6,000th Post!

And herewith the 6,000th post on the crap fest I humbly call The Poor Mouth

Although she has been dead for nearly four years now Mimi's ghost remains astonished that I have managed to churn out so much rubbish over the past seven years (or seven years come April anyway)

I would like to commend my little band of readers for their patience and tenacity. I hope to be celebrating my 10000th post in several year's time

Now We are Six

Here starts Year Six of the Poor Mouth having lasted about five years and 10 months more than I expected when I put up my first post back in April 2006 when the world was younger and digital watches and Tony Blair was still Prime Minister

I am grateful to everyone who continues to visit, everyone who has linked to the Poor Mouth and to everyone who has left comments over the years. Without you the Poor Mouth is nothing.

I will probably post a bit more sporadically this year but fear not it is more than likely that I will be putting up my seventh blogoversary post this time next year.

Word verification

Much as I find the new word verification thingy an irritation I like the level of spam currently bombarding the Poor Mouth even less. While Blogger's spam filter seems to be working well I have found the amount of anonymous comments in my email inbox to be a pain in the arse.

My apologies for the inconvenience but word verification is back on.

Portfolio II

I have just created a second portfolio for non portraiture. Regular readers will be familiar with most if not all of the photos but still

5,000th post!

Herewith the 5.000th post to appear on the Poor Mouth. Not bad going given that this crap fest has only been going since April 2006!

Although she's been dead for nearly three years now, the ghost of Mimi is still utterly astonished that I have managed to churn out so much bilge insulting the intelligence of perhaps dozens of readers over the years.

I intend to continue churning out crap for as long as I can. There may be breaks but I don't plan to quit.

Shaun P Downey Portfolio

I have also launched a second new blog Shaun P Downey Portfolio which will reflect the current state of my photographic portfolio.

The portfolio mainly consists of my favourite photos from my collaborations with my nephew Tim Manning and Li Winter this year. It also includes a number of photos taken in Paris last month and a small selection of photos taken between 2007 and 2010

I hope you find it interesting. Once again the link can be found in the Artists and Writers section of in the right hand bar

Photo Depository

Shaun P Downey's Photo Depository is the first of two new blogs I have created as a showcase for my photos.

The Depository includes pretty much all of the photos I have taken on shoots this year (plus photos from Paris) that I have converted from RAW to JPEG. I have also included a number of photos taken between 2007 and 2010.

They are in chronological order but not tagged. Still I hope you find them interesting.

The link can be found in the Artists and Writers link section on the right hand bar

New Avatar

I am in the process of removing any copyrighted photos from this blog and copyrighting my own photos. In the circumstances I can't really go on using Dear old Robert Newton Calvert as an avatar.

At the moment I will be using this photo of my cat  Bebe as my avatar

Ceci n'est pas un chat!

New folder on photo website

I have just created another new folder on my website http://shaunpdowney.com titled Tim and Celena. There are over 90 photos in it so far. More to follow

Website updated

I have finally gotten around to doing a significant update of my website. There are still some photos to sort through but I have added over 100 new photos to the site, many of which have never appeared on the Poor Mouth.

If you would like the website address, contact me at thepoormouth@gmail,com

The Poor Mouth: the go-to site for drivel

I am by no means a visitor stats addict but sometimes I do like to see who is visiting the Poor Mouth and for what reason. I use Stat Counter which has recently had an upgrade. Before it would just show search words for a given visit; it now also shows (for some searches)  one's where the blog ranks on Google for that that search.

It's quite amusing to see that the Poor Mouth scores highly for a number of searches including:

The History of String (2nd place)
Blackadder election (3rd)
Anu paps (4th)
Alfredo Astiz (5th)
Pour encourager les authres (7th)
Sweet holiday pussy (5th)
De Valera condolence (6th)
Nibbled by a Garra rufa (2nd)
Worst poem ever (3rd)

and so on... It is amusing to see some of the searches where the Poor Mouth comes out on top. These include:

Alicia Partnoy poems (an Argentinian poet who suffered at the hands of the junta during the Dirty War)
Matthiola arborescens (the Tree stock)

Crippen not guilty
Mr Methane Michael Medved (perhaps that says a lot about that right wing arsehole!)
Mehmet Aygun (the last Turkish soldier of WWI)
Tracey Emin lips
haiku about poor and
pornocandy

The top two searches for British traitors WW2 puts the Poor Mouth in first and second place

However, the one that I am most proud of is the search George Galloway is an idiot. The Poor Mouth is at the top ahead of CiFwatch, the Guardian and the late and unlamented Iain Dale.

So there you have it. This post is an awful lot of very little except for Jams O'Donnell blowing his trumpet (which is why I rarely leave the house nowadays fnur, fnur!)

Still ti is heartening to see that people know where to come for when they want to read crap!

Now we are five

Here starts Year Six of the Poor Mouth having lasted about four years and 10 months more than I expected when I put up my first post back in April 2006 when the world was young and digital watches were still a good idea.

After over nearly 4100 posts, over 1,015,000 visits and nearly 43,000 comments, the drivel still keeps on coming

I am grateful to everyone who continues to visit, everyone who has linked to the Poor Mouth and to everyone who has left comments over the years. Without you the Poor Mouth is nothing.

I will take a break shortly, After five years of relentless rubbish I deserve a little rest. But fear not it is more than likely that I will be putting up my sixth blogoversary post this time next year.

Blogger fatigue

The Poor Mouth is not far off five years old. By that time it will contain over 4,000 posts with around 43,000 and over 1 million visits. Not too shabby if I say so myself...

Most of the time blogging is enjoyable but there are times when it is a chore. I am currently feeling the latter rather than the former.

I will continue until my fifth blogoversary on 2 April and then I will take a break of a few weeks. 

No photo hunts until then

Photo Hunt and 4000th post

The theme for the week's Photo Hunt is mainly black so here's Lord Horror (aka Ted) again. He is of course considering how much drivel can this blogger spew on this, the occasion of the Poor Mouth's 4,000th.

Even the ghost of the dear departed Mimi is so stunned that I have been able to say absolutely nothing of worth over so many installments that it is back to show its astonishment

Ah well, onwards and downwards (in quality) to post 5,000

Meta-blogging updates... or something like that

I haven't forgotten about the great poetry competition I will be announcing lucky winners i the next day or two. Some of you will get some Flann O"Brien related goodies

I can now say that the knee pain has gone down from a bugger to a bitch. Thanks to Knatolee for suggesting the category,

And thanks to everyone who has visited my photo website. Over 2,000 views in under a week!

More reading in 2011

One thing I certainly resolve to do this year is read more. For some reason I have read relatively few books (by my standards anyway). I think the rot set in when I damaged my knee and spent a lot of time housebound. That should have been the ideal opportunity to make inroads into the huge pile of unread books and DVDs in the back bedroom but I found myself lacking the energy or concentration. Even when I was mobile again I was not reading much,

This will change. I've just started Napoleon is Dead: Lord Cochrane and the Great Stock Exchange Scandal by Richard Dale, a very readable account of a scandal that ended with the disgrace of Lord Thomas Cochrane, one of stars of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars (and he was up against a lot of stiff competition) and a national hero (and one of my personal heroes).

The Great man himself

Perhaps as a result of his disgrace (I am not convinced he was guilty) he went on to be a hero in South America, being instrumental in the the Independence of both Chile and Brazil. The Chilean Navy has had at least four vessels bearing his name (a fifth was under construction in Britain when WWI, It was commandeered by the Royal Navy, converted into the Aircraft Carrier HMS Eagle). The Royal Navy has had two ships named HMS Cochrane and a shore establishment in Rosyth.

The Current Almirante Cochrane when still HMS Norfolk

But I digress. Despite the huge pile of unread books in the back bedroom my next read (or read after next) will be Architects of the Resurrection by R M Douglas.This deals with a small political party Ailtirí na hAiséirghe created in 1942.

Accoding to Wikipedia the party's objectives included the creation of a one party state under the rule of an all-powerful leader; the criminalisation of the public use of the English language; discriminatory measures against Jews; the building-up of a massive conscript army; and the reconquest of Northern Ireland.

Apparently it had support from people who went on to be influential in politics and other fields later in life.

I will be interested to read more about this fascist rabble

Three highlights of the year

Before I forget I would like to highlight three most pleasurable real life encounters with bloggers and other online folk.

I did not get access to the internet at home until we got a digital set top box from out cable tv suppliers. The box provided very limited internet access and it was via this almost ten years ago that I came across Suzy, an artist who lives on the Wirral. We have kept in touch since, she and her partner have visited us twice but it was not until November that I made a reciprocal visit. A most enjoyable time was had despite freezing weather and a streaming cold. I hadn't ben to Liverpool let alone the Wirral in decades

Back in 2004 I encountered an American-Argentine fellow with definite anarchist. We both used to go to a left leaning Yahoo chat room which could be quite enjoyable despite the trolls and the room owner who was a Stalinist prick (the owner and I didn't get on, believe it or not!). Anyway I kept in touch with Floyd over the years so it was an utter pleasure to meet him and his beautiful wife Mariela when they came to London in April.

In July Bob from Brockley arranged a blogger meet. It was good to meet Bob. and quite a few other bloggers including Francis Sedgemore, Kellie Strom, Carl from Raincoat Optimism and Michael Ezra... not that I can match their political analysis

Ach this will be my last post of the year. Onward to 201!

Another year over (almost)

Well give it 8 hours or so and we will see the back of 2010. It's been a curious year for ,me much of it dominated by knee pain and the swallowing of heroic doses of Tramadol - at least up until the end of August when a second operation sorted out the residual damage. Now ll I get are twinges from the arthiritis.

Once the knee pain was out of the way I discovered the
joys of methotrexate, It seems to be clearing up my psoriasis (slowly) but it is no fun to take. Even at the low doses used to treat skin problems I feel crap for a day after I take my weekly dose. Hi ho.

It was ultimately health issues that made me decide to take voluntary redundancy- that and the prospect of massive job cuts across the civil service over the next few years. I revived a reasonably good settlement so I do not need to work for a while but not enough to set me up in a life of ease until my pension comes, dagnabbit! So I need to find some new employment but not until the new tax year. Whatever I do I intend to try and make at least some of my income from photography

But I repeat myself. I won't make any new year resolutions as such. If things go a I intend the 2011 will include a lot more photography oh and and some other stuff too. I have it in mind to improve my French, reacquaint myself with basic and a bit more than basic level statistics, improve my Excel, Word and Powerpoint skills, write a CV for the first time since the days when Olivetti typewriters roamed the earth and also lose some of the weight I've gained during my forties. Heaven knows I might even have a shave for the first time since September! I suppose I had also better keep abreast of things in the accountancy world too

As for the Poor Mouth keeping it going has been a chore at times. I hope to sum up the energy to deal with some of the things that have always particularly interested me. That means more photos posts but also getting back to the backwaters of history I love so much. Expect more on Ireland in WWII (including a major slag off of the IRA), some of the obscure far right parties of the time, minor British collaborators and at long last the end of the Red Cushing saga!

Come April The Poor Mouth will be five years old. Around the same time, or maybe a little earlier it should get its millionth visitor. I suppose it goes to show that there are connoisseurs of (ahem) culture out there!

Anyway, enough of this here's wishing both of my readers a very happy and prosperous new year, despite all attempts by the Toalies to thwart this objective!

Lighter posting for a week or so

I am heading fast towards not being a civil servant anymore. Quite a few colleagues are heading fast towards the same situation. We decided to leave of our own accord with a reasonable settlement (but nothing like the figures touted by lazy hacks) rather than be part of the impending cull where the settlement will be a lot worse.

Needless to say I have a lot of loose ends to tie.

To be honest it's only now that the reality of my decision is hitting home. I don't regret the decision but still....

Ah well roll on signing on (for the NI credits), relearning how to write a cv, brushing up on some rusty skills and more time (for a while anyway) for photography....

Now we are Four

Here starts the Fifth year of the Poor Mouth's existence. When I started I didn't expect to make it to to four months let alone four years! But there you have it. After nearly 3100 posts, over 700,000 visits and thousands of comments, the drivel still keeps on coming

I am grateful to everyone who continues to visit, everyone who has linked to the Poor Mouth and to everyone who has left comments over the years. Without you the Poor Mouth is nothing.

If you are really unlucky I will be putting up my fifth blogoversary post this time next year