And the clocks have just gone forward, so it’s now 2am, not 1am! I’m going to get even less sleep than I normally do.

Oh well. No April Fool joke this year, either

Can you tell I’ve lost interest? Never mind; have a look at this slightly disturbing BBC news story instead.

I’m still thinking about the long-term direction for the blog. I’ll probably work it out just after I find a long-term direction for my life. Don’t hold your breath, people!

When I launched this blog back in 2003 (5th anniversary in a couple of months’ time? Eek!) I fully intended it to be a full functioning web site. I wanted to have comments and trackbacks and pings and RSS feeds and all the other stuff that Movable Type installs by default.

Now though, the wonderful shininess of blogging and all things Web 2.0 has worn off, and right now, I don’t really want to be a part of it. I’m not stopping blogging entirely, but I’ve added a robots.txt file to block out search engines. This may be a bit extreme, but for now I think it’s better that only the right people know about this site.

So, er… yay! Four years! Here’s to four more (not likely), eh?

I’m not sure about the blog generally now. Should this be a diary-type blog where I talk about things that happen in my life, however uninteresting they may be to everyone else? Or should I be giving my own take on issues of earth-shattering importance, even though no-one really cares about my opinions? Or should I just take a break from blogging altogether for a while?

Each of the above options is tempting in its own way.

Anyway, my New Year’s resolution for 2007 is to write lots of interesting, compelling blog entries and not keep falling back on embedded YouTube videos. However, there’s a few hours of 2006 left, so here’s my current favourite song (Century Plant) from my current favourite film (Camp).

Ys, the countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun. Unfortunately, before we get there, we have to endure a month’s worth of “PC killjoys abolish Christmas” headlines in the tabloids.

There’s all sorts of lunacy going around, including the Daily Mail’s assertion yesterday (article not linked online) that there are few Christmas cards available with religious themes (surely just a case of manufacturers responding to the market?). They even went so far as to call for those who want religious cards to boycott non-religious cards (so, you’re going to refuse to buy something that you weren’t going to buy anyway?). Meanwhile, Richard Littlejohn is no doubt waiting to pounce on anyone who writes “Season’s Greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas” in their cards.

I think the “War on Christmas” is largely a myth (“bollocks” would be the less polite way of phrasing it). I think there have been a few isolated cases where well-meaning but misguided people have done something or said something negative about Christmas, which then got amplified and whipped up into a media frenzy by certain organisations and individuals with a political agenda (or who simply want to sell books). I resent Christmas being politicised in this way, especially by organisations such as the Daily Mail and Fox News, for whom the central Christmas tenets of “peace” and “goodwill” are not usually high on the agenda.

I’m not a Christian, but I’m quite happy to respect people who are. In the meantime, I will celebrate Christmas in my own way as a secular event (and before anyone complains about that, remember that Christmas is a restyling of a Pagan festival which was held every December long before Jesus appeared on the scene). I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels that way.

The Guardian had a good piece on the subject on Friday. If you’re not happy to believe the sandal-wearing hippies at that paper, you could just try walking along the street I live on, where already several houses (including my own) are bedecked in ridiculously over-the-top Christmas lights. If there is a War on Christmas, it’s a one-sided affair.

So there.