I’ve even been checking Facebook (by the way I’ve finally found an iPad Facebook app that doesn’t appear to suck, except for its name: Liike ) before, or sometimes even instead of Twitter. The other day I realised why: I find Facebook less engaging, with much less in the way of interesting info to read/links to follow, so it’s quicker. I just breeze in, check on family and close friends, and leave. Twitter on the other hand demands more time because there’s so much more interesting news and science and discussions and suchlike.

And of course I’ve hardly blogged at all….

Perhaps if I gave up the sudoku that I’ve just got back into; that would net me an extra 20 minutes (shame) per puzzle – but I don’t want to. There: it’s all about choices. My problem is I have more choices than time. Reading – books and comics – is another thing that has dropped off in the last little while.

I wish I could do without sleep. I really do. Such a waste of time that I could be spending on doing other things.

Anyway. I choose what to do (I chose to blither about this today), and now I’m going to choose to do sudoku. I do have a blog topic waiting to be blogged, and will have a go at getting to that in the not too distant future, but for today I’ll remember your smile (and say bye-bye now).

And my stats had been looking so good for this month too

Even an automated reply to Direct Messages begging for help, even one that says “we’re swamped with support requests so we probably won’t get to yours ever” would be polite – and better than the utter silence I’ve encountered so far.

While I’m at it, if any reader knows how to make wordpress plugins talk to twitter in our brave new OAuth world, I would greatly appreciate any help. I register my blog as an app, I copy and paste my keys and secrets, and twitter tells me the token’s already been used, and I can’t log in. Grrrr.

Update: a week after my direct message to @support, I got what appears to be an automated reply directing me to fill in a web form for ‘twicket’ and saying they’ll get back to me soon after that. Here’s hoping

I’ll make up something to blog about soon, but till then you can always keep up with me on Twitter and BlipFoto.

I had a look at the Wikipedia entry for August 21 and a few things caught my eye. I guess we ought to remember that today Australia is voting for the next government – and facing rather unappealing choices (other than the Greens, who seem to actually have policies… odd for a political party, I know).

Anyway, also on this date (from Wiki, with tenses changed to past):

In 1192 Minamoto no Yoritomo became Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan.

In 1614 Elizabeth Báthory, the world’s most prolific female serial killer (b. 1560) died.

In 1770 James Cook formally claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

In 1904 William “Count” Basie, American bandleader (d. 1984) was born.

In 1906 Friz Freleng, American movie animator (d. 1995) was born.

In 1911 The Mona Lisa was stolen by a Louvre employee

In 1918 The Second Battle of the Somme began in World War I.

In 1920 Christopher Robin Milne, inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories (d. 1996) was born.

In 1940 Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1879) died.

In 1942 Allied forces involved in the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II defeated an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru. It’s worth noting here that my maternal grandfather was there at Guadalcanal.

In 1952 Joe Strummer, British musician and singer (The Clash) (d. 2002) was born.

In 1967 Carrie-Anne Moss, Canadian actress (Trinity in the Matrix) was born. I’ve included her particularly because of my ethical musings related to the Matrix (but also because she’s super-cool).

In 1993 NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

In 2005 Robert Moog, American pioneer of electronic music (b. 1934) died.

Annoyingly however, I can’t find any medical or psychiatric events of particular significance on this date…. Except of course the establishment of this blog