When I started blogging, as Omneo, back in 2004 I didn’t have much of a plan or vision for it and truth be told I’m quite surprised that I’m still updating it and getting nudges from people when I don’t post for a while.
The site started life not so much as a blog as a place to collate things I found amusing from the internet, back when it was a strictly dial-up affair. I recently found a hard drive with the old site on it and I looked back at some of the stuff and scratched my head wondering what it was I found so amusing, then I remembered the quantities of drugs I was taking at the time and it all made sense, sort of.
The really short story about the origins of the Omneo name is that I took ownership of some surplus post-it pads whilst working in a hotel and whilst trying to think of a unique but memorable name for an online account I surveyed my desk, saw a post-it note and decided Omneo fitted the bill; it then became my go-to username for everything online.
It wasn’t until 2007 that Omneo became Mr Omneo, the result of a comment someone made on a forum as I recall. In the early days I blogged about anything and everything but by and large it was a personal affair and never really intended for a mass market. Suddenly it became popular, I can’t for the life of me remember why or when but gradually I started self-censoring what I wrote as I became aware of people from my day job reading it.
I knew it was time to clean-up my act when the CEO once announced in the office, “Who is this Mr Omneo everyone’s talking about?” and someone showed him the blog. I think it was a post about being stoned, what I thought of my therapist and how much I disliked some of the people I worked with at the time. A winning combination I’m sure you’ll agree!
Anyway, why am I writing this now? Well, in part it’s because over the years this blog has veered in different directions but has always, I’ve felt, been losing some of the personal touch as I had more and more PR agencies sending me info of things they’d like me to cover in return for access to samples, screenings and other assorted freebies.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a freebie as much as the next blogger (Hey PR people, I really do!) but sometimes I just don’t want to write about some things but if you don’t someone else will and the free stuff and offers quickly dry up. That said, as a blogger you have to decide whether you’re going to put your name to any old badly concocted press release or are you going to be you?
I’ve decided to try for the best of both worlds. My intention is return this site back to its more personal roots and the more sales-pitchy, press releasey, freebie inspired stuff will be posted over on one of my other sites, Mr Omneo’s SoopaStore. Of course it won’t be the standard fare. I’ll only be posting about stuff I want to and I’ll be mixing things up with posts on things I’ve actually shelled out my own money for as well as stuff I’ve been sent together with my thoughts on stuff I hear about product/service launches etc.
The intention is to give my honest opinion, which may not always be what is expected but if I feel like something is shit, I’m going to say it’s shit but I’ll say why I think so and I’ll try to also say something good about it but I’m not offering any guarantees on that!
Right! Now that I’ve got that out of the way let me tell you about a cracking little drum n bass LP that’s coming out on the Commercial Suicide label on 2 June by a Kiwi fella called Dose aka Chris Truman.
I was going to spend an hour or so reading up on Chris before writing this but as it happens Kmag have done the job for me and published an article today, complete with an MP3 mix you can download so go read, download and enjoy.
The album itself, Mind the Future is bloody great and I for one will be annoying the neighbours with it for sure this Summer as it has a perfect symmetry of dark and light that make it good for getting the mind, body and soul moving and grooving. The opening track, Haphazard, just makes me want to jump around like a jacked up punk rocker but that’s just me.
Have a listen to the SoundCloud sampler and do your ears, if not your neighbours a favour by buying it when it comes out and playing it LOUD!
