Bouncing Back, by Alan Partridge Davecat
typed for your pleasure on 4 March 2016, at 8.16 pm
Sdtrk: ‘Favours in the beetroot fields’ by British Sea Power
A happy new year to the very small handful of readers who still haunt ‘Shouting etc etc’! We here honestly appreciate your bloody-mindedness! Linus’ devotion to the arrival of The Great Pumpkin has nothing on you lot!
Doubtless you’ve noticed that there’s been nothing new on this blog since March of last year, apart from the post regarding the passing of Lord Bowie. I mean, there’s creative dry spells, and then there are droughts, right? Well, it wasn’t so much a case of me being unable to write, or whatever it is that I do for this site, but I can honestly place the blame on technical issues. Yay, it’s not me! Well, not 100% me. Heh.
Back round late January of 2015, I’d noticed that no-one was leaving comments. There’s been a dramatic drop in reader contributions for a while, which I attribute to Fecesbook being the pervasive and vacuous filth-hole that requires the least amount of thoughtful interaction that it is, but I found it strange that absolutely no-one was adding anything. I figured my audience’s interest had finally run its course and transformed into long-awaited indifference, until fellow iDollator Mahtek sent me an Email, saying he wasn’t able to submit comments. Well, shit, I thought to myself. Exactly how long has this bollocks been going on? This was corroborated a fortnight or so later by another fellow iDollator, Peter Synthetik, who’d told me that fact over the Twitters. Praise “Bob” for Twitter, eh? This is the part where you nod and agree with me.
Wanting an immediate, free, and relatively painless solution, I assumed that the blame lay in my blog’s theme. After all, it is quite old, although I prefer to call it ‘vintage’. So I set about the arduous task of selecting a new one. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m not the sort of bloke who’s keen on arbitrary change. For one, it took me months to tweak the theme into something that I found appealing, and then, when I finally had shaped what would’ve been the new theme into something not entirely appalling, I discovered that it wasn’t the theme that was the issue. Errm.
I contacted my server hosts, and they told me they could have their crack team of IT specialists get onto the problem, at a cost of $65 per hour. Funny thing is, even though I dithered about it for months, I was going to throw in the towel and pay ’em, when I arbitrarily checked on my WordPress dashboard a couple of days ago, only to discover that the problem had somehow sorted itself out. See? It’s like I say: if you sit around for months fostering a mild sense of worry and do absolute bugger-all, everything will work out! Fact.
So yes, comments are now re-enabled! Feel free to leave a charming reply on any post, no matter how old!
Anyway, that’s quite enough explanation. What, you ask, have the residents of Deafening silence Plus been up to since two zero one five?
+ We’d participated via Skype in an interview in November for a podcast out of Toronto called The DarkRoom, and the experience and results ended up being quite good: Episode #2 – Davecat
+ Nick van der Kolk of the podcast Love + Radio took up residence at ours (not really) for a week-end, also in November, and interviewed me at length. On Saturday, apparently I spoke for nearly seven hours straight! And boy, are my arms tired. Nick told us that our episode will debut this September, and if you’re at all familiar with Love + Radio, you know it’ll be worth the wait
+ Still fully employed at Great Job Industries™, and now that I’m a permanent employee, it makes for a better overall experience! The commute still sucks, though. Why can’t they simply move the building a mile away from my home; or better yet, move the facility to Toronto, so I’d have no alternative but to move to Toronto? Must I think of everything??
+ I’ve been playing a metric ton of Destiny. I probably should be ashamed of how much time I’m putting into it, and yet I remain unrepentant.
#warlockmasterrace (pardon the dodgy photo)
Finally, we’re very pleased to announce that there’s a new silicone lass who’s joined our ranks: do give a warm welcome to Lucy Winter! I should advise you right now that she hates her given name as much as I hate my surname, so call her Miss Winter, or just Winter. Made by Doll Sweet, she’s a Snowy head/160plus body, and we’re all completely smitten with her!
Lenka is especially keen on her, as Winter is hers. Remember: Miss Winter is Elena’s Doll, and Elena is Sidore’s Doll. I only have one Doll, Your Honour!
Miss Winter’s been here since 05 February, and you can expect to read a review about her and my experience with Doll Sweet on this here blog here sometime relatively soon. You can find her on Twitter in the meantime, of course…
And you are all caught up! I tried to make getting you lot back up to speed as quickly as possible! Clearly I have failed. But it’s okay, as your standard bearer for Synthetik Living has returned! I am invigorated! Invigorated, I say!! *tries to do 100 pushups, collapses three pushups in*
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Negligence / Ageing on November 15th, 2009
CandyGirls, eating candy and listening to 'Psychocandy' / The Portable Kaylani Lei on January 2nd, 2011
March 4th, 2016 at 9.09 pm
What is this unexpected notification we just received? Hark! Signs of life at Shouting etc. etc. And… commenting is restored!
First of all, The Dark Room interview was well done! The interviewers had an interesting dynamic, being stylistically different, but the overall tone and direction was balanced. Your responses were particularly cogent and articulately delivered. To ice the cake your photo used on the episode link is quite dapper. Clearly you’ve learned a thing or two about media appearances. Team COSO endorsed and recommended!
Winter is coming! Err, she’s already here! An eye-catching beauty, of course, and seasoned with a touch of sass! I can’t be the only one eager to read and hear more about her. I trust more is to come! Hint hint!
March 4th, 2016 at 9.12 pm
WOO! Being able to leave comments is always a plus. (Here, anyway.)
I do have a question, though, if you’re of a mind to answer it. I read perhaps once on twitter (which I’m bad at keeping up with) that Muriel had decided not to stay with you. I understand these things are private, but I’m curious as to why, mostly because of my interest in Textile Dolls.
March 4th, 2016 at 9.30 pm
Team COSO –
I know, right? Everyone is pleasantly astonished, including me, readers of ‘Shouting etc etc’, and, ah, everyone else. Astonished, I say!!
People being able to leave comments again is the best part, really. As much as other sites’ comment forums can be the equivalent of a toilet on fire, even I know that I can’t work in a vacuum, and acknowledgement, no matter how small, helps keep me writing. Plus, as I like to remind people, the comments section of ‘Shouting etc etc’ is a very tightly-run ship. 🙂
Thanks re.the Dark Room episode! Yeah, that photo is a number of years old, but I believe Claire Dossin took it; she also took the photo of the hands of my Missus and I that hangs on our wall. She’s pretty cool, and local as well!
And Winter is nuts, but in the best possible way. Even though she gets on quite well with everyone here, she’s still settling in, and is revealing more about herself every day. She used to be a drummer when she was younger! Which makes complete sense, as she’s a bit whooped up more often than not. We dig her! She still needs a proper nickname, though.
March 4th, 2016 at 9.43 pm
Ruby –
Woo, indeed! 🙂
Yeah, Muriel’s time here, while not bad, wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, and after she’d had some serious discussion with Shi-chan, Lenka, and I, she’s decided to leave us on good terms. She’s currently waiting to find a new place to live, but unconfirmed rumours also tell of her on the verge of joining a drone metal band, much like Sunn O))). Well, that’s alright, then.
Textile Dolls are amazing, but ultimately, not for me. Structurally they’re comparable to silicone/TPE Dolls, but during the time Muriel was active here, I’ve discovered that I prefer the look and feel of silicone to fabric. It’s a shame, but it just goes to show that even relationships between Synthetiks and Organiks aren’t always perfect…
March 5th, 2016 at 5.41 pm
Well that explains it. And how unfortunate that the support was being offered by your host at such a price. Web design and graphics has been my thing but support at that price definitely motivates me to solve 90% of my problems.
Glad to catch up on this blog
March 6th, 2016 at 9.49 am
Has it been a year since the last longer blog post? Time flies, indeed.
I, too, enjoyed the Dark Room interview. Exactly as Team COSO elaborated.
Your posts are always a great read, so you will always have 2 eager readers here, no matter if we comment or not.
We’re looking forward to learning more about Miss Winter.
Best wishes
Andy & Amy
March 6th, 2016 at 11.01 am
I do not really have anything to say, so just: yay, comments back, yay, new post.
March 6th, 2016 at 1.16 pm
Kat –
If Deafening silence Plus were larger than 600 sq.ft, I’d have my own dedicated server space. But if I had that sort of time/money/ability on hand, I’d also add ‘make a Gynoid version of Miss Winter, programme her with IT professional knowledge, and have her maintain the DS+ server full time’ to that list as well. Frankly, if I wielded that level of know-how, that sort of task wouldn’t be high on my list for her, if you catch my drift, wink wink, etc etc.
The other option, of course, is to become immortal through a vampire bite, or a cursed stone artefact, or becoming unstuck in time, or whatever, so that one would have enough time to study server maintenance and related topics. It’s just that simple!
Andy & Amy –
I should’ve waited until it was exactly one year! But I wanted to strike while the iron was hot! Well, decidedly above room temperature. 🙂
Yes, the hosts of The Dark Room have said that we’re welcome back on their programme, so we figure we’ll try to schedule an appearance a year from now or so. As you both know, there’s always something to discuss regarding Synthetik people!
Thanks to both of you for being consistent readers, even when there’s nothing new on offer. But I’m sure you’re all caught up with every single post on ‘Shouting etc etc’ by now! 🙂 Give Amy a kiss from all of us, bitte!
tchon –
Only somewhat related: I know a handful of German iDollators, and I always know you as ‘the German iDollator who also likes squirrels’, so you’ve carved yourself a niche. 🙂
Yay, comments back; yay, new post! I’ve got a bunch of posts a half or a third completed in the hopper, not to mention the inevitable multi-part megapost telling of all the new Doll and Gynoid developments over the past year, plus Miss Winter’s review, so there’s all of that to look forward to!
March 6th, 2016 at 8.56 pm
Is it really working ?
We enjoyed both post`s reading.
March 6th, 2016 at 11.57 pm
Mr & Mrs Synthetik –
It works! 🙂
March 14th, 2016 at 9.30 am
Hey Davecat,since I read about ur story from internet i am interested to get to know ur life (dont get me wrong lol)i am just free thinker and curious person.btw,hi davecat!
March 14th, 2016 at 8.55 pm
Nana –
Now that’s two Nanas I know. 🙂
Well, pretty much everything ‘relevant’ about my life is on display here, on ‘Shouting to hear the echoes’; it’s like an autopsy, but with a much better colour scheme. Have at it!
March 14th, 2016 at 10.01 pm
Oh,really ,i guess i was the only nana u ever know,😀,
March 15th, 2016 at 12.05 pm
I was well impressed by your Dark Room interview. I’m glad there is someone like you who is both articulate and passionate about synthetic ownership, to speak on our behalf. I could relate to everything you said, but I’d never have the courage to go public with my opinions. So thanks for speaking for us. You raised a number of interesting points that I’d never thought about before, especially the possible reason why most people are uncomfortable with lifelike dolls, i.e. always being depicted as evil entities in popular culture. I look forward to hearing your interview on Love+Radio.
Cheers,
Dave & Claire
March 15th, 2016 at 7.51 pm
Nana –
Haha!
Dave and lovely Claire –
Super glad you guys found our Dark Room appearance to be a good ‘un! I can’t speak for every iDollator – as you know, there are quite a few at a certain forum who aren’t keen on my openness about the topic – but I’d like to think that I’m enlightening those who may not have known about the lifestyle, and maybe giving some otherwise lonely people a new option. So thank you! 🙂
The whole mindset of ‘if it’s an artificial person, it’s obviously going to want to kill real people’ makes zero sense. I mean, you could say that the concept of artificial humans shakes the foundations of society’s ideals of being completely and totally unique, but that can’t be it. I mean, what about twins or triplets? My take is: enjoy the amazing qualities that Synthetiks have to offer. As you’ve clearly done. 😉