What's in a name?

Colon-dash is the name that I've chosen for my blog. Why? What does it mean? You may well ask. Well, if like me, you worked in printing or publishing during the days of hot metal you would probably know that the combination of the colon followed by a dash has a specific name amongst the brotherhood of compositors and typesetters of a certain vintage. If you are familiar with the term, then you'll know why I chose "colon-dash" to represent my presence in cyberspace.

On the other hand, normal people probably don't think it means anything at all or at best it's the start of an emoticon so beloved by early email users :- , you just need to add a parenthesis to make a face.

For example:

• :-) (happy/good)
• :-( (sad/bad)

So there you have it, I'll let you decide which face to use when you come to judge my bloggin's - I'm all for audience participation.

Welome to my world

This is my first attempt at writing a blog and I'm not too sure how to go about it. I have various interests including photography, architecture, web design and technology, natural history and Norway. So I'm sure that I'll have something interesting to say about myself and my passions in the forthcoming pages of my blog - watch this space.

However, I don't really do that much, just work and sleep mostly. I don't have any political views - never vote in elections, and I don't do religion. So if you want to read the ramblings of an apathetic humanist suffering from mild narcolepsy then you've somehow stumbled over the right place - congratulations.

I thought I'd start with a picture that says something about me. It's a snap I took walking to work one morning. You probably know that it's Tower Bridge in London and I'm particularly pleased that I managed to get that icon of London Transport, the red double-decker bus right in the middle of the bridge. (I had to wait half-an hour to get a bus in the picture and just after I put my camera away another three came along - typical.)

From the picture and my description you can no doubt gather that I work in the East end of London and that I frequently carry a camera and have a "love hate" relationship with public transport.

I work as a freelance contractor in the Internet business and although I have worked all over England I tend to work mostly in London. However, I don't live in London and have to spend over four hours a day commuting, which probably helps explain why I sometimes hate public transport.

Well, that's enough about me - somehow I don't think I've quite got the hang of this blog business yet.