September 2008 Archives

Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi-5... all social networking sites. Meaning that friends from school, family members, long-lost high school sweethearts of yesteryear, and weird people, can get in touch with again and see what you're up to. But it's not all stalker based nonsense, even in online gaming communities, people can develop circles of friends that are spread all over the world. And Buddymapping helps you keep tabs on your virtual contacts.

Using Google maps, this site helps you to create your own personalised maps and then invite friends and contacts to pin themselves to their location, adding a picture, e-mail or web address and even a link to their MySpace or Facebook pages.

I'm thinking of setting one up for my Facebook page, and for here (most likely to be added to the About Me section). Apparently, people only need to click the orange button to add themselves to the map - they don't need to register.

Let me know what you think.

[via BBC's Click]

As you've probably no doubt noticed, photography has become something of a hobby for me recently. There's something quite nice about going to places and finding ways to frame their lovliness and then displaying that to the world.

This summer holiday I went around quite a few places - some local, some on my long weekend to Cheshire - and the main focus was, alongside relaxing, taking photos.

Now, I know how boring and uninteresting photographs of people's holidays can be, but that's not my reason for sharing them with you. The photos are all of National Trust properties which are something I think are unique to the country. Where else in the world do you get eccentric, rich people building things in the middle of nowhere for the sole reason of looking at a pretty view? Or for hunting? Or to display their massive wealth? I'll tell you where, nowhere.

No other country has these magnificent houses, these brilliant follys, these gardens and lakes of such tremendous beauty that you can't help but fall in love with them.

I know that being a member of National Trust doesn't really suit a fairly young member of society but the good thing about it is, aside from free parking, is the free entry to their sites and let's face it, it's a massive incentive to go to them if you've already spent the money anyway...

And so I find myself planning these trips. The sole reason for going to Cheshire was the sheer number of sites around there. I found myself with a spare Friday so popped along to Nostell Priory. And every single time, I took plenty of photos. Here they are (each link opens in a new window, with photos displaying larger versions and text links taking you to albums stored at www.thomasjpitts.co.uk/gallery2: