taken over my life.  So much so, that now it’s even bleeding into here.  See, a month ago I entered a Masterchef/Topchef type competition for bloggers called Nom Nom Nom. Fellow foodie blogger Billy from Cowfish and I cooked some wonderful little dishes, all in the name of charity.

Well, bad news is we didn’t win – good news is we have another chance (by the dreaded public vote). So….That means we need your help! Please go to the Nom Nom Nom 2010 finalists voting page and vote for The Tarragons of Virtue. We’d be very grateful!

The Tarragons of Virtue need your help!

While you’re there, please consider donating to the real cause of Nom Nom Nom, Action Against Hunger. For every £10 donation, you get a charity raffle ticket with the choice of some amazing foodie prizes. Definitely worth it.

Thanks!

This video, passed on to me by my colleague Andrew, is nothing short of geeking amazing.

I came across this over at my favourite coolhunting spot, The Presurfer. It’s a breakdown of the blogosphere today.

It’s certainly not an Earth-shattering representation, but it’s a very clever way to visualise it. Thumbs up to Intac for some brilliant linkbait.

Blog comment spam

There’s a debate going on about whether or not to turn comments off on a blog. While I don’t believe a blog is truly a blog without comments, I’ve actually been thinking about turning the comments off on here – at least for posts older than two months.  It’s not because anyone’s being too mean on here, which was the reason Engadget recently shut comments down. It’s because the whole point of a blog is two-way communication, and with the exception of my newer posts, that is not happening. Instead, I’m getting crafty selfish spam that I have to take time out of my day to deal with.

Spam has evolved to the point where it’s difficult to tell if anyone is actually reading this.  I receive, on average, about 10 comments a week on random posts from the last two and half years telling me how ‘brilliant’ my writing is, or how they’re ‘really happy they’ve come across the site’ and how they’re ‘instantly hooked and have immediately subscribed’.  There are never any spam pr0n-esque links in the body of the comments, but instead links to the most ridiculous off-topic sites. Rugby? Panama Travel? You name it, they’re supposedly reading my blog.  Flattered as I might be that I’m reaching such an eclectic audience, their motives are disingenuous, and it pissed me off.

Linkbuilding is an increasingly popular business. Getting more ‘influential’ links to your website means Google thinks you’re more important and theoretically raises your Page Rank. Everyone’s doing it too – SEO people, PRs (yep, like me, but sooo not in this way), media agencies, digital agencies and of course your random Harvard Law blogs who are ‘always ‘researching online for articles that can help me get further ahead’. The latter example being a comment I received this morning on a post called ‘Klassin’ it Up in the Blogosphere’, which was all about the most offensive things I found on the Internet that week in September of 2007 (including a BBC story about a man who peed on a dying woman and deemed it You Tube-appropriate). I would love to see how that story will help them in their career. Really. I’m all ears.

So, yes, I think I will turn off comments on all posts older than 60 days. Sorted.

**Photo from WORD: The official blog of Read Magazine.

January is always a weird month of self-reflection. Partly because of the after-holidays low, partly because everyone is obsessed with reinventing themselves in the New Year, partly because it’s my birthday month, and I feel obligated to take a step back examine my life.

I’ve been in London for about a year and a half – a year and a half that’s flown by like nothing. And while it’s all I thought it would be, there’s been a lot that I didn’t see coming. Like my recent bleedingly obvious realisation: London is normal. Not so much in the ordinary sense, because I think that’s the furthest thing from the truth, but normal as in everyday.

It’s an odd change when you start to bend what your definition of ‘home’ is. When I moved away from my mom’s to go to Eastern, I remember it taking about 8 or 12 months before I stopped saying ‘I’m going home for the weekend’ and started saying ‘I’m going to my mom’s house’.

For some people, home is where they sleep at night. For others, it’s the house they grew up in. For me, it will always be Michigan. However, 18 months on from moving countries, I’m starting to get a bit confused. When I was in Michigan, there were at least a few times when I said ‘Well, when I get back ho- I mean, to London’.

I am officially at the Home Home vs. Home stage.

I realised all of this coming back into London after Christmas. I really loved being home home and visiting everyone, but as soon as my key opened the door, and I collapsed on my not-very-comfortable bed, I was really happy just to be home.

If that makes sense.

I love this from Sandrine at Buzz Attitude. I’m a Mac too, and I hate the Windows 7 ads.


At the end of another year, there are sure to be quite a few ‘RIP Blogging’ posts. Nothing like a new year to make people bring out the ol’ soap box, right?

Personally, I don’t think blogging is dead, but I do wonder if there’s room for many more of them.  I don’t mean to say that new blogs aren’t created everyday ( Istarted om nom London this year, after all), and certainly not that newer blogs aren’t interesting, but how many of them are going to organically rise to the top from the dredges of the overly-saturated blogosphere?

When is that last time you heard about a new blogger who started out with just a free template, and ended up making it big? It feels like we no longer ask ourselves who the next Scoble or Cashmore will be. They are established. They are unreachable. You don’t see many people starting blogs to acheive fame, as it used to be. They use Twitter instead.

Would love someone to prove me wrong though…

Looking at Twitter from the time I joined to now is an experiment in hyper-evolution.

A couple years ago, I made the disastrous mistake of saying I didn’t think Twitter was going to be any big “thing” and it was just a lot of hype over nothing (this was after a good 7 months of sporadic use).  But then, we all know what happened. It grew, it evolved and it became useful for things both personal and professional.

For a while, we hit the sweet spot – people sharing information, people getting information, meeting face to face. It seemed like Twitter could do no wrong.

The next stage began to evolve with celebrity involvement. For once, the masses could get a glimpse into what Stephen Fry‘s life is like. This made the perfect transition into Twitter as entertainment. Some people can’t even imagine watch The X-Factor without a live Tweet stream.

Now, with lists and trending topics, I can’t help but wonder if it’s all too much?  I know I’ve scaled back my Twitter usage in general. I’m at my limit at the amount of people I can follow (lists or no lists), and the amount of information is bordering on overload.

I’m not saying Twitter is over – far from it.  But it’s been a couple years now… I think we’re all waiting for the next thing.

Eulogy PR online Onlinefire PR London b2b consumer

Congratulations to Eulogy! – Onlinefire‘s sister agency who won Agency of the Year at last night’s PRCA Awards!

Eulogy! had been nominated for three awards: Agency of the Year, Specialist Agency of the Year and Best B2B campaign. We also at Onlinefire had been shortlisted for Best Technology Campaign as well for work that we did with Virgin Mobile and its 30p tariff last year. Remember that one?

At the end of the night Eulogy not only scooped up Best Agency, but also Best B2B Campaign for their work with Mortascreen.

And as Helen said on the Eulogy! blog, “Apologies if we deafened anyone sitting near us. We were the noisiest and most fun-loving crowd in the room!”

The moment we found out we had won PRCA Consultancy of the Year 2009!

It was an absolutely spectacular night. Many thanks to all the judges and everyone at the PRCA. Good times!

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