Don't play with your food unless you've eaten all your toys already

So I'm taking 100 days to make myself a better person! I can't remember where I saw mention of Josie Long's project but took a peek yesterday and joined up. As part of the London Word Festival she and various friends and artists decided to do something every day for 100 days that will make them a better person. And now they have 863 people signed up, including myself. It's day 53 for the project but latecomers are welcome, so my 100 days starts today.

My pledge is to take a photo of what's around me, and put it up on Flickr with a few words. I'm not sure I'll be able to put the picture up every day, there will be a few days I know I'll be away from the net. But I will take the picture every day and put it up as soon as possible. There's a Flickr group for the project which I'll also add to.

The discipline of doing something for 100 days is no bad thing. Making the effort, not breaking a promise and being related to a bunch of unrelated folks for no other reason than an idea that looked like fun. That's betterment in itself surely. And I don't take enough pictures in general, and I certainly don't focus enough on grabbing those odd moments. So this is an excuse to do that a little more.

When I started using Flickr all those years ago I never really expected that anyone other than friends and contacts would bother looking at my shots. So it's always a pleasant surprise when an unknown comment appears or I get a spike in the view stats with some more band pics. Of course there's a touch of pleased ego thinking they're my pics! But over and above that I'm fascinated by being able to share a moment with a bunch of complete strangers and bring back a memory of a great show or just a provide an image that pleases. That's the beauty of the old internet, a bunch of connections making a connection.

I hadn't looked at my page since last year and so decided to pop in last night. Which is when I caught a bizarre spike in views around Christmas. All on a shot of a snow dalek that was built down by the bridge moorings in last February's snow. Then I noticed that it's had over twenty four thousand views in total. Outstanding! I've made sure the guys who built it know that their efforts have raised a little smile or a chuckle to a whole bunch of folks theyll never know. It's like that little Japanese girl with the pizza. It's kinda cool really.

Halfway through series 4 of The Wire