Rachael Furn is sexy?!

This entry was posted on February 9, 2008

Like many webmasters, I take a keen interest in my site’s statistics. My stats software of choice is Clicky, though I also use Mint. They both allow me to see details on which sites are linking to me, how many visitors I have, and what those visitors look at. They also allow me to see what people are typing into search engines to get to my site.

I’m used to seeing weird search queries (and by ‘weird’, I mean ’sexual things to do with a banana’), but one search query today caught my eye for a different reason.

Are my eyes deceiving me, or does that actually say “Rachael Furn is sexy” ? Not that I mind, in fact, I’m quite flattered. It’s just a little creepy that someone would type that into Google. I thought I’d do some further investigation and see exactly what shows up, so off to Google I went.

I’m sorry, what did you say? I think I need to go back to the opticians, because unless I’m mistaken, Google was suggesting I don’t know how to spell my own name. Who is this Rachel Fern person? I’ve heard of her, but I have no idea who she is. No, that’s not who I mean! I mean me, you ignorant search engine!

And for the record, the page that Google shows as a search result for the above search is my blog entry titled “5 apps I can’t live without.” 

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The Beast and the Harlot

This entry was posted on

I can’t remember the last time I really obsessed over a song. I’ve obsessed over bands and I’ve obsessed over members of bands, but I can’t remember the last time I obsessed over a song.

“The Beast and the Harlot” is a song by a band called Avenged Sevenfold. Those of you who pay close attention to my blog will remember that I saw them live back in January. They played this particular song and it was one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen. Insane in a good way, though. Definitely a good way.

This is a very epic song that starts off big and just gets bigger. It’s… well, it’s pretty much mindblowing. It’s good for any situation where you need loud music, be it de-stressing in your bedroom, trying to make a train journey go by faster, or making driving more interesting. I listen to it on my way to work and back, and try and beat it. The song is about five and a half minutes long, and it takes me about five and a half minutes to get to work.

Those of you not familiar with this awesome track can see the accompanying music video on the band’s youtube channel. For those of you think you know this song from somewhere, it might be from Guitar Hero II. And for those of you who already know (and hopefully love as much as I do) this song, you might like to check out the Sims2 and the Lego-motion interpretations of the music video.

I don’t know any more words for how obsessed I am with this song. Have you ever been so obsessed with a song you could listen to it on repeat all day and not get bored of it?

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KISS me

This entry was posted on February 7, 2008

Oh how I love acronyms. First we had CRAP, and now we have KISS. I wish I was making these acronyms up, but I’m not. So what does KISS stand for?

Keep it simple, stupid.

The Internet is a fast-paced entity. People scour the Internet looking for the information and they don’t like waiting for it. Once we’ve decided we want something, we want it right now. We don’t like hunting around for things when we’re not even entirely sure where they are.

This is where the KISS principle comes into play. Web users are not unintelligent, but they can be considered to be ’stupid’ when it comes to certain things. Just because you understand the structure of your site, does not mean that anyone else will understand it.

Keep things simple, and cater for users’ expectations. There are certain conventions that we have come to expect on a website, and whilst throwing these conventions out the window can work in some cases, it will not work in the majority of cases.

Get rid of the clutter from your website. Think of it like a teenager’s bedroom. If there’s a pile of dirty washing, another pile of ironing that needs put away, a stack of DVD’s that was accidentally knocked over and not picked up, and posters all over the walls - how on Earth do you expect someone to find their calculator for their Maths homework?

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not suggesting you get rid of absolutely everything from your website. After all, without content, a website would not exist. I’m just suggesting you take a moment to step back and see how your website looks to other people. Will they be able to use it in the way you intend, or have you completely confused them?

And why is this post called “KISS me”? Well, I’m probably one of the more ’stupid’ Internet users. If I can’t immediately find what I’m looking for, I’ll sulk and go searching somewhere else until I find what I’m after. Can I have a KISS please?

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