I never thought that I would use the phrases “break a leg” and “have a break” to play on words, but here it goes. Just to let you know from the start, a series of pre-written posts will be appearing on my blog for some time in the future. As you might know, Blogger now allows you to schedule your posts, which I used a few times previously to test that the feature worked well. It did, and now I have no choice but to commit myself to it for a period of time – while I’m nursing my broken ankle.
Yes, playing on words. We use “break a leg!” when wishing luck to a person. (If I’m not mistaken, in German language they actually wish to “break a neck“). I suppose this is what my friends wished me when I left for Beck’s Canvas – and I did really well, as you may have read, seen and heard. Of course, they didn’t know that on my return, on my way into work, I’d actually break my ankle. I still cannot get my head around the fact that I did it, while wearing trainers and walking (not running) on the road that was perfectly plain (although it was a drizzly day). Then, of course, since this happened, I’ve been told at least three stories of really horrific accidents, one of which occurred in the kitchen. Also, in the news there was a story a couple of months ago of a Mexican donkey, who for whatever reason bit one man and kicked another, breaking the latter’s leg. The donkey was put into prison for misbehaviour; I suppose I could become the (wo)man who sued God, but that’s going to take too much of my energy. So, I console myself with the fact that my flat is not on the sunny side, it’s relatively shady here, and I am trying not to feel extremely gutted at how many things I am going to miss in 5 weeks of being off sick and in cast.
As I have to keep my leg up in the air all the time, and as I don’t use a Blackberry or suchlike for blogging, I thought I would be unable to blog. But, thankfully, I remembered about scheduling in Blogger, and was able to pre-write a few posts, to avoid disappearing for too long without a word.
Also, Google has recently rolled out their Knol: A Unit of Knowledge. I posted about Knol a year ago on the Russian blog, and I know a few readers there were interested in the financial opportunities of Knol (because, yes, you are going to be able to earn some money, provided you consent to the advertisement in your article). Back in 2007, Knol looked like an onslaught on Wikipedia. Indeed, all Knol articles have to be written under your real name, which is a welcome departure from a collectively (and not always well) edited people’s encyclopaedia. Having said so, one look at the Knol’s current home page makes you wonder if the whole feature may become an ex catedra space for medical professionals. Not that I don’t want to seek and find medical advice online… Thankfully, there are some reassuring Knols, e.g. Music in Capoeira by Johan Mengesha.
Yet the fact that Google allows advertising on Knols makes a prospective onslaught on Squidoo more plausible. You can use your Squidoo lenses to earn money for yourself or a charitable cause close to your heart, but now you can also do that through Google.
In short, in addition to diverse and sundry things from the past you can now use Google to: 1) pre-write and schedule your posts for future publishing; 2) write an authoritative article and earn money with it. I’m not sure how far Google has gone with Comments on the News feature they reported on planning to have back in August 2007, but surely there will be more Google-y things to come, anyway. May I suggest a personalised forecast for prospective leg-breakers, please?