London to Brighton

I used to have a personal trainer a year or so ago, and for the 18 months of our twice-weekly sessions, I was the fittest i've been since my early twenties. Since then, I've only managed the (very) occassional bike ride or jog along brighton beach, and i'm starting to notice the effects.

So, with foolhardy recklessness and in the hope of re-igniting my desire to keep fit, I'm doing the London to Brighton bike ride in a few weeks. It should be ok, but i'm already fearing that i'll be the least fit of our group, dragging behind and pushing my bike up the hills. The only consolation is that I'll be able to go straight home afterwards for alcohol and a warm bath, instead of having to schlep back up to london with my bike.

I'm doing it in aid of the British Heart Foundation, so go on - sponsor me. At least that way the suffering will be worthwhile...

50 people see...

There's lots of fun projects using tags on Flickr, but most of them I find interesting for their cool use of tech, rather than their aesthetics. But the '50 people see' project is just beautiful. It takes 50 pictures that share a tag (ie 'eye', 'mountain' or 'shadow') and maps them onto each other. The resulting images have a beautiful, scratchy surface, a bit like an abstract version of a Dave McKean illustration. I'd love to see these printed up large in a gallery.

[thanks to Kim for the link!]

Backstage

Ben Hammersley has the best commentary, but let me be probably the last person to welcome Backstage into the world. Backstage was a project that was passed around a couple of times before finally sneaking under the wire and into the world. I think Tom and Matt were the original parents, before handing it to me. I did very little except come up with the name 'backstage' before handing to James, who did a fantastic job of actually getting it somewhere, before Tom returned to bring in the fantastic skills of Ben, helping James and Ben get it over the finishing line. So essentially, it was vapourware until the A-team of Tom, Ben & James actually knuckled down and built something. They deserve all the plaudits and free pints that the blogosphere can throw at them.

Which in a way is the message of backstage, and what they should probably put as its tagline (paraphrasing the cult kids TV show) - Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go [Online] And Do Something Less Boring Instead?

Ah! - Backstage - the kids TV programme! Its only a matter of time! (For our US viewers, imagine a cross between Sesame St and O'Reilly's Make magazine...)