Some Snippets to Share

There have been a few things happening just recently that I'd like to share with you, so I thought I'd collect them together in one post.

If you are currently living in a different country from where you grew up, I'd encourage you to take part in a survey that is being conducted by Expats Moving and Relocation Guide. The idea is to collect information about different cities around the world, with an emphasis on their suitability for expats. I completed an entry for my city of residence, Edison, NJ. With enough entries, this could be a valuable resource.

I have added a "News and Views" section to the right-hand column of this blog. This collects together news stories, articles, etc., that have caught my eye recently, and which I think might be of interest to my readers. Click on a heading to go to the story. Only the five most recent headlines appear, but clicking on More News will expand this. For those who are interested, the list comes from my shared items in Google Reader. When I see a story I want to share, I use a "Note in Reader" application, and it automatically becomes available in the "News and Views" section. Let me know if you find it useful and/or entertaining.

I have been using Google Buzz a lot recently. It works a lot like web-forums, bulletin-boards or discussion areas of old, and combines it with social media. It's a little like a Facebook "wall," although it promises to be a lot more organized - searchable too. Its big plus is that it is instantly available to anyone using Gmail. If you want to try it out, or if you've been using Buzz yourself, you can find me here.

Soon after I returned from my New Year's trip to England, I was contacted by Jon Gibbs who runs a blog for writers. Its name: An Englishman in New Jersey! It was set up at about the same time as this one was, which explains why neither of us found one another before. So, are we firing off "Cease and Desist!" letters to each other, with promises of lawsuits? Of course not! Like good Englishmen we settled things over a cup of tea...well actually, after a series of e-mails. We figured that nobody would really be confused by the identical names, as our audiences were probably quite different. We talked about adding mutual links to "The 'other' Englishman in New Jersey." Jon's site is really rather good - take a wander over there if you have any interest in writing.

Finally, British site Londonist has a great series of articles running right now. They're looking, chapter-by-chapter, at a city guide written in the 1960s by popular spy author Len Deighton. Called The London Dossier, the book offers a wonderful snapshot of swinging London.

If you have found a website or other resource that you think might be useful to readers of this blog, please do share in a comment.