Blogger Insider I am a little late on the latest round of Blogger Insider questions. The questions from Laughing Muse (the answers to my questions to him her will be on his her site) date from April 17th. But I had a reason. I did not have access to my pop3 e-mail account in Greece. Let's go.

Q1: You're thinking of switching to a new blogging tool - which one, and why? (I ask because I'm one of those odd folks who runs a nonstandard blog script off of her own server.) A: From the start I have been using Blogger, the most widespread blogging tool available. I used it as it was piss-easy to get started but realized after a while that in the end using it involves a lot of work as there are many features missing in Blogger and I had to get them from other free available sources. Examples are a search, a referral tracker, a comment system, an e-mail notification service, polls, a ping bookmarklet etc. Additionally Blogger is not always reliable (esp. the free version I guess) and pages load quite slowly (maybe because I am in Germany?). Other areas where Blogger has problems: archive links are lost often when publishing, publishing is not always available etc. I want to move to Antville, a weblogging tool from Austria mainly used by German speakers. To create a weblog there is even easier than with Blogger. You just choose a URL which is still available, a user id and a password and that's about it. Weblogs are hosted on Antville. I really like about Antville that it is much more communicative than Blogger in its design. There is an integrated commentary system and there is a section called "recently modified" in the sidebar which gives you the latest changes/additons to the weblog be them posts (in Antville called stories) or comments. You can also have a completely open collective weblog where everyone registered can write stories (like in Blogger). Additionally you can create topics to order your stories by subject. A search which also searches the comments is integrated as well. The referrers of the last 24 hours are accessible. You can post your own images or media files which reside on Antville. A new feature is the automatic pinging of weblogs.com which is very useful for readers if they use a weblog monitor like blo.gs where they have created their own blogroll with the last updated weblogs on top of the list. Polls are integrated as well. These are just the easily usable features. The layout of the weblog can be changed with the so-called skins. Macros can be programmed (don't know really what they do but anyways). In one sentence Antville integrates the most important features of a weblog seamlessly whereas Blogger is very crude in comparison and blogs at Blogger become patchworks if you want to have all these options. Antville weblogs load much faster because of that as well. And they are free of course like standard Blogger. The only two things I would be missing right now are an e-mail notification service for the readers if a new story has been posted and a bookmarklet which lets you post links easily like in Blogger. In the standard Antville weblog you still have to type your tags yourself. The only reasons I haven't moved yet are my laziness and my vanity as "sex and sunshine" is known in the music weblog circles.

Q2: What's your first conscious memory that focussed on, or included, music? Why the "music blog" focus? A: Don't remember my first conscious memory of music. Probably a Christmas carol or something stupid like that. My relation to music is almost purely passive. I am a listener but not a composer or interpret of music. I never played an instrument though in my family (including uncles, aunts and cousins) most people play instruments and classical music is quite important. I think with my blog I want to compensate for my unmusicality. As I am unable to make music I want to describe it and put it into words. To grasp it by transforming it into language. Though this is really hard as well and I hardly ever succeed. Maybe the focus is on music as I am an auditive person. Sounds and voices have always touched me much more than images. They have a depth to them which has an immediate impact on my inner self whereas images mostly leave me cold and I usually find them superficial. I really hate TV by the way but I like movies in the cinema.

Q3: "sex and sunshine" - sounds like a new kind of bar drink ;-> How did you come up with the name for your site? A: Nice question. My favourite cocktail is "Blue Lagoon" by the way. I think I have answered it in one of the first posts of my weblog: "But actually THE reason for calling this "sex and sunshine" is that this can be abbreviated to SAS and this stands for at least two totally different things. One of the two can give you a clue about my studies and work. All the above is of course bollocks. I chose sex and sunshine as name for the blog as I hope to attract much more traffic with such a fancy and slightly frivolous title."

Q4: What's the best personality test you've taken? The worst? (Use your own criteria for this one - just define them a little bit for us.) A: Another short question which hits the nail. I like that. My favourite was the first one I took on the internet where I happened to be a painting of Monet. Different shadings of blue and a little blurred. Flowers floating on a pond. The worst was probably "Which rock chick are you?". My criterium is the result of the test. If I don't like it the test is bad. I don't care for the questions. They can be stupid as hell. I usually forget them immediately afterwards anyways.

Q5: Reality TV - innovative marketing ploy or sign of the apocalypse? Which show(s) (if any) did you watch? None. Big Brother was a big thing in Germany a couple of years ago but I already had abolished my tv. I think reality shows are just the logical further development of tv. The tv audience is curious and the actors in the shows are vain. What a perfect combination. It didn't last long though.

Q6:The RIAA - careful corporate citizen, just another business, or rabid bunch of troglodytes out of touch with technology? That's the music business isn't it? Never cared really but good music can be published anywhere. On a major or at home.

Q7:Do you own any albums in more than two formats? (Not counting self-made CDs or tapes). Not so many actually as I am a miser. On vinyl and CD I have Nick Drake's "Five Leaves Left" and "Pink Moon", Joni Mitchell's "Blue", "Hejira" and "The Hissing of Summer Lawns". Brian Eno's "Before and After Science", Keith Jarrett's "Sun Bear Concerts" and Giant Sand's "Chore of Enchantment". Maybe some more but those are the most important.

Q8: Was your first language English, or German? Just out of curiosity, why do some of your blog entries appear in one language, some in another (with no translations?) Thanks for the compliment. I write this weblog in English to practice the language. I always loved English as I found it much more succinct and to the point than German. I also write this weblog in English to conceal how bad my German is ;-). At least in comparison to Goethe's. But I am 100% German. I also hesitate to move to Antville as in Antville I will definitely have to write in German and will lose my small but dear audience I have gained here. But I really want to write in German. But I am afraid that the emptiness of most of my posts will become much more evident in German. The personal sometimes almost philosophical posts here have mostly been in German. I wrote them in German as I couldn't have written them in my poor English. There is Babelfish for that ;-). German is my mother tongue and I can obviously express nuances much better in it. My English will always be superficial I guess.

Q9: How are you enjoying Chiros? We want a post card!!! Chios is a good place to forget the world around you. Like Hydra was for Leonard Cohen in the 60s/70s. In terms of square miles it is about as big as Berlin, but outside the capital there are maybe 10,000 inhabitants. The Northwest is almost unpopulated. Most villages there are deserted. Chios has suffered a lot of a Turkish massacre in 1822 when 10,000s were murdered. If you are looking for loneliness you can find it there. And sea and sun (the light is very bright) and wind and quite barren mountains of course. Not to forget the cats.

I really enjoyed the questions Laughing Muse. Sorry it's late and I can't hold my promise. I will send you my questions tomorrow. For sure.

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