This is me eyeing off my first birthday cake—nothing’s changed—beside the apple tree, with the house, wash house and a shed in the background (June 1954).

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Let’s Live Forever…
(pregnant pause)
Happy Birthday to you

Yes – it’s Let’s Live Forever’s first birthday today!

On a cool crisp autumn morning in 2008, a whole YEAR ago today, little LLF was delivered into the nurturing arms of his new database and WordPress installation, on a server at DreamHost, which I thought would suit him nicely. I gave him the name Why Live Forever?, intending that together we would talk about reasons why people might want to live forever.

Unfortunately, it turned out the server wasn’t quite large and comfy enough… feeding him and changing the bed linen turned out to be painfully slow, so I had to move him to a new server, at a small company called Little Oak. He got a brand new database and WordPress installation… this pleased him greatly, but the transfer took about 2 weeks and the whole thing was a pain in the neck for me.

Over the next few weeks, little Why Live Forever? grew, though it was a strange, lonely and scary world he found himself in. Would there be anyone to keep him company? Before long some friends came and left comments, and he and I both cheered up considerably!

Except it became clear his name wasn’t very good, so I took a deep breath and presented him with a new domain name, and yet another database and WordPress installation. As I had no idea how to transfer a blog, I copied over all his posts and comments by hand, one by one. Luckily he was still pretty small at that stage.

In those days I dressed him in some clothes called Misty Look. Some of you might remember how he looked when he was a kid… here’s a picture!

The header is a photo Frank took at 7 a.m. at a party we went to—the drummers were greeting the dawn, after a very hot night. I was trying to find some way of making little LLF look exciting—don’t know if it worked. We were both pretty scared about our foray into the blogging world, talking about physical immortality and all.

LLF and I were dropping in on other bloggers, and they would reciprocate, sometimes finding the weirdest ideas they had ever seen. This was embarrassing at times, but we got over it.

After a while I hankered for some clean, white, grown-up clothes for LLF. I looked and looked and nothing quite suited until I found an outfit called Thesis! He feels comfortable now, and ready for action! And so do I!

Friends

Needless to say, little LLF wouldn’t have thrived without some friends. These days he has a Top Commentators plugin, which tells us which friends have dropped in to chat the most times.

LLF and I have been dropping in on these friends too, and have read all sorts of interesting things! Here’s what we found our 20 chattiest visitors so far this year saying:

Evelyn has been writing about Akashic Records, and funnily enough, Dot has also written about her experience with Akashic Records.

Jannie, the Mistress of Funsterment, often writes about singing and songwriting, while Ribbon from Perth shares her internal map of reality with us, and has been known to write about the pursuit of desire. Our friend Tess has written about celebrating in difficult times (boldly).

Cath, who writes about success in business, has written about how to be a business success story at any age, and life coach Davina has written about believing in yourself. Vered, a mommy blogger, has written an article about children’s self-esteem.

Patricia often writes about important issues, for example funding for treatment for cleft palates, and Stacey writes about creating balance in life, such as in her article about struggles in life.

On Daphne’s blog Joyful Days she writes about happiness and abundance, and Marelisa writes about creativity, productivity, simplicity and abundance, and has many happiness tips to share. Tom writes about working for yourself, and growing your business.

Jenny, who has a blog about healing, writes about healing pain from within. Kelly writes about life and everything, such as in her articles about enduring friendships and backpacking. Lance’s blog is all about life—one of his articles is about life lessons.

On Miguel’s blog he writes articles about things like focusing on your strengths, and Natural has been thinking out loud about whether to be anonymous on a blog. Barbara has a blog all about blogging tips, which help many a blogger.

Last but not least is The Urban Panther, life muser, who has been known to write about social events.

Thanks to you all!

Thanks everyone—bloggers and non-bloggers—for helping me make it through the first year. Here’s to new developments and growth in all our projects!

• Love Gives Us Life
• Emotional Balance
• How I Found Immortality
• Making The Most Of Life
• Immortality Of The Body

‘Tis the silly season, so I thought I’d bring you some light entertainmant in the form of…

The Bloggers’ Chorus!

This follows on from my recent post Bloggers’ Recording Project Has Arrived!, in case you missed it. Click the play button and enjoy (or cringe) – it goes for 1 minute and 20 seconds.

[Please go to post to listen to audio]

(note: you would probably need a good set of speakers on your computer, or good headphones, to hear the individual voices)

Our Christmas

Frank and I had a nice Christmas. We spent 3 days in central Victoria, about two hours’ drive out of Melbourne. We had Christmas dinner with family and friends… it was a hot roast dinner, with a desert of hot plum pudding with brandy sauce and ice cream, inside with air conditioning, with hot weather outside.

I’m thinking Christmas in Australia might be more of a break than it is in the northern hemisphere, because it is our summer holidays as well—everything closes down, so it’s a good time to stop everything (like blogging, for example). I don’t know.

On the way home, we drove up to the top of Mount Alexander… the local mountain, which has the transmission towers on it. Here’s a photo of me looking out at the view (them’s great rocks):

How did you get on over Christmas? Did you survive alright?

More posts, a random selection:

• Wanting To Look Young
• Guy Finley Followed By An Illustrated Meme.
• A Thousand Years
• Letting Creativity Just Slip In
• Love Gives Us Life

I am very proud and honoured to present to you recorded messages from bloggers from around the world.

I introduced this project in my post Bloggers Recording Project, in November. Sixteen bloggers have answered the call, and I and my partner Frank have done recordings, too.

I hope you like my highly decorated audio players… they work fine in my Firefox for Mac, but in my Safari for Mac, the audio plays okay, but they don’t show the aqua loading bar, and the dark blue slider doesn’t move. Please let me know if you have any problems playing the tracks.

So without further ado, here they are…

Track 1: Tom, Jenny, Stacey, Urban Panther, Kelly, Ross, Natural, Patricia, Dot

[Please go to post to listen to audio]

Track 2: Tammy, Jannie, Lance, Simon, Davina

[Please go to post to listen to audio]

Track 3: Chris, Marelisa, Frank, Robin

[Please go to post to listen to audio]

Many thanks to the following people for contributing their recordings, and for making my blogging life as enjoyable as it is:

Track 1:

Tom from Delightful Work
Jenny from Heal Pain Naturally
Stacey from Create a Balance
Urban Panther from Urban Panther’s Lair
Kelly from SHE-POWER
Ross from Will It Change You?
Natural from ThinkingOutLoudBlog.com
Patricia from Patricia’sWisdom
Dot from Deeper Issues

Track 2:

Tammy from A Day To Share With Tammy and A Cricket in a Garden
Jannie from Jannie Funster
Lance from The Jungle Of Life
Simon from The Secret Of Life
Davina from Loving Pulse and Shades Of Crimson

Track 3:

Chris from Wat da Wat?
Marelisa from Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online
Frank the Sound Sculptor. Thanks Frank for putting the recording together, by chopping it, EQing it, compressing it, limiting it, adding reverb, changing bit rates and sample rates, balancing levels, and goodness knows what else.
…and I’m last

Also, I can’t let a links post go by without thanking 5 more people who have helped me enormously in my blogging endeavours:

Barbara from Blogging Without A Blog
Cath from Cath Lawson
Evelyn from Attraction Mind Map
Ray from The Esoterical Journey
Vered from MomGrind

Lastly, thanks heaps to everyone else who has left comments here, emailed me, linked to me, stumbled me, or supported me in any other way. I simply would have given up if it wasn’t for your support.

The audio player comes from 1pixelout. Thanks Martin, it’s a great plugin! And here’s a pic of Frank putting everyone together, in Pro Tools:

Christmas in summer

I find the Christmas decorations here in Australia, where it is summer, amusing. I took the above photo in the street behind our house… Santa and his reindeer making their way across our bright blue summer sky, in the blazing sun!

The characters below might not be too comfortable in our summer. I hope the snowmen don’t melt!

And this fellow, all rugged up, is hiding underneath an Australian native grevillea bush, which is also in the blazing sun:

Here he is next to his mate popping out of an icy igloo.

I took the photo above while we were walking down the street last night (one of the few hot nights we’ve had so far this summer) for pizza, after we had spent all afternoon putting all the voices together. After tea we kept working till 3 a.m., because I, for the life of me, could not do my recording. In every take, I either couldn’t say it, or sounded cold and wooden. A severe case of stage fright after hearing all your warm and cheery messages, maybe?

People buy pine trees to decorate, usually from fruit shops. Here are some outside a fruit shop at our local shops (the path is usually bustling here):

Christmas food

In Australia, those who celebrate Christmas follow the European traditions, more or less, both in decorations and food. Many a hot roast Christmas dinner has been consumed in boiling hot weather.

Lots of Australians these days have a meal of cold meats or seafood, and salad, for Christmas dinner, but many (including my family) still bring out hot plum pudding with brandy sauce, for desert. As well as having some fruit-mince pies around. It’s actually not that easy to buy fruit-mince pies in winter, around these parts… they are Christmas food!

I’ll be bringing you Clip 4 from What if! The Movie after Christmas. If you can’t wait, you might like to have a look at Jenny Mannion’s post “What If?” — The Life Changing Movie — Clip 4

That’s it from me, for now. Have a lovely holiday everyone, see you soon!

Related post from the future:

Bloggers’ Chorus Post-Christmas Post

Related post from the past:

This Blogging Life!More posts, a random selection:

• Blogger Meet-Up!
• Tomato Seeds And Delicious Fruit
• How I Found Immortality
• How To Be A Man And A Woman Both At The Same Time
• Why We Want To Live

photo by kthypryn

To all my blogging friends… I want to hear your voices!

In a recent email conversation I had with Harmony from Golden Zen I said something like “I want to hear your funny accent!” And she said something along the lines of “I’ve got a funny accent?” To which I replied that all North Americans have funny accents, don’t they?

After I first found out about blogging, late last year, I soon came across Darren Rowse’s blog ProBlogger. I had a look at it, watched some video, and thought “some American guy making money” and went on to something else—no offense meant to American guys who make money, here, I just didn’t relate (or understand blogs yet). The thing is, I didn’t pick up his accent! Even though it turns out he lives in the exact same city as me… Melbourne, Australia. (And these days I love reading ProBlogger, by the way.)

My guess is I didn’t pick up his accent because it’s the same as mine! (I think that’s how it works.)

Blogging Without A Blog

Now the latest is that Barbara from over at Blogging Without A Blog has featured me, and Kelly from SHE-POWER, in her post NSNBOTWs – 2 Gals From Down Under! (NSNBOTW standing for Not So New Blog Of The Week.)

Barbara’s blogless blog is a great meeting place for bloggers—her community is terrific. She has gone to great lengths to support other bloggers, by presenting information and discussions, and by introducing new bloggers to everyone in her New Blog Of The Week series.

I’d suggest to bloggers that you head over there for some action, and if you aren’t a blogger, you will find lots of great blogs to check out in the discussion section. And if you are a new blogger looking for some good ol’ community comfort (and attention), you might even get lucky and be nominated NBOTW!

I’m really thrilled to be highlighted in this series… so thanks Barbara and congratulations Kelly! Kelly has a great blog and I’m honoured to “appear” with her! For me the experience has really enhanced the community feeling that I have experienced from blogging.

Which brings me to accents—what would Kelly’s and my international visitors make of our “down under” voices? And what would it be like to hear the voices of people I feel I have got to know online? From all around the world? Not just to hear their accents, but to hear the warmth and character of their voices?

Recording Project

So all of this has lead one way or another to… the Bloggers’ Recording Project!

If you would like to participate, email me a recording of youself introducing you and your blog, and saying a few other words. I will string these recordings together into one or two “tracks”, which I will put in a mid-December post, for everyone’s listening pleasure.

Guidelines:

1. I’d love to include a recording from anyone who has ever left a comment on this blog, up till now.

2. Send your recording by email to robin[@]letsliveforever[.]net
You attach the file (e.g. MP3) to the email the same way you do any attachment.

3. I would like recordings in by December 17, please, so I can start editing.

4. Any file format will do—we are sound engineers… we can cope! I’m thinking it shouldn’t be too hard to find a way of recording your voice. If you are really stuck, most digital cameras have video recording on them—you could send me a video and I’ll get the sound off it (I won’t show it).

5. If you have any technical questions, ask in the comments below or email me.

6. I will be posting the finished recording in December, so your message could include a Christmas or holiday greeting.

7. As an example, my recording will be something like: “Hello everyone, my name’s Robin, my blog is let’s live forever and I’m in Australia. Merry Christmas everyone!” Feel free to be a tad more creative than that, and to speak for a little longer.

Methods bloggers have used so far:

I will add to this as I receive recordings

Extra hints:

So bloggers clear your throats and let us hear your voices. I want to hear your funny accents!More posts, a random selection:

• The Fountain Of Youth Gets An Update!
• Is The World Getting Better Or Worse?
• Bloggers’ Recording Project Has Arrived!
• This Blogging Life!
• What If? The Movie – Clip 2

Image from Galaxy, by Camilla Eriksson at Care2

In a convoluted way this post is my contribution to Blog Action Day.

I had a great little video arrive in my email not long ago. It’s called Galaxy, and if you are up for some light entertainment, check it out by clicking here. Turn up your sound because the song by Eric Idle is great—there are no volume controls on it and it goes for just under 3 minutes.

It turns out Galaxy is an eCard you can get from Care2, an online organisation that provides a hub where people can support a whole host of causes, such as animal welfare, human rights and environmental concerns, through petitions and lots of other methods.

One of their causes is helping one of their partners The International Medical Corps get $1.5 million to combat hunger, from American Express. They have a blog post about it: Help IMC Win $1.5 million to Fight Hunger

Petitions on Care2 are anything from ‘Send unwanted clothes to Africa’ to ‘Legalize Sugar Gliders in Pennsylvania’ (which I was intrigued at because sugar gliders are a native possum here in Australia).

This year’s Blog Action Day has the theme ‘poverty’. While most of the causes I could see on the Care2 site were not specifically about poverty, I do think these things are related… if humanity can pull itself out of the muck, poverty will be a thing of the past (a bit esoteric, I know, but I said this post would be convoluted).

You can find the Galaxy eCard on this page (they don’t appear to give access to the full-window version I’ve linked to above). If you send an eCard, they say: “For every eCard sent, Care2 makes a donation to an environmental nonprofit to save a square foot of rainforest”.

sugar glider by DawsonMore posts, a random selection:

• Plenty For Everyone
• Bloggers’ Recording Project
• On Overcoming Obstacles
• Guy Finley Followed By An Illustrated Meme.
• Insects Versus Mother Theresa

and the sequel…

The cast of comical characters above are mostly the visitors who have left the most comments on this blog (calculated with the help of a plugin). Thanks to EVERYONE who has left a comment… to me it’s what makes my blogging life worthwhile.

They are, in order of appearance…

Vered from MomGrind
Peter from The Change Blog (thanks for your inspiration!)
Darren from ProBlogger (I’d be NOWHERE without you!)
Chris from Wat da Wat?
Barbara from Blogging Without A Blog
Cath from Cath Lawson
The Papier Mache Blogger, who hasn’t got a blog yet, but has starred in one.
Natural from Thinking Out Loud
Evelyn from Attraction Mind Map
Urban Panther from Urban Panther’s Lair
Urbane Lion from Urbane Lion’s Den
Al from 7P Productions
Marelisa from Abundance Blog With Marelisa-Online
Shilpan from Success Soul
Ricardo (Ribeezie) from Ribeezie
Davina from Loving Pulse
Lance from The Jungle of Life
Harmony from Golden Zen
Bill from BlogRivet.com
Tom from Delightful Work
Simon from The Secret of Life
Ray (rainer) from The Esoteric Journey

…and if you want to know where the yummy-looking jelly comes from, click here.

While on the subject of blogging, I experienced a blogger’s worst nightmare a few days ago… I DESTROYED MY BLOG! Poof! – all gone… except for some jumbled remnants (I wish I’d taken a screen shot).

I had updated WordPress from 2.5.1 to 2.6, and it worked, but I decided I didn’t like it because two of my plugins that I had just spent ages setting up didn’t work – so I thought I’d revert to 2.5.1 – Big Mistake. I was using a fancy gizmo that comes with my hosting to do all this.

I emailed my hosting company Little Oak—my message actually included the words “please help me – I’m desperate”. I got a reply 20 minutes later saying “Would you like to revert to 2 hours ago or 14 hours ago?” I wrote: “2 hours please”, and about a minute later my blog was BACK. PHEW!

I am very pleased with Little Oak—I think I’d describe this as good service. (The gizmo I used actually did warn pointedly that reverting was not a good idea.)

Also… I’ve written up a new page How to subscribe by RSS, and put a link to it in the sidebar (in case anyone’s interested in such things).

Cheers – RobinMore posts, a random selection:

• What’s In A Name?
• An Eventful Month
• Love Song To Planet Earth
• Galaxy For Blog Action
• What If? The Movie – Clip 4

Well this blog has a new name today—I like the ring of this one better. The old one was ‘Why Live Forever?’

I was staying with my mother in the country for four days last week, without any internet. Although I was gnashing my teeth slightly at the prospect of not being able to get on with my blog, I thought the change of perspective might be a good thing too.

A few days in, I thought of the new name, and decided to change it. I had thought of changing the name before… I had been thinking the old one didn’t quite work. But I couldn’t bear the thought of changing everything over. It took being away from the blog to see things in perspective—I decided it wouldn’t really take that long, especially as the blog only had nine posts anyway… I could just recreate it from scratch and not worry about how to export it or anything fancy like that.

I would have preferred the dot com version of the web address, but it was taken by one of those crappy sites that just have lots of searches for topics that lead to ads, and they make their money from people clicking on the ads… I suppose.

The puzzling thing, I reckon, is why did they choose the name “Let’s live forever.com”? Their goal is to attract people and make money, so they must believe that talking about living forever is something that will do that for them. It’s funny, I think, how often “living forever” comes up in our culture. It’s as though there is a yearning for it deep down in our collective psyche.More posts, a random selection:

• Wanting To Look Young
• What If? The Movie, A Review
• Ten Reasons To Decide To Live Forever
• Life And Teaching Of The Masters Of The Far East
• Festival Of Life

I had to laugh… five minutes after I posted my last post, I went out to the letter box and got the local paper, and THIS was the front cover:

I had been tossing up between using the photo of the cherries and a photo of a baby, on the last post, and settled on the cherries. I got my baby anyway! Isn’t he gorgeous!

“Enough room” seems to be a hot topic at the moment… well in my neck of the woods, anyway. The Melbourne Times article is about the baby boom in our area and whether the local schools will have enough room for them all.

While on the topic of blogging, there’s a great little story on Hunter Nuttall.com, called ‘The Zen of Blogging’. It’s a pdf ebook, and a good read.

And I want to thank Darren from proBlogger for his blog. I use his info and resources all the time, and would not have been able to pull my two blogs together as quickly without him.

Also… if anyone wants to know how to get great images for their posts, this article from Skelliewag explains how.

I was wondering if any of you have had any funny or strange coincidences between your posts and real life. I’d love to hear them!

‘The Melbourne Times’ cover photo by proud dad Darren JamesMore posts, a random selection:

• Is The World Getting Better Or Worse?
• The Fountain Of Youth Gets An Update!
• On Overcoming Obstacles
• Let’s Live Forever!
• Guy Finley Followed By An Illustrated Meme.