scruffian

Back in the old days of the internet there used to be lots of small websites made by people who loved riding. Then pretty shady came along, at about the same time as the blog, and a lot of these websites dried up. People got bored of making websites, and the websites got boring becasue they were all the same.

There are probably a lot of people out there that have noticed this, but not many have done anything about it. Making a website is not hard, or expensive, and it doesn’t have to take much time. All you need is a computer, with an internet connection (which you probably have if you are reading this) and a camera, the rest is free.

Head over to geocities and start building your new website. Just remember these 3 rules:

1. Make your website honest.
Don’t steal pictures off other people and say it’s you. Don’t pretend you are better than you are. Don’t try and make out like you are part of some sponsered team or other ridiculous things. Riding is supposed to be fun, and so is the internet.

2. Make it personal
Again, don’t try and be something you are not. This means staying clear of blogs (oh the irony.) Blogs aren’t all bad, but they are only one way of making a site. A boring way. Put a bit of yourself into the site and it will be much more interesting.

3. Update it sometimes
Websites that are not updated are not bad, for example

instuition and
12bore

but you won’t get many visitors unless it changes regularly.

In other news, I get paid to make websites these days:

My first pages

Some interesting websites:
One red paper clip
Match age
I can’t sell my house, please help me!

Now go and make some internet.

There are a lot of things which I don’t know. Until today I didn’t know whether I supported people who build roads, or people who protest about them. I could see both sides of the arguement – it does seem a shame to destroy another piece of the planet, but then roads are useful, so if it reduces congestion then that must be good?

This is the kind of thing I am talking about. Hippies protesting about roads and the council beating them up and doing it anyway. There are some good pictures here.

I thought I would do some research and find out who was right, so I looked around and found this. You really should read that.

What it says is that building roads is a waste of time, as it just encourages people to travel further and more often.

“Trying to cure traffic congestion by adding more capacity is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt.”

So the hippies are right. I guess it is a bit more complex than that as sometimes a good road system might be able to fix existing problems, but the point is there will always be congestion, and building roads won’t stop it.

It’s good to have opinions based on fact.

Many years ago I made a new years resolution to not make any more new years resolutions. It has been going pretty well so far. If it takes everyone calling the year by a new number for you to try and do something good then there is something wrong with you.

If you new years resolution is not going so well or you have already failed, why not try something easier, like saving starving people. Go to the hunger site everyday and click the button to give food to people who need it. It takes literally one second. Why don’t you do it everyday?

Did you know mermaids exist?

More pictures.

Here are some more pictures from the summer.

Spread the vibe is updated so often. Have you ever been there? It’s amazing – about 10 updates a day. Link of the month.

The shovel load is top notch these days.

Try and find a BMX website without a link to pretty shady.

The trails diary has been updated.

If you look back at the November zine you will probably see some things that weren’t there before.

Also there is a new 2005 media page here.