Sunday, May 21, 2006

Occident, orient or...

Popped into a NZ blog the other day with links to an interesting project. I have to thank Judy (Tui's World at Blogspot) from whom I filched it!...but I did tell her/them I would: go to Douwe Osinga's site here.

Just follow the link and scroll down a bit then click on all the countries you've visited; press the 'go' button after the list of countries and it produces code for your very own map; I thought I was well travelled but I don't even get 20% of the whole world - lots to see still... :-) I originally posted my map in this post but it's too wide (yeah, yeah!) and boobs up my blog template so I took it off. I may look into a way of reducing it...Gav?

Some of the comments after the list of countries (there's hundreds of them; some are hilarious, some others are just dumb) and worth a read...if you've got an hour!

S.O.

17 comments:

The Great Gildersleeve said...

Hi Span,
It may be great to be able to "Cut Yourself Off!" from the world and take a break such as not taking a mobile phone with you and therefore no one can contact or if you have television(I know that you don't ;-)to have a break or perhaps not read the newspapers etc...

But I think it is great that you are able to pop in and contribute from wherever you are. So continued good traveling and a safe journey home, whenever that is.

I fixed the initial blog problem by...resaving the template but as for adding links that will happen eventually.

Good to see your input on the crazy messageboard fiasco. A certain host does seem to get carried away and is pedantic...sometimes I cannot see what the problem is.

Speak Soon

G

Crispin Heath said...

Span 2 things. I got 13% and I don't think it's going to get much better than that in my lifetime, I'm actually not a big fan of travelling too much of a homebody.

I just remembered I forgt Israel.

Other thing keep up on the Ruth thing. She gets unnecessary stick. It's bloody annoying arguing with her, but she's rarelt pedantic unless you start being flippant. Sme people need to learn that.

Linda Mason said...

Fascinating Span. I knew I wasn't that well travelled when thinking about the globe as a whole and even though the percentage isn't high, I was quite thrilled to see virtually all of Europe, some of Africa and a chunk of the Middle East turn red! It certainly brought back memories of holidays and trips I had forgotten about.

Thanks for your support on TS btw. I am grateful (and very surprised for after all I am a bad tempered, mouthy piece) to everyone who has spoken up for me.

Anonymous said...

I don't always agree with what you say, Mags, but you've been treated unfairly by that Host.

Lucy said...

9%.
It is a bit deceptive though. Just by going to Hongkong the whole of China turns red!
Equaly I cheated by putting in Bangladesh and Dubai although I only stopped there on the way to Hongkong, as with Korea to NZ. I have never been west. The Americas are, as yet, untouched and un flown over!
Anyone done the Gran canyon and is it really the thing to see before you die?

Linda Mason said...

Lucy, my Uncle and cousins did the Grand Canyon about 15 years ago and were all agreed that it is defintely worth seeing. They said that you don't even begin to grasp how truly awesome it is until first you do a trek down there that feels like you've walked the whole planet and then afterwards pop up in a 'copter and see that what you actually walked was merely a worm dropping.

One day.......

Span Ows said...

Support Mags now! Will pop over to the MB to see if it's resolved.

My 20% is 40 odd countries! 44 I think but if I had HK (like Lucy) or Moscow then most of the map would appear red - I have the Americas all but covered, Africa's still bare except RSA.

I'd love to go to the GC one day too - Board Outing!...oh no that's sounds like coming out of teh closet!!

Gildy...instructions below - if you go full screen on the comments (thanks Lucy!) it will be clearer.

1. click on view complete profile
2. 2. go to bottom of page and click on “Home” (left hand side)
3. This brings up your ‘dashboard.

Numbers 1 to 3 are what you probably do to enter a new post.

4. Click on either the green cross (new entry) or blue cog (change settings)
5. at the top are 4 tabs “Posting” “Settings etc, click on template
6. this brings up all the ‘language’ that makes up your blog
7. scroll down about 3/5ths of the way down…looking for the bit that says
(!-- End #main --) or (!-- Begin #sidebar --) except where I have put brackets there are the sideways V tags!

8. scroll down slowly until you see (ul id="links")
9. if you don’t see this just look for (MainOrArchivePage)
10. copy and paste this text replacing all brackets for either left or right facing sideways v tags

(li)(a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/" target="_blank")BBC Home(/a)(/li)

11. Press the dark blue preview button at the bottom of the window – this will brimg up what your blog will look like – hopefully you will see the link, if so just save changes.
12. If the link appears and works the page should appear in a new window. If all is well you can just copy and paste the same link time and again just changing the www address and the name (i.e. BBC Home) so you never have to try to remember all the code every time!

Hope you have luck, if not maybe you can give one of us your password and we pop in and do it for you, afterwards you can change your password to avoid sabotage!
;-)

Span Ows said...

P.S. Mags "It certainly brought back memories of holidays and trips I had forgotten about"..ditto!

The Great Gildersleeve said...

Span,
I've printed out your instructions and believe that I have found the right area of the blog code to do what you have told me to do...but now I am trying to decide what I am doing and exactly how to write the instruction :-)

But its good to learn something new, though how anyone understands html code or whatever its called must be super intelligent...but that would be right, wouldn't it Span?

And don't be modest :-)

Linda Mason said...

Didn't you bring some of the Grand Canyon to the Septic Isle with you Sarnia, in your rubbish bin?

Linda Mason said...

Yes Sarnia, you did tell me about that and I think it is a wonderful story. Apart from anything else it is so you!

Span Ows said...

So Sarnia? Rubbish? Or that rubbish follows her?...;-)

Now I feel mean, I didn't mean it!

Vermont eh? hmmmm New England in the springtime or autumn is another place I need to see, Maine, Vermont or thereabouts.

Lucy said...

Iran, you mention on Mags Blog...
Business or pleasure? You sure do cover some miles.
I think I would like a job that involved so much travel, although the domestic arrangements would be tricky !

Span Ows said...

Hi Lucy...business, I've been a few times in the last couple of years and it is going well (business). Iran gets some seriously bad press (some deserved) but the people are fine - but they do get more nationalistic when they fel everyone 'against' them, with all the crap thrown at them.

First time I went I was gob-smacked, lovely people, snow capped mountains right there in Tehran, they go skiing (fancy a holiday there?), drive over the mountians to the beaches on the Caspian sea, there are resorts on the gulf coast no different from anyhwere (except the Islamic laws etc). Food's good, women pretty...no real problems except the VERY BIG political ones.

Gavin Corder said...

Email it to me Span. How big would you like it to be?

Gavin Corder said...

Span, get us somesoftware while you're in Iran there's a good chap. Macromedia Studio 8 would be nice...

Span Ows said...

I know just the place! I'll look into it for you.

Re map, I have two more posts lined up and now that I've got the pretty picture of the globe I don't want to spoil the 'look' of the blog...thanks anyway, it wasn't that impressive anyway - with China and Russia though it would be pretty darn red!