ciao from sicily
Dec 22 2012

Much To-Do About Everything – Progress Report #2

Hello! This post is a progress report, details of my endeavours elsewhere, talk of running a blog for profit, considering other ventures, a call out to any frustrated would-be entrepreneurs, and a request to those of you following the blog/on the mailing list.

What I’ve Been Up To

It’s been a while since I paid the world of wordpress.com any attention, with good reason, but it’s still a shame. All my efforts have been going into my other site over at TravelUnmasked.com, so I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs!

Keep on reading…

Sep 1 2012

Trouble Posting

Pondering effective practices and self-imposed obstacles.

“It’s better to be fast and good, than slow and perfect”

Why didn’t someone tell me this when I was young? I spent my first 20 years of existence trying to get everything perfect. But this minute distillation of wisdom only perculated in my direction long after I’d grown. I see the logic and advantages of this approach now, obviously there are disadvantages too, but in many situations they are out-weighed. Too late for me though, I can’t change the habits of over two and a half decades, no doubt the derivatives of a slight tendency towards OCD, extreme perfectionism as it were, and a finely honed expertise in procrastination.

I’m not a defeatist – I am constantly trying to be faster, and happy with good – but the quality/quantity arguement rears its damn head. Photography is different, in that I’m always aiming for quality, but I like to click lots.

3am Fishing Trip, Białystok, Poland

This week brought a form of light balm to my pains; Read on, about travel, blogging, photos…

Aug 4 2012

Accidental Heroics with Dustin Hoffman

Did you hear the one about Dustin Hoffman saving a joggers life?

Well he actually did earlier this year (Ba-bum-tish!), when a 27 year old Londoner had a heart attack in Hyde Park, and the Rain Man himself just happened to be first on the scene. For the same 3 or 4 details repeated and rephrased with as much originality as tulips in Amsterdam, you could see the Guardian, the Telegraph or CNN‘s articles.

Ok, so why regurgitate this old ‘news’? Well, it’s because the whole of the world’s media completely missed the biggest sitter* of an opportunity to make a pun, ever.
‘Read all about it’…

Jun 28 2012

Progress Report #1 – Success and Failure, Laid Bare

It’s time for a recap of my progress to date! It’s almost exactly the middle of the year, and this should have happened sooner, but c’est la vie.

I started this blog on 6th September 2011, much to my surprise, I thought it was mid-November.

So far I’ve posted 18 times (19 including this one) with no real routine – an average of 2 posts a month, but not even managing 2 posts in February, and this will be my first blog post of June too.

My Stats have slowly but steadily climbed, although June has not continued the trend. A lot of my views are directly related to how active I am on twitter, both finding good people (hopefully real people) to follow and how regularly I tweet.

Absolutely everything I can possibly plug-in to twitter, I have done, so for example if I Like a video on Vimeo or Youtube, it automatically tweets. Read more…

May 24 2012

On Reading as a Mind Altering Substance, Inspiration, and Murakami

This post is an introduction to a new series of posts I am working on, and features some excerpts from Haruki Murakami’s ‘Kafka by the Shore’.

I have a theory. I’ve been realising lately that certain books and authors have had a much bigger effect on my life than I appreciate. I’m not sure I would have tried an iota of the things I’ve been doing in the last few years if it weren’t for their influence. Read the excerpts, see pics and lots of links too

Apr 22 2012

Quickest travel blog conference write-up in the world, maybe

This is a very brief post in response to a tweet from Mark of @101holidays asking about #TBUMBR on twitter. It will probably change or be superceded later this week!

Quick background – I’m @PeterParkorr, I started this blog Nov/Dec 2011 and this was my first travel blogging event of any sort – I havent even managed a #TTOT, #TNI or tweetup beforehand.

#TBUnite #TBUMBR organised by Oli Gradwell was in Umbria, Italy, as you probably know.

Click to read the rest of my speed-write-up of #TBUMBR

Mar 30 2012

Photo: Through

What do you mean, I’ve missed another Postaweek challenge? I don’t know how…

Nevermind, here’s some pictures that represent this (or last) week’s theme ‘Through’, although I think almost every shot I have from Valleta, Malta, could fit here nicely…

Through Malta's famous Mdina Glass


Through here to see the rest…

Mar 17 2012

Photo: Indulgence (and Incredible India)

Some thoughts and photo’s for a previous weeks Post A Week 2012 theme ‘Indulgence’. These were very nearly posted for last week’s theme ‘Contrast‘, which is another fitting title for what it is I’m saying.

The first photo’s were taken in Varkala, a popular beach for tourists along the coast of Kerala, India.

And the thoughts; Why is the world the way it is? Why is the quality of your life more dependent on your place of birth than on your IQ? Why do some people have more things than they need, and others don’t have basic education, food, or water?


More ‘Indulgence’, a book, and travel photos from India

Mar 16 2012

Photo: Contrast (and Catania’s Pescheria)

Another entry for Post A Week 2012! For this week’s theme ‘Contrast’, I chose two photo’s that I had already intended to desaturate before the theme was announced, because of strong sun and interesting plays of light.

The first shot was taken during an all-day barbequeue in Catania, where I retrieved my camera from it’s hiding place specifically to capture the slats of light filtering through some overhead bamboo. My unwitting subjects are from Germany, USA and Italy, it was a great multi-cultural affair.

The second shot and others from the fish market are here