text:
Did you have a chance to watch the Google Performance Summit on May 24th announcing changes to the Google Adwords platform? If not, here's the hour long video of the summit below:
Highlights Of Changes To Google Adwords Platform
At the Google Performance Summit, Google announced a bunch of changes to both it's Google Adwords and Analytics platforms.
This article will highlight some of the changes regarding Google Adwords only, including the new mobile-first bidding option, local search ads (on Google and Google Maps) & promoted pins, longer text ads, and a peak at the new Adwords layout.
These changes are expected to roll out later this year and into 2017, so don't panic – you still have time to adapt (but you'll probably be wishing you could implement some of these functions immediately)!
If you have $150k to drop and want to learn about the new Google Analytics speak stats function and how it integrates with Google Machine Learning, then read the article here. The ability to ask Google Analtyics a question and get a report as an answer is pretty darn cool!
Google Adwords New Mobile-First Bidding Option
Did you know that more than half of all web traffic now comes from smartphones & tablets? Unfortunately, when bidding for ads, you can only bid on desktop and then modify your bids for mobile, which is a challenge.
However, Google announced at the Summit that advertisers will soon be able to set individual bid adjustments for each individual device type, including mobile and tablets! Advertisers will also have a wider range to adjust bids – up to 900%. These changes should help easily optimize within a single campaign that reaches among multiple devices.
This change was expected and am pleased that it is finally going to be rolled out soon.
Google Adwords New Local Search Ads & Promoted Pins
Did you know that 1/3 of all the mobile searches are related to location? Google announced that advertisers will soon be able to reach consumers searching for physical business locations via their new Local Search Ads across Google.com and Google Maps. According to the Official Google Adwords Blog… "Advertisers using location extensions will be able to prominently showcase their business locations when consumers search for things like 'shoe store' or 'car repair near me'."
2 Cool Benefits of Local Search Ads:
- Promoted Pins – as seen on the example below (left), if a Maps user is looking for a Walgreens, they'll also be able to see promoted pins for other local businesses nearby, such as coffee shops, gas stations, or taverns.
- Local Business Page Revamp – as seen on the example below (right), Google is adding new features like 'special offers' and the ability to browse product inventory. The summit discusses an example of a person losing their phone charger. They search 'best buy phone chargers near me' and on the Business Page for Best Buy, the user sees a list of different types of phone chargers as well as a 10% coupon for phone accessories.
Long Text On Mobile Adwords Ads
I have long considered myself the King of the 26 character headline. Unfortunately, Google only allows 25 characters in their headline. Anyways, Google is revamping the look of their mobile ads to give it more of a native feel.
One of the new perks of this redesign? Expanded headline characters – and not just by 1 or 2 characters either. Instead of one 25 character headline, advertisers will now have 2 30 character headlines to work with! (I wonder how long it will take me to master 31 character headlines?)
In addition, instead of having two 35 character description lines, Google is taking a page out of the bing ads and having one consolidated 80 character description line.
Google is also rolling out Responsive Ads for Display, which will cause the ads to have a different look and feel that will better match the look and feel of the content the user is browsing. Below are examples from Google's Blog:
Initial testing by advertisers has shown a reported increase of click-through rates of up to 20% compared to current text ads.
New Google Adwords Layout
Google Adwords is rolling out its first major change to its facade since 2008. The redesign won't affect the way the campaigns are structured or how they run – the only changes will be on how the data is displayed and what is shown when. Below is what Paul Feng, Google Adwords Product Manager, had to say about the reason for the change:
"The reason we're rebuilding AdWords is because the world has changed so much in the past two years. AdWords is now over 15 years old and launched when Google was just figuring out what search advertising was. We rebuilt it several years ago for a desktop world — smartphones were only [a] year old. Now we are in probably the biggest shift since AdWords was introduced (and I'd argue perhaps ever) with mobile," said Feng, "And there is now increased demand on marketers and on AdWords as a platform — advertisers are running ads in search, display, shopping, mobile, video. Ultimately, that's why we're re-imagining AdWords." – Source: Search Engine Land
Below is an example of how the new platform will look:
Google Adwords Summit Summary
While it may take up to 18 months for all of these changes (Mobile-First Bids, Mobile Text & Display Ads, Local Search Ads & Promoted Pins, and the New Adwords Layout), it's a good time to start preparing for these changes.
Mobile focused ads offer a different set of challenges than desktop ads. Behavioral Scientist & Author Dan Ariely wrote about this phenomenon recently, where he discussed the 'time pressure' element. People searching for solutions on mobile are typically looking to solve an immediate problem and require a specific solution. From a social science perspective, these on-the-go mobile moments, which Google calls micro-moments, should be taken into consideration when writing copy for your ads. For many marketers, this will require a different style of writing.
What new Google Adwords change are you most excited about? Leave your comments below!
Nick Bridges
Latest posts by Nick Bridges (see all)
- Facebook Releases 8 New Standard Events - November 14, 2018
- Facebook Pixel Changes 2018 - October 11, 2018
- Writing Compelling Ad Headlines that People Will Click - September 12, 2016


text:
Day 45 Fit Test
It's the halfway point!! I was reminded today that I really need to take my own advice more often. Never trust/rely on the scale.
Yes, I only lost .6 lbs this round, but that's better than gaining like I did last time. The scale is going in the right direction again. And yes, my fit test scores aren't phenomenal, but this week's lower body routine killed me, and my chest is still sore from Monday, so I'm in acceptance mode with my scores. I'll push it harder next time. I didn't post the scores here, but I kicked my ab score's ass (do scores have an ass?) and I'm feeling really good about that. Hell, I did a full 50 seconds of tabletop crunches, without a single pause, and doubled my score from Monday. #winning
Hubby and I had a nice conversation during his lunch break and I think I need to worry a lot less about my weight and focus more on losing inches at my waist (my most frustrating section) and lowering my body fat percentage.
I would still love to be in the 130s by my birthday at the end of July, but I think I would rather focus on getting my waist down to maybe 36 inches (that would be a loss of another 5 inches, but I honestly have no idea if that is realistic) and 28% body fat (currently sitting at 30.4%). The problem with changing my focus to these things is that I have no idea what is a reasonable goal. I'm just flying blind here. I tried researching how to calculate ideal body fat percentage, but all I could find was how to calculate my current BF% (which turns out to be much higher than the number our fancy scale gave me) or a range of 21-33%. Neither of those helped me much, so I am just picking a couple of numbers for now. Vague goals, if you will, just to give myself something to picture.
Hands down, the absolute best thing about today is the inch I lost at my waist in the last 15 days. Y'all, that shit made everything else negligible.
I would like to point out that these new goals aren't intended to be achieved at the end of this challenge, since we only have 45 days left. These are goals to be achieved over the next 4 months.
Leave a Reply.
Get your daily Nerdy fix by following us on Instagram
Writer and Contributor for the Motherhood Community

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Whether you found them online, in a bookstore, in the library - or wherever!
Hosted by A Daily Rhythm.
Hey guys! My review for Truthwitch is coming up this weekend. (It was great btw, you should all read it ASAP) In the meanwhile I'm sharing some of my new finds with you. Lots of red and black and queens and monarchies this week, but I'm pretty excited about all of them! Apparently kingdoms are quite the trend lately. But - I'm total trash. So gimme gimme gimme.
Click the cover to view the book on goodreads.


text:
This pilates how-to video illustrates the Obliques Roll Back exercise. This is a challenging rotational pilates exercise for athletes and advanced clients.
Obliques Roll Back targets the obliques, transversus abdominis and rectus abdominis. Focus on opening your hip joints to pull your hip bones away from your thighs. Maintain the spinal flexion as you rotate and keep the transversus abdominis engaged. Keep the scapulae stabilized and feet connected to the floor.
To modify this pilates exercise, put a flex band around the feet to help support throughout the exercise. You can also a use a small ball or fitness circle between your thighs to maintain the inner thigh connection.
Practice doing this pilates obliques roll back exercise at home.
Start your career in Graphic Design with the WonderHowTo's Beginners's Guide to Photoshop Course


text:
"Initiation" (2014 Elk Hunt, Part VII)
iˌniSHēˈāSHən: the action of admitting someone into a secret or obscure society or group, typically with a ritual "This is a big animal…and such a little knife," I thought to myself. The celebration is over. The tag is notched. It is time to begin the daunting task of getting this elk processed, packed, and cooled. … [Read more…]


text:
Welcome to
Cornerstone Family Counseling, LLC
Are you dealing with stress or depression? Have you been unable to move on from a traumatic life event? Do you find yourself dealing with rough marital or family problems that have started to take a toll on your relationship? Sometimes, we need more than a friend to help us through these things. At Cornerstone, our gifted and caring therapists will provide a guiding hand in helping you to overcome the obstacles that are weighing you down.


text:
I walked around the city a little bit after the party.
Mirna took me to the fish market and souk and I didn't know that watermelons in desert are that tasty!!
Thank you Mirna!!
The 2nd picture is with Liza (shop staff), me, Joanna (buyer) and Mirna.
Lunch at Kuwait: the lamb chop I ate was very good!
The blue and white stripe structure is actually a water tank.
It's a bit artistic…!
The big sun is like sinking in the water.
Kuwait's economic development is remarkable and the city is changing with a dizzy speed.
Women in Kuwait are dressed in the latest fashion, they're full of energy and I felt that they are very powerful!
Hope to visit again soon!!


text:
PJ wishes Jase 'Happy Birthday' with a SAVAGE parody to 'Look What You Made Me Do'
- Publish Date
- Friday, 8 September 2017, 1:25PM
The Jase part of the 'Jase and PJ' show turns 40 today! (lol, soz Jase), and he's known to stitch PJ up.
Let us remind you of the time Jase got PJ Harding moustaches made, he tricked her into eating dog biscuits, and the time he made her audition for First Dates on her own birthday... those are just a few things Jase has made PJ do.
So, PJ only had one idea when it came to Jase's birthday. REVENGE.
Introducing, PJ's parody of Taylor Swift's 'Look What You Made Me Do'...


text:
Extra excitement over at CSI this week, because it's the second time we've joined up with Scrap365 with a special Case File designed by the wonderful Debbi Tehrani ...
Here it is (click on the image to enlarge it so you can see the details)
As always, Debbi has found a beautiful image for us to investigate and from this she has drawn inspiration for the colour scheme, design elements and journaling.
I love this palette, with the rich red against the soft neutrals, and it just happened to fit very nicely with the Graphic45 Mother Goose paper pad which I treated myself to at the Ally Pally Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show last week!
The inspiration words - "read, together, magic" - got me thinking about how much I used to enjoy reading bedtime stories to my boys when they were little. We always used to have stories and songs before they went to sleep - sometimes from a book and sometimes made up as we went along. The strange thing is that there was never a moment when we said, "ok, this is the last time we will have bedtime stories together" - I guess we just gradually got out of the habit, which seems sad but that's the way it goes and I suppose it would be a bit weird if I was still reading them a story and tucking them into bed thirty years later!
And it would be really weird if they still wanted to play the Humpty Dumpty game :o)
So, here's my take on this challenge (click on the image to see the details and check that I followed all the clues)
Scheme: all the colours are there, plus a pale eggshell background and some pops of black
Evidence: tearing; spiral; chalk; stencil; stitching.
Testimony: I documented something about books/reading, began with "Once upon a time ..." and used the IW "read, together, magic" as a jumping-off point for my journaling, which is written around the page and reads as follows:
" Once upon a time there were two little boys called Richard and Tom who loved to listen to bedtime stories and songs, and the humpty dumpty game would always make them giggle. Why can't I remember the last bedtime story?"
I enjoyed creating the wall with texture paste applied through a stencil then coloured with chalk. I stitched a spiral to indicate poor Humpty's fall. The cracks were drawn in freehand and shaded with markers and then my DH had the genius idea of adding little pieces of "eggshell" - perfect!
Thanks for looking at my page, and don't forget to check out the Gorgeous Gallery over at CSI and the feature in Scrap365 magazine to see how everyone else has solved this extra-special Case File :o)


text:
Image Hover effects using CSS have been quite famous in web developing and pretty handy in giving attractive looks to your site. This is an image rotate hover effect using simple CSS and HTML. This one is called as photo rotate effect in which the image will undergo rotations and display it at a tilted angle giving the look of a cool photo rotate hover effect. This kind of effect is well suited for galleries in your site and integrating this effect with other images will give a classy look to your site.
Here is a simple preview of this photo rotate hover effect and in this the images should be carefully placed to avoid the overflow of images over one another. It should also be properly aligned to keep the attraction of this effect intact.
#photo_rotate img{ width: 400; height:400; -moz-border-radius: 50%; -webkit-border-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; -webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; -moz-transition: all 0.3s ease; transition: all 0.3s ease; padding:4px; border:1px solid #000 !important; } #photo_rotate img:hover { border-radius: 0 0 0 0; -moz-transform: scale(1.2) rotate(-711deg) ; -webkit-transform: scale(1.2) rotate(-711deg) ; -o-transform: scale(1.2) rotate(-711deg) ; -ms-transform: scale(1.2) rotate(-711deg) ; transform: scale(1.2) rotate(-711deg) ; }
In the above code rotate property was used to produce this cool hover effect. You can assign the rotate degree values of your wish but in here -711 deg was used to make the image rotate anticlockwise and the image rotation stops before completion of 2nd rotation. Border radius was given as 50% to alter the shape of the image to a circle. You can alter these values to change the effect produced and careful placement of images is necessary to avoid overlapping of images over one another.

JLCPCB - Only $2 for PCB Prototype (Any Color)
24 Hours fast turnaround, Excellent quality & Unbeatable prices
Up to $20 shipping discount on first order now: https://jlcpcb.com/quote


text: An amusing print showing boys and girls dancing hand in hand around a tree. To the right is an inn, above the door the inscription John Spigot, Dealer in Foreign Spirits, a jolly figure at the inn door, right leg up holds a frothing tankard in his right hand. To the right an elegant couple look on.


text:
It was a big day in Ponyville, every pony and creature was present at the starting line. Ever sense Equestria had Mobian vistors, things were always exciting. Now one thing was going to prove who was the fastest creature in Equestria. That's right, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Rainbow Dash were going to race against each other. Everyone was excited. Princess Celestia strolls up annoucing the event "Attention everypony and creature, the first ever Equestrian/Mobian Race is about to begin! Will all contestants approach the starting line in the order I announce them! First the challenger, the fastest hedgehog in the galaxy, he love to eat these Chili Dogs, and thrawts Eggman on a regular baises-"
There was a loud "BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" coming from Dr. Eggman whom was also watching the race.
Tails, and Knuckles all shouted "Go Sonic!"
Amy Rose shouts "Come on Sonic! Show your opponent whose really the fastest thing alive!"
Sonic approaches the starting line stretching and getting ready "Alright I'm ready."
Princess Celestia debated to have Dr. Eggman arrested right then and there or just let him watch the race. She settled for allowing him to watch the race then turns "And representing Equestria, the one Pegasus Pony whom claims to be the fastest pony of all Equestria...The Weather Manager of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow Dash dives down from the sky landing perfectly, stretched herself then approached the starting line amogst her cheering friends "Thank you everypony, I'll show this Hedgehog whose the fastest."
Sonic gives her a thumbs up as if telling her good luck. She gives him a thumbs up back with one of her wings.
Princess Celestia spoke "The race starts in Canterlot, threw Ponyville, threw the Everfree Forest, threw the Crystal Empire and then finishes back in Canterlot. The rules are simple, Rainbow Dash may fly but she can't unleash a Sonic Rainboom, as for Sonic, while you may use your Spin Dash, you can't use a Chaos Emerald or Power Ring to increase his speed. You may not hurt or injure your opponent in anyway."
"Got it!" Both Rainbow Dash and Sonic shouted.
Princess Celestia gives out the single, "ON, YOUR MARKS! GET SET! GO!"
With this both Sonic and Rainbow Dash begin their race.
Who wins?
Sonic and Rainbow Dash can't use any items to enhance their speed as Celestia explained. This match up is strickly a race based material, so try to think on whom is faster then the other without any enhancing, Rainbow Dash can fly and Sonic can use his Spin Dash.
So which of our two contestants wins in a race based off speed?


text:
Thursday, 28 December 2006
New do
Pooch is saying nice things and I have to admit I kind of like it. Now don't laugh, but with this do and the clothes I bought in the sale (ones that actually FIT ME and are NICE rather than not-warranting-nice-clothes-because-I'm-only-temporarily-a-16-and-am-
bound-to-fit-into-all-those-size-12-things-again-any-minute) and the bead necklaces I made form my hobbycraft blow out this afternoon I feel like I am becoming the Byrne I have always pictured in my head rather than the one I was striving for. It all sounds a bit hippy but I feel like I've found the proper me for once.
At this point I need to lay off the heavy stuff and mention that in the photo above I am cloth-ed (as in clothe ed as in olden wording) in my brand new pyjamas from Monsoon. One of the joys of weight gain is the need to buy new things such as pyjamas. And one of the joys of being ag-ed (as in age ed) is that spending £30 on a pair of PJs no longer makes you RAOTFLMAO* as the young things say. And that was the sale price. I'm not yet at an age(d) where spending £55 on a pair seems sensible.
So sale shopping and haircuts aside I am having a rather lovely holiday. I have catalogued my stash. Oh yes. I have also been to see the new James Bond film - oh my word yes. I have ditched all those size 12 clothes that I am blatantly not going to wear again (I'm aiming for 14 by summer and will leave the 12s to the young folk). I have organised my remaining wardrobe so I can actually find things. Hmmm, actually this is starting to sound like nesting behavour. Anything you want to tell me, Byrne? Er, no.
On the subject of James Bond - I admit I was not happy when they went for a Blonde Bond. Nothing against blonds - one of my best friends is a blonde - but Bond has dark hair and flashing dark eyes. But.....BUT. Well, for a start, butt. The man is gorgeous. He's a bit overdeveloped in the upper body but I'm not going to mark him down for that. He has this pouty mouth that a supermodel would starve herself to death for and a voice that is all yummy. I shouldn't write all this as I have been having stern discussions with Pooch about the objectification of women in modern society but you can't deny he is pure beefcake with a cherry on top. His acting is rather good too and although I understand the film is quite long I didn't feel a moment of it was over the top. I really would recommend this one.
Speaking of Pooch...
Pooch's Kennel - life as a wool-widow
Went to see Casino Royal. Byrne annoying as usual on the way back wanting to talk about some man who was in it. Eva Green is rather nice, what what.
Byrne has developed the habit of hiding all my posessions in unlikely places. She also moves them around while I am looking for them and then slips them into my pockets so when she says "are you sure they're not in your pocket" she can turn out to be right and get all smarmy about it. Have taken to sitting on her cable needle at every available opportunity and then getting stroppy when she asks me to stand up every fourth row.
Had Joe round for dinner last night. Was very excited as when withdrew bottle of white from wine rack it had dust on it. Byrne failed to observe the significance of this, merely remarking that it was proof of how dirty I was. Am going to put her wool in the rubbish after she falls asleep tonight then will be able to point out how much cleaning I have been doing.
Plans for tomorrow: Grump, sigh, grump some more.
* Roll around on the floor laughing my ass** off
** small american donkey
Tuesday, 26 December 2006
Remind me not to quote anyone anytime soon
So here I am on boxing day with another xmas gone. This one was unique in that it was completely family free as Pooch and I were very insular and ate our guinea fowl alone. It was actually really fun! This is depsite the post woman not coming on Saturday leaving me without my family's presents which is rather a shame and yet pretty good because I know that there are even more good things to come. I'll have to try to remember in coming days to post a picture of the duvet cover and pillows I made for my sister Sianybo which were rather good though I say so myself. I often wonder why I don't make these things for myself instead of putting up with tesco value tat so maybe that is something to add to the To Do list.
I was looking back at the blog archive for this time last year and couldn't find much mention of what my good intentions were other than a promise to exercise twice a week and eat more heathily. So, for the saje of tradition, let's put those on the to do list as well. I weighed myself this morning having put it off until the quality street were finished. I am 11 stone and 11 pounds which according to Google is about 75kg give or take an ounce. This is approx 1 stone and 4 pounds over what I was this time last year which is a bit of a bummer really. Bloody hell that's a lot of doughnuts under the bridge. So. SO.....Um.... I guess if I lose a pound a month I'll be 11 stone by the end of the year. Does that sound OK? Because afterall I am getting on a bit (several people have told me they thought I was about 25 recently although I can't help feeling that is down to a lack of maturity rather than youthful good looks) as I'll be 29 in 2007. That should mean I'll be a comfortable size 14 again rather than the size 15.9 I seem to be at the moment.
Now, where are those chocolates...?
Saturday, 23 December 2006
Pooch's Christmas Message
Yours grumpily, Pooch
Get UP! (get on up) Stay on the Scene! (get on up) Like a Sock Machine! (get on up)
Both pairs are sadly a little on the large side. But who needs svelte socks?
Here is the ghastly baby set that I did for someone my Mum knows.
Now before I continue I want you to promise not to laugh. Because I finished my mum's jacket and, um, it looks a bit odd. You know this woman....
Well, make sure you don't think of her when you look at this:
Yeah, I know.
So anyway, the winner of the first challenge for the Proud To Be Crafty zine was Ingrid Curl. Hoorah! And what did she win, well well.....
Well done Ingrid! And you can enter challenge two - just get hold of a copy of the zine and find out all about it.
Happy Christmas Everyone!
Wednesday, 20 December 2006
I'm not kidding. I've been sitting at my desk sniggering like a school boy who's just been told a fart joke for the last 10 minutes.
Now that the xmas knitting is gone and done I have had a chance to join some new ATC swaps. While perusing the web for vintage nudes (as you do, at work, when your screen faces the whole room) I came across this website. Obviously I wouldn't take any of the images from this website as that would infringe copyright but they are all remarkably free of watermarks and there is an amazing variety.
It is amazing what you can find on the web. For instance I can see the one on the left making an appearance on an ATC sometime soon.
Someone else at work has been made redundant in a rather unexpected reshuffle. All a bit odd. What is odder is that I got a kind of random job offer from a website that uses ZoomInfo to find likely candidates. What is weird is that I typed in my name and out of all the Al*x B*rne's in the world (and there is one who has won lots of oscars for costume design) I come out 3rd on their list. Try yourself. If ever there was a reason for not putting your real name, at least in full, on your blog this is it!
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Cast off the old, in with the new
Have sent out about 35 copies of the zine which is rather good and have had some very nice comments back. You can still get a copy here.
Have more pictures of cherries to be posted but none with me so until tomorrow........
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Impromptu lectures
- the music of william shatner
- balanced scorecard
- the distribution of staff survey results
- the height of some of my co-workers
- the flying spaghetti monster
It worries me that there are some people out there who do not know about his holiness, the FSM. Here he is:
I know. He's breathtaking. I have asked Pooch for the gospel of the FSM for xmas. I love him, and Pooch, and want to be touched by his noodly appendage, and the FSG's fnah fnah. I feel it is important that anyone who has heard about Creationism should also read about Pastafarianism.
Incidentally my colleagues already think I'm nuts so were not surprised at any of the above topics.
Just before I go - is the word 'bodkin' really in such decline? Even women in their 50s claim not to know of the word. I feel like it was one of my first 10 words like dada or potty. Reassure me here - others do know of and use it don't they? What else would one sew up seams with?
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
One word meme
Yourself: Ditzy
Your boyfriend: Pooch
Your hair: awful
Your mother: Bookish
Your father: Distant
Your favorite Item: Chocolate
Your dream last night: absent
Your favorite drink: chocolate
Your dream car: red
The room you are in: impersonal
Your ex: numbered
Your fear: madness
What you want to be in 10 years? Poochetta
Who you hung out with last night? Pooch
What you're not: Unhungry
Muffins: chocolate
One of your wish list items: wool
Time: lacking
The last thing you did: kiss
What you are wearing: cords
Your favorite weather: rain
Your favorite book: Freakonomics
The last thing you ate: cherry!
Your life: patchy
Your mood: sleepy
Your best friend: Louise xxx
What are you thinking about right now? dinner
Your car: none
What are you doing at this moment: hungering
Your summer: warm
Your relationship status: dreamy
What is on your TV? nothing
What is the weather like? windy
When is the last time you laughed? just now
Who do you tag? anyone?
310th post
"So I'm free-basing down this mountain in the alps and all of a sudden I feel the snow slide under me and I'm like 'oh no' and suddenly I'm falling and I'm falling through the air waving my arms and screaming 'aaaaarrrgggghhhhhh'.... when all of a sudden I'm like.... 'Hansel? Haven't you been smoking Peyote for 6 straight days? And isn't it possible this all a hallucination? And you know what?..........It was! I was in Utah. I've never even been to the alps!'
(Pygmie) 'Cool story Hansel!'"
From which story you will of course guess that it was only at the end of the day that I remembered I have PMT. Everything was fine up to when I got back from lunch and so to say it was an awful 'day' is taking it a bit far. It was more like an awful 2 hours which may run into tomorrow a bit but frankly who gives a shit.
Hoorah, hoorah, for I am not mad!
Had a day off yesterday and spent it putting in hard graft on xmas presents. And also putting in some serious cherry consuming too. Here are the two combined in my effort to be a bit yarnstorm-ish.
Aren't cherries fabulous? And don't they just taste great? You know, I didn't even like cherries until about September. Now I can't get enough of them.
You'll also see my beautiful pink denise cables in the photo above which are an early xmas present from The Pooch via Woolly Workshop. They remind me of just how much I totally adore my denise needles. I was further reminded of this when my blog went awol when I switched to blogger beta at the weekend. About 2 days it was missing for - rather annoying. When it came back all the info from the sidebar had gone so I had to look on google for a cache'd one and it came up with this. They really are so good. I have the plymouth bamboo interchangables and frankly they are not up to much. Fine to knit with - in fact divine to knit with - but not enough cables for a multi knitter such as me.
Here is a kind of knitting themed post of what I shall be knitting first once I get the xmas ghastlies off the needles. It's the socks that rock yarn I got in a swapbot swap. Aaaaahhhhh, lovely yarn.....beautiful yarn.....lovely yarn. Soon I will come back to you my pretty....
Ok. That's enough time off the ghastly knitting. All that remains is for me to insert a quick political spot...
[Ding, Dong, Pinochet is dead - hoorah hoorah may he believe in hell so he can rot there]*
....and to apologise for the lack of a report from Pooch's Kennel. He seems to be enjoying the attention too much so I'm going to suspend it for now.
*My revised religious beliefs still maintain that I can spell the 'r' word wrongly and have been updated to include a bit about how if you believe in heaven or hell you might end up going there. But if you believe that when you die that's it then that's what you get too.
Saturday, 9 December 2006
Hexalong - yippee!
Friday, 8 December 2006
This is me, right?
I don't have long to blog today as just as I sat down to do this the xmas fairy landed in our office and I got heavily involved in The Decoration Project. Believe it or not I am one of the tallest on my floor (at 5'7" - place is full of midgets) so was called on for lots of sticking of blue tak. Fortunately we have a temp in who is seriously 6'10" and so no standing-on-rotating-office-chair-accidents took place.
Off to see Sound of Music tonight with the in-laws and then a weekend of family style debauchery - i.e. Greenwich market and Harrods. Have a good weekend everyone!
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
Live life like you're gonna die... because you're gonna
There's more but I don't want you to get bored. What was making me think about this song was that I haven't been able to take my second anti-d for the last couple of days for various reasons and boy, am I feeling the effects. Lethargy, confusion, I feel like I'm thinking through treacle if you know what I mean. My memory is shot too. This is how I was feeling before I started taking the second one on top. It got me thinking about what a funny old thing the brain is and how the odd chemical here and there can make so much difference. It also reminded me that getting better is only the beginning of the end and I still have the long cut-down period to get through. But once I get to the end of it and once I have cut down there is a whole big future out there waiting for me.
You'll Have Time
(William Shatner/Ben Folds)
Live life
Live life like you're gonna die
Becasue you're gonna
I hate to be the bearer of bad news
But you're gonna die
Maybe not today or even next year
But before you know it you'll be saying
Is this all there was?
What was all the fuss?
Why did I bother?"
Now, maybe you won't suffer maybe it's quick
But you'll have time to think
Why did I waste it?
Why didn't I taste it?
You'll have time
Because you're gonna die.
Yes it's gonna happen because it's happened to a lot of people I know
My mother, my father, my loves
The president, the kings and the pope
They all had hope
And they muttered just before they went
Maybe, I won't let go
Live life like you're gonna die
Because you are
Maybe you won't suffer maybe it's quick
But you'll have time to think
Why did I waste it?
Why didn't I taste it?
You'll have time
'Cause you're gonna die
Current medical thinking is that it is not wise to get pregnant while taking prozac. Bit of a no brainer some might think but there is research suggesting it adversely effects the brain chemicals in the baby. At one point they thought you should leave it for two years after stopping but this has been shorted to one cycle. I'm not gagging to have kids but that bint at work asking me whether I was pregnant did get me thinking about the whole thing. The idea no longer repels me anyway.
In knitting news am still banging away at the ghastly xmas knitting. Ghastly. Soon be over. Am also gearing up for the in-laws visiting this weekend which means a visit to 'Sound of Music' starring the people's choice woman who I think is called Carrie. Means I won't be blogging much towards the end of the week.
Right, back to the ghastly knitting....
Monday, 4 December 2006
Moo is home and has brought donuts!
|You Are a Caramel Crunch Donut
You're a complex creature, and you're guilty of complicating things for fun.
You've been known to sit around pondering the meaning of life...
Or at times, pondering the meaning of your doughnut.
To frost or not to frost? To fill or not to fill? These are your eternal questions.
I have this internal conflict going on at the moment concerning the throny issue of organisation. As much as it may seem to conflict with my whole life I would really like to be organised. I am always writing lists but then tend to lose them or at least lose interest. The area of swaps is another one where I really want to be organised but am just not getting there. I have an excel file on my PDA but I keep forgetting it. Then I started another list in my notebook but keep forgetting about it. Then I tried writing it down but the paper wasn't wide enough. My latest decision is to go back to the paper route but (and this is the big BUT {dissimilar to my big ol'butt}) I am going to do it landscape on coloured paper.
I had to break the paragraph there to leave room for the hushed she's-a'fricking-genius type silence that just happened there. Who'd have seen that one coming?
The Pooch forms one corner of an uneasy triangle in my life at the moment, the other two corners being me and my muvver. Mumsy has asked that the cottage be a laptop free zone at xmas (we are going down to her this year) and Pooch has taken this rather personally. I spoke to Mum about it this morning and she has taken his taking it personally rather personally. Her argument is that it is antisocial. Pooch's argument is that he wouldn't dream of asking her not to bring a book or me to bring my knitting. My compromise is that the laptop stays elsewhere for xmas day and is then optional on other days. My argument is also that by his very nature Pooch = antisocial so you can either have him sitting in a corner glowering at the laptop screen or just sitting in a corner glowering. He looks as cute either way although the light from the laptop gives him a kind of ethereal anti-halo which does something for his image although I'm not sure what. All this calls for another entry from the kennel.
(Big Brother announcer's voiceover…..)
Day 2 in the Pooch Kennel
Set alarm for 6.40am then objected loudly when Byrne got up at 7 and wanted to turn the light on. Even though she brought me a cup of tea I still loathe her. After she had left drank tea with sulky expression on face while counting ways to bring about her downfall. Got up and rearranged two bottles of wine in my 56 bottle winerack. Made my winerack some tea but it didn't want it so I drank it.
Last night spent some time enumerating the number of meanings of the word 'Byrne'.
- Byrne? – cry of a wounded Pooch (wounds are generally a self-inflicted hangover)
- Byrne! – sharp bark such as one uses on a cat when you have caught it munching on the Sunday roast. Used to reprimand and gain ceasing of current action. Usually ineffective.
- Byyyyyyyrrrrrnnnne – stealth Pooch gearing up to ask for something.
- Byrrrrrne – howl of despair when disco-ordinatedness has made me hit myself in the face again.
- Byyyyyrrrrne – exclamation of surprise, such as when Byrne is found building my winerack. Usually denotes pleasure. Also used when discover Byrne has embroidered 'Byrne was here' on my underpants.
Me & my winerack have some tea
Sunday, 3 December 2006
Every day in every way....
Have been thinking for some time that Pooch should have a blog to put across his side of things. I wanted to call it Pooch's kennel but he has steadfastly refused to do one and this afternoon officially trademarked his name meaning I can't use it at all. So I have decided to have Pooch's blog as a subset of this one. So here follows the first entry of Pooch's kennel
Got up today and drank a lot of tea. Then went back to bed with tea and my laptop. Did you know that the ATG couldn't find the SPU input with their elbows? Spent 3 hours on wikipedia reading about code breaking, mafia bosses with funny names and crocodiles while drinking tea. Surprisingly little overlap. Byrne bought me a winerack. About time since I've been asking for one for more than a year. She had to put it together because I'm too disco-ordinated. Yay, disco! Let's dance like Bez from the Happy Mondays. And drink tea!
My Winerack
(except mine only has two bottles in and I officially give Byrne permission to keep her shoes in the rest of the spaces. This is official because it is on my blog.)
So apart from that there is not much else to say and still can't post any pics as is all too sensitive. Oh except....
These are are just some of the squares I've been crocheting in my spare moments. It's a humungous blanket from the interweave crochet mag my SP bought me oh so long ago. I'm really enjoying it actually. And I like the modular nature which means I can just do a little bit at a time but see how it is building to make the whole. Which brings me on to the subject that is never that far from my mind.
I had my appraisal last week and was talking to sean about my feeling of isolation in my role and what I think I have realised over the last couple of days is that it's something that isn't going to change and as I'm not working closely with anyone I'm the only one who's going to notice what I do achieve. And I'm not going to notice unless I define the signposts or whatever they call them. Tomorrow I'm going to go into work and use the wonderful MS Project for something other than ATCs. Maybe.
Friday, 1 December 2006
Fricking hilarious.
So I have been away partly because I have been finishing issue 2 of the zine (and it is FINISHED and being printed as I type). You can order your copy here: http://proudtobecrafty.blogspot.com
Monday, 27 November 2006
Anything you want to share?
Anyway, spent the weekend in Oxford with the Pooch where there was a complete lack of yarn shops. I think I may claim the last week or two as an unofficial start to another stashalong month of abstainment. Can I do that retrospectively? Maybe if I told myself it was going to be a 2 month stint. But then that would mean missing out on the sales. But then I do have enough yarn to bury my pregnant looking form several metres deep so maybe that won't be such a bad thing.
OK, yes, 2 months, but backdating it to when I last bought yarn. Naturally this calls for a ticker to be created......
In knitting news I have finally finished the jumper for the wretched child and have begun the leggings - probably about 1/4 done on those. A colleague has offered to knit the hat to save the baby from total hate-knitting karma which is nice of her.
The second issue of the ProudtobeCrafty Zine is almost finished! (Go here to pre-order a copy and find out more) Hoorah. This is partly due to my being borrrrred at work - but you know how that bluesy tune goes as I sing it so often. It is my appraisal on Wednesday and I am expecting to receive another sonnet on tact and how I don't have any but at least it should be followed by some objectives I can't complete in 2 mins.
ATCs continue to occupy my thoughts when they are not taken up with knitting or the speed with which I can minimise my screen should someone important suddenly appear over my shoulder. I am quite into the digital versions where you create the image on the screen and print it out. I really think I should have been a graphic designer. Maybe it isn't too late although I'd need to take a pay cut for about a decade. Anyway... I am seriously into layering in photoshop. Ad speaking of layering - I am thinking of chopping all my hair off again. But considering I have a round face/head/body will this make me look fatter? Or more pregnant? Let us not forget it made me look quite weird when I was skinny.
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Big old rant time
I have been in a training course all day on customer care. I have been in a training course all day with a load of people who are mostly perfectly nice and about 3 who are the most ignorant f*cking idiots you've ever come across. The thing that finally got my goat was the all-physicists-are-weird chorus that gets trotted out by the aforementioned idiots every now again. The woman leading the chant this time happens to be jewish so having said I found the statement rather offensive and being told how stupid I was I asked her how she'd feel if someone said "All Jews are tight."? Now what I should have done was kept my mouth shut and just privately reflected on how good life was in that I only had to come into contact with her at these sorts of events. Instead she got all uppity and said you couldn't compare religion and an academic subject. I don't want to offend any readers of a religious pursuasion but perhaps this is because science is based on fact whereas religion is based on a load of lala. Don't tell me all physicists are weird and then tell me it's 'normal' to walk around convinced there's a trumanesque god watching over you. What kind of dumbarse thing is that to say?!
Another thing (AND ANOTHER THING) that happened was someone who would be the stupidest person working here if it weren't for the 'normal' woman and one other who I swear has nothing but stale air between her earoles said that George Bush was responsible for 9/11. Completely. And possibly MI5. WHAT??? I can only imagine that she is a creationist. What kind of moron thinks that a man as dumb as george bush could possible orchestrate a disaster like that and fool EVERYONE into thinking it was bin-laden? She even wrote a web address on a piece of paper for me so I can learn the truth. THE TRUTH??????
I have a card at home.
On the front is a rather troubled looking lady with a speech bubble.
It says,
Tuesday, 21 November 2006
New Crush - behold a god
I have a serious new crush. I just watched sunday night's episode of Torchwood. Does anyone else get the raging horn, as I believe Derek & Clive called it, about John Barrowman? I am totally loving this man. YES I know he's gay but I don't care. I just adore him and am happy to do so from afar. And not only that but I think Torchwood is much better than doctor who. I love the 'grown-up' feel about it and that none of them are smug.
Um, that's kind of all I've got to say actually. Except,
Monday, 20 November 2006
So there I was
Actually it wasn't quite like that. The words that may have passed my lips before the long pause which preceded this statement were "Bring it on." Not to much of the "J'ACCUSE!!!!!" with pointy finger that I am imagining I have seen in some french melodrama as a "Yes, not everyone likes your style." Which is fine. Old Byrne would have gone into a tailspin about this and sat and had it go round and round and round and round and so on until she ended up on the phone to the samaritans. New Byrne is above such things. New Byrne accepts constructive criticism and uses it to learn and grow from, like watching an OU programme at 4am with your feet in a bowl of manure. So New Byrne sat on the tube (yes - sat - hahahahahahaha!) and did what she does best. I'd alrready got a gantt chart for my ATCs so this time I did a balanced scorecard of my life. I'm not going to put it up here because New Byrne understands that some things are for blogging and some things are private.
The most useful thing sean said (and there were a lot - he isn't one to just criticise and then leave you hanging) was "You are too process orientated. If you focus on the goal more then any progress towards it is positive." Which fits perfectly with the New Byrne life. New Byrne incidentally looks set to be an IT Project Manager. Oh yes.
So that's enough about schitzo byrne and the dizzy world of physics admin.
My crafty mojo hasn't yet reappeared. Have been slogging away on an erika knight baby jumper in cashsoft 4-ply in pale grey. Finished the equivalent of the front and one and a bit sleeves considering it is all being done in one piece. Leggings to do after that and a hat. Curse all babies.
Am having a silly amount of trouble finding a puzzle piece to alter as the conclusion of my altered art chat class last week. Does anyone happen to have a puzzle that has lost more bits than is good for it and who is prepared to put a couple of the hangers-on in the post to me? Can you believe people actually don't put puzzles with missing pieces on ebay?! They put everything else on there so I don't see why not. The idea of using just one piece of a new one repels me as a huge waste.
Friday, 17 November 2006
Another day in the life
Good, isn't it? For those of you who know about such things you'll notice that the tasks aren't linked but what I did do is make the time to make 1 ATC = 1 day so where the task is 4 days long that means 4 cards. Then I decided that I can make 3 cards a day. So my Alex resource = 300%. Then I assigned myself to each task and then levelled the resources to see when the making hot spots were. I fully intend to update it today and add in the slack bars but I don't want to run out of things to do like I had yesterday by 9.30am.
So peeps, do you get what I'm saying here? Yes, work is still a tad on the slow side. What I have done is written 4 project proposals and fired them off to various people internally. Much to my surprise one has been taken up and IOP Enterprises will soon own an online shop selling funky stuff with funky graphics on obscurely related to physics. This gives me about half an hours work to do later on which I'm saving so as I have something to look forward to.
All this means that the zine is practically ready - many thanks to those of you who have already pre-ordered #2 here. I will also soon be announcing the winners of the first challenge who will be in for prizes of crafty goodness. The first challenge was to make a pincushion (any theme) and get a photo of it to me asap. The best three get prizes.
In knitting news I am still on the xmas presents. NEVER AGAIN DUDE. I hate them all. Although apart from knitting I have been getting myself into a bit of a crafty tizz. I took part in the altered art online chat class on tues eve and it was FANTASTIC. Chat rooms are such great fora for this kind of class. The woman doing it was on one side of the US and there was me and others from the rest of the US and a couple of other countries. But when I actually came to sit down and do something I felt strangely unable to act. So in fact I haven't done very much in the evenings since then. I think I've lost my mojo a bit.
Pooch and I had the 2 1/2 year anniversary of our hooking up this week so tonight we are off out for dinner and james bond. Hoorah!
Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Blog trawl
Since I'm here, we also have the following from today's blog trawl....
- Excellent flea story linked to from purlpower (you just have to take a leap of faith that a story about fleas is worth the clicking to get you there) (and it is)
- New hat patterns from woollywormhead. Just splurged a full £1.75 on the spiral cap. But it's DPNs, curses. Then some things are worth the agony. Like childbirth. Or so I hear.
A light haul this time. Off to ATCards.com for an online class on altered art now. Yippee!
Digital ATCs
Swimming in chocolate
Knitted Byrne
As you might be able to tell it has been a slow day at the office. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bored. Have emailed me boss begging for more work again which is just such an unnatural act I feel sure there must be a law against it. It's just not natural. My one concern is I'll get made redundant but then I'd get a nice fat cheque and the kick I need to change direction and actually do something interesting with my life.
The second issue of the Proud to be Crafty zine is oh so nearly finished. It is very exciting. Certainly much more exciting than my day job. It's not very refined yet but you can preorder here. If you want it sent overseas please be honest and add the postage. For some reason paypal wouldn't let me have more than one shortcut set-up at a time. If you know how to fix this do drop me a comment.
Sunday, 12 November 2006
So where the hell have I been?
I have been knitting non-stop since I was last here but can't show any of it because it is all destined for stockings of the great and the good, which is to say, my family and friends. I have been getting a fine bevy of post not all of which has been photographed but most of which was concerned with ATCs. Here are some that did make it to the camera....
The second issue of the zine is shaping up very nicely and will be available from 1st Dec. That is to say it will be sent out from then but will actually be available to pre-order very shortly. Watch this space. Have been getting some great stuff from people to include so should be an awesome issue. In case anyone is wondering about the first issue the limited edition run of 50 has well and truly gone. Sorry to those of you who missed out.
Madwise I have experienced the 'profound shift' that therapists want their patients to have. I'm not going to go into it because part of it is having to talk about it instead of using this blog as a life noticeboard but it's good stuff and I feel whole for the first time in ages.
Today is of course remembrance sunday and I did the silence at 11am thinking about Grandpa Noah and all the others who have fallen while defending us. It makes me mad that the people who are dying now in Iraq are there for such a damn stupid reason but just because I disagree with the war doesn't mean I don't want to support the veterans. So I've decided to add The Royal British Legion to my charities that I donate to. You can make a one-off donation or set up a direct debit here.
I know I've got lots of blog news to catch up on. One more bit of news from me - I think we might be maxed out on SkipNorth but I need to check. There's definitely no more than 3 places left after a group of 4 joined up on friday. All so exciting!
Thursday, 2 November 2006
Craft Porn
Now we have some ATC porn. When I got home last night I had post from all corners of the globe. 4 packages of ATCs not to mention my fave magazine.
I am still thoroughly into swapping on Swap bot and most recently completed my first ever dish/face cloth for a swap. I had always meant to do one but kept thinking they were a bit pathetic. Let me tell you - that opinion has been thoroughly kicked out the window. Look what I did in about an hour last night (my swap partner has a green and blue colour scheme on the theme of apples and chickens. Thought a chicken might be a bit beyond me!)...
knitting pattern central which is where I am heading just as soon as I finish typing this lot. I have been mucking about with soap making in my spare minutes and one of these with a handmade bar of soap as a xmas present? - yeah baby, I'm there.
In other new the second edition of the Proud to be Crafty Zine is shaping up nicely. Am having fun with fonts. Deadline for submissions is 12 Nov so email me at littlelixieathotmaildotcom if you have something you'd like to see in print.
Monday, 30 October 2006
You know those frumpy looking women on the tube?
They also tend to be about 28, dark haired, freckled, called Alex, reading a Terry Pratchett hardback and eating chocolate coated raisins out of a paper bad like a healthy-hobo (except no one ever really kids themselves well enough that whatever the fruit, eating it with chocolate smothering its natural form ever makes it healthy).
Yes, people. I have turned into that woman. I realised this when I was on the tube home on friday night. Now this is the first give away - going home at 7pm on a friday. Obviously going home to stroke cat or if doesn't have one to search the internet for pictures of cats. I had almost fallen over because I was completely engrossed in the new Terry Pratchett ("Wintersmith") and was also trying to eat chocolate raisins out of a paper bag and was not holding on to the post on the tube so there was a not particularly sudden stop accompanied by a moment of extreme fear that, never mind falling on a complete stranger, I might have dropped a raisin along with its precious chocolate covering. (There have been some people in my long and ghastly life who have dared to suggest that I buy chocolate covered raisins to just suck the chocolate off and then spit out the raisin. That is absurd and unfounded. I only do that with chocolate covered nuts.) I had one of those flashes of inspiration when I saw myself through the eyes of your average joe and realised what I had become. There followed many vows to exercise, never wear all black, start using eye shadow (but not zany ones), to not try to stand, eat and read on a moving tube and so on and so forth.
I present my Monday-self to you now for inspection. I am wearing black trousers and top but......a brown cardigan. Not bad eh?! I am going to the gym after work. (Yeah, well, I am all right so stop laughing.) Plus I didn't try and eat anything on the tube this morning. Although I did read the end of the Terry Pratchett. It's not soooo bad when you think about the long decline that has lead to me having dulled to a boy george sans make-up lookalike.
In knitting news....I was the luckiest person EVER to get 'socks that rock' sock yarn in the post on saturday. Curtesy of a little swap on swapbot. Oh yeah. Cast on straight away and would have been able to show progress by now if hadn't left camera at home. Suffice to say I have turned the first heel and picked out a nifty cable diamond pattern for the ankle. I also got some of the good stuff from my sister who has brought back none other that SWTC 100% soy silk in a great cherry red AND a hank of yellow and red cherry tree hill supersock plsu another ball of something good with a name like Bergerac. Oooooo, good stuff going on for me this weekend.
Anyway, I only actually logged on to blogger to put up something about this:
The second edition will go on sale on 1st Dec. There are now 3 remaining copies of the first zine available which is bound to become a collectors edition! Email me your postal address and one will be yours (UK only I'm afraid as the first edition is free).
Thursday, 26 October 2006
Links and news
I also wish to show those of you have not yet seen it this site of subversive cross-stitch.
The reason I want to show you that is because I am combining free fonts from www.fontfreak.com with 'draw your own graph paper' to map out an embroidery of my favourite quote, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" a la la (la = on the left). I tried out tonnes of different fonts before settling on this one which is called 'Once in a while'. I am not sure yet whether I am going to do just the outlines or fill it in in solid of variegated colour but I have some 14 count black aida in the post and so should have the design sorted by the end of the weekend.
This weekend of course brings the mumsy and, to be thorough, the Robsy too. The schedule at the mo includes lots of good food, the rodin exhibition at the RA and possibly a boat ride on the thames. It doesn't leave me much time to be crafty but I am pondering a trip to hobbycraft. I can't quite remember why now but I shouldn't go anyway, terrible idea. Have enough stuff. Oh I remember - to get the embroidery threads and a hoop to hold it while I'm dallying. So maybe actually it isn't such a bad idea after all. Hmmm. Ponder ponder.
Now I've started thinking about having the writing as a kind of stencil over a funky abstract image like a chaos pattern or something like that. Actually something more like this rose.
Hmmm, that's making it a lot more complicated though. Plus I'm a complete splitter and will probably get bored of even the most basic version before I finish so let's stick with basic and move on from there. And although it might be a few pounds cheaper to buy from hobbycraft John Lewis has everything I need and will be a whole lot cheaper in the long run with minimal temptation!
Monday, 23 October 2006
Blog trawling
You Are 64% Evil
You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.
Want a needle holder thing that goes on the back of my door like the one in this post:
I want to do bullion crochet as good as what Nickerjac can. And I want to be able to put colours together like she can and not like I do which makes it look like a hobo has vomitted.
I want to know what 'the power of jam' is as Pixeldiva has it and I want it. Probably. At least tell me what it is.
Tickers for SkipNorth
line and sock
car and houses
line and heart
Sunday, 22 October 2006
The best bag(s) in the world
Anyway, the moment you have been waiting for..... (I'm suddenly feeling I may have hyped this up a bit too much)
I can not tell you how happy this bag makes me. I bought the fabric out of John Lewis's remnant bin about, literally, 6 years ago and have been waiting for the right project ever since. It is perfect for this. It is a really good size and feels highly natural just sitting on my arm. Yeeha for craftster!
Now this was on Friday night because you all know that I do not actually have a social life. At all. On saturday I set to with a second tutorial and the lovely fabric Pooch bought me. And this is it!
Isn't it a beauty?
That's a little pocket inside for my travelcard! Pooch is really really happy about this. I like it that he likes it too and I like using the fabric he bought me!
Saturday, 21 October 2006
48 Things You Could Care Less About
1. FIRST NAME? Alexandra
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? On Tuesday at couple therapy with Pooch.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It varies between cool and 'arty' and completely illegible. Overall I'm pretty happy with it.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Prosciotto
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I don't think so. I'd be friendly to me but I think her mood swings would bore me.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Kind of. I do have one but I don't write in it often. I did have loads of diaries going back about 8 years but threw them away as they were full of depression stuff. Kind of regret doing that now.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? If I was presented with the opportunity yes, but can't be arsed to sort it out or pay for it.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Applejacks. It's american and neon green and orange. Mmmmmm, soooooo goooooood.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? If I'm tired I do as it's too much effort to yank my feet out otherwise.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? No.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Phish Food by ben and jerry's. Artery cloggingly good.
14. SHOE SIZE? UK size 7 which I think is about 40.
5. RED OR PINK? Red to wear but pink to look at.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? The depression. And how I can write things on a blog for complete strangers to read that I can't say to Pooch face to face.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Weirdly it is a guy called Oliver Shaw who just left school after GCSEs and I never heard from him again. We used to get an well in a platonic way and I often wonder what he's up to. If anyone knows him - he'd be about 28/9 and went to school in Canterbury up til 16 - then please let me know.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? I'm not going to send it to anyone - but let me know if you use it and I'll come by and read yours.
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue jeans, handknit socks, no shoes, brown top with grey tanktop with sequins on it.
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Yorkie Bar. I boycotted them for ages because of that stupid 'they're not for girls' advertising campaign but they are unequalled.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? There is silence around me, or as silent as it gets in london when you live in a flat and the window is open. That's quite unusual for me as usually I get uncomfortable when there are no distractions around me.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Strawberry lipbalm.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Muvver.
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Smile, lips, Pooch factor.
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? I don't know her, but I like reading her blog. I figure we'd have a good conversation if we met up.
27. FAVORITE DRINK? Robinsons Special R Orange Squash (accept no substitutes).
28. FAVORITE SPORT? WWE. Yes it is a sport. I loathe any unnecessary physical movement and long for the day when I have a cyberman to do my bidding as he can just carry me everywhere.
29. EYE COLOR? Hazel.
30. HAT SIZE? Wow, I have no idea.
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No.
32. FAVORITE FOOD? Chocolate.
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings I guess but at the end of a comedy film, not a soppy love story. Am not comfortable with emotion. Someone reading these answers could be forgiven for thinking I'm a pre-menstral dalek.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter. I like the warm weather but I feel you know where you are in winter.
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs except from Pooch x.
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate based.
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Am not sure. Nickerjac perhaps if she has time.
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? My Dad.
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? 'Families and how to survive them' by John Cleese and Robyn Skynner, 'Knitting Around ' by EZ,
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE Pad? No pad - I've got a laptop.
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Some sort of rubbish. Have completely no recollection now. Was just on in the background while I was making the coolest bag in the world.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Rain.
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Depends on the moment.
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? I am rubbish at geography but I'm guessing san francisco.
46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Retaining enthusiasm for things when even an idiot would have known to give up by now (at work). At home - Pooch maintenance.
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Margate, Kent. Oh yeahhhhh.
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Stole it from A Mingled Yarn
Belated ally pally round-up (photo heavy!)
I really did have a very lovely time and, a la Wormhead, was having trouble carrying everything on the way back at the end of the saturday. I got some really awesome things but my biggest splurge is yet to arrive - enough pukka shetland wool for the scoop neck fairisle in the most recent Vogue Knitting. Ooooooo. Anyway, from what I did get....
Hip knits silk and the new magazine on the block:
Fat quarters and beads and the like:
Handmade paper for an altered journal swap:
The cheap stuff - for a hard wearing trivial pursuits cushion and the variegated for the shawl on the fornt of the Vogue shawls book:
Lovely pure wool Twileys Whisper or something like that for either a boxy cardigan from knit1 or a jumper:
Wicked chocolate notebook with a mix of square, lined and blank paper inside plus the latest Interweave knits and a patchwork-how-to-book:
Patons washed haze (50p a ball!) for a cardi and the touch yarns merino for I don't know what but I loved the colours and it was 25% off:
Lots of little things to play with - ribbons, non-slip feet for Pooch's next handknit socks, square sequins etc etc
So what has this massive acquisition done to the yarn chest? Well, I had actually been very good before AP and during stashalong - I had a big clear out and sold a load on ebay. I also then took a huge bag of odd balls to NWKTog group and shared them out with the rest going to the charity shop. So despite having bought all this I can (just) close the war chest:
So with all that going on you'd have thought I'd be happy with my little lot and get down to some serious knitting right? No! What I did was get a cold and my mood slipped again and was quite down for a couple of days. I found myself not really in the mood for knitting so instead have been making ATCs for swaps. I rather liked these on the theme 'fall florals':
I have been feeling a bit better the last couple of days though and was even better once my end of the knitting magazine swap arrived. I got these two awesome magazines from the US:
I had never even heard of them and there were a couple of 'how have i lived without....' type items in each. Feast your eyes:
This last one is crochet and I thought I'd try it as a scarf first to see how it looks.
So there you have it. Actually you don't - I made the coolest bag in the world last night but I reckon that's enough photos for today!


text:
Custom Search
Top Stories
Go to Site Index
See "Top Stories" main page
REPORTING · 28th June 2013
Walter McFarlane
A bylaw to permit recreation vehicles over 3700 kilograms to be parked during the winter on residential properties is one step closer to approval. It received first reading at the Regular Meeting of Council on June 17th.
In a memo to Council, CAO Ron Poole wrote: Currently, the Kitimat Municipal Code prohibits the parking or storing of recreational vehicles in excess of 3700 kg gross mass on a residential lot from November 1st to March 31st. However, Council may grant approval for an owner to park their vehicle in the rear yard of the property.
Poole also wrote that by adopting the bylaw, Council will grant approval for an owner to park or store one such recreational vehicle in the rear yard or side yard during the period from November 1st to March 31st. Parking a recreational vehicle in the front yard is not permitted.
Councillor Mario Feldhoff read the motion.
This is a response to an anomaly that one resident had and it addresses a broader issue and I think the way we are moving forward makes sense and were going to get input from all different groups including the APC and this is the first step tonight, to pass 1st reading and if ultimately, we adopt the bylaw, it will grant approval for an owner to park or store one recreational vehicle in excess of 3700 kilograms gross mass on a residential lot between November 1st and March 31st in either the rear or side yard of their property, said Feldhoff.
The motion was called and carried. It will return to Council for a public hearing on the 15th of July.
Whats the point of bylaws
Comment by
on 9th July 2013
If bylaws arent enforced why bother creating them. Does council not realize the problems we have in this community without a full time bylaw officer? Take a look at trucks parked on the front lawns! Commercial vehicles (huge flatbeads) parked overnight on the wrong side of the road in a residential area, washers dryers fridges stoves in driveways all winter long. Kitimat is so beautiful until you walk down some streets. Too bad no bylaw officer in town. Are we that broke?
Rv's parked on roads
Comment by
on 6th July 2013
There has been a large rv parked on our road for a month. This is a safety issue. Will our bylaws only be enforced when someone is killed? The municipality was advised and stated there is a lack of personnel to enforce its bylaws. Not good enough
RV Parking & Storage
Comment by
on 5th July 2013
I agree, tarp covered RV's in the front yard can be unattractive but at the same time people have a right to live and enjoy life. That includes owning an RV or boat. Instead of more laws we need solutions. One obvious solution is to create more available RV winter storage options in Kitimat for owners. It's enterprising, generates revenue and no new laws required.
Unsightly RV parking !
Comment by
on 4th July 2013
If a person can afford an RV they should put them in storage. Nobody wants to look at an RV of any size with an ugly blue/ green tarp of any colour. By the time a frame is built over the overall size is even larger. Some cities do not allow any parking of RV's on their property. If out in Cable Car or Strawberry Meadows perhaps it could be allowed. The city allows property in Cable Car to have all kinds of unsightly vehicles parked on properties. So why no an unsightly RV ? The Mayor and council are very lax in unsitely properties. Fences not painted, fences falling down. Hope these fences don't fall down on someone at the back of properties where we have our lovely backyard walkways, which I have never felt safe walking anyway. I hope the new subdivisions incorporate walkways at the front of properties. I don't see it happening. How much safer it is to walk at the front of properties than the back of properties.
Comment by
on 3rd July 2013
It is my understanding that street parking of RVs is already not allowed on any street. I know neighbours of mine received warnings from the DOK saying if they did not remove their RVs from the streetside, they would have them towed and/or a fine levied. The existing bylaw needs to be enforced as I see more and more RVs and trailers parked on the streets.
As for the time frame, they obviously do not want these large vehicles parked on the street or at the front of houses during winter months due to snow clearing. If an RV or trailer is parked on a front lawn, they can't put snow from the street there without damaging it. If there are two across the road from each other, the snowblower driver couldn't just turn the chute to blow on the opposite yard.
Accident waiting to happen
Comment by
Concerned citizen
on 29th June 2013
I think these trailers and motor homes should not be able to park on the streets.some little kid comes out and that is it.one time on Albatross there was a trailer parked on the side of the street and the bus was coming at the same time and it was pretty scary,I thought I was going to get hit.So I agree they should not be stored on the streets.
Then what?
Comment by
Apocalypse Now
on 28th June 2013
Council has put a time line on when you can have your trailer parked at the side of your house then after March 31 what happens ,it gets parked back on the street again? If you are going to allow it ,you may as well have it year round , makes more sense than parking it on the street for 6 months.


text:
The Tupelo Bay Clubhouse is open 7 days a week from 7AM to 10PM (weather permitting) in season.
When you step into the Tupelo Bay Clubhouse, you enter a full service customer centered environment. Our friendly staff and comprehensive line of golf products fill all your golfing needs.
Our staff greets you with a smile and answers your general Tupelo questions. They are ready to sign you and your guests in for your round or make an executive course tee time for another day. The driving range, par 3, disc golf and foot golf are also handled here. We require tee times ONLY for the Executive Course. Group rates are offered to groups of 10 or more players.
We offer the best range balls in the area. Buckets are available in 3 sizes (30 balls, 70 balls and 120 balls). Remember,we have over 3/4 miles of grass hitting area as well as a covered matt area.
Clubs are available for the par 3 and executive course. Drivers and irons are available FREE of charge for the driving range. Discs and soccer balls can be rented for the disc and foot golf courses.
Our cart attendants will load your clubs onto clean, shiny carts if you choose to ride. If you decide to walk, Tupelo Bay offers pull carts for both the executive and par 3 courses.
Our snack bar offers hot dogs, chips, candies, etc. A full line of beverages is available, including soda, tea, water, coffee, etc as well as a wide variety of domestic and imported beers. We provide on course beverage service during peak play times.
The Clubhouse stocks a selection of golf apparel including shirts, hats, tees, etc. Tees, gloves, balls and towels are also available. Check us out. We look forward to serving your golfing needs.


text:
Back from our Tuscany Cooking Week
Starving post trip, for the pounds were all worth it. Here we are with home made pasta that we kneaded, cooked and ate happily. Some notes on the trip and other small group trips with The Women's Travel Group:
There will always be someone to pal with, oddly our group tends to be similar from trip to trip. We are women who love to travel and will not wait for friends. We are sometimes celebrating retirement from work or from other 'lifetime' stuff.…
Use GGIIMMPP in your hotel room
Travel tips from The Women's Travel Group:
Numero uno is the adapter you left in the bathroom wall. You took the phone but left the adaptor. Numero 2 is your washcloth. You packed it, because most non Americans do not use washclothes. Now it is left hanging in the shower.
Then your pajamas, not totally your fault but if you leave your night clothes on an unmade bed. they can disappear into the laundry.
You forgot the amenities for a 'rainy day', as you were waiting to see if you could cram more into your suitcase.…
Ten New Trends for Women Travelers
An excellent article about us women travelers with a long interview with Phyllis Stoller, founder of The Women's Travel Group…
5 Airplane Don'ts for Women
We love lists, and here is one for those of you embarking this week on our two tours: Italy and France.
Five absolute NO's.
Do NOT get on the plane before you put your passport back into its safe place.
Do NOT leave possessions unlocked, either in overhead bins, or on your person. Remember you might fall asleep with your money belt or purse exposed. Bring extra TSA locks; they are easy to lose.
Do NOT create a seat cushion out of a dark sweater or dark coat.…
2 Worst Moments on a Trip
What do you think are the two worst moments on your trip? Here is our experience at The Women's Travel Group:
First and Earliest: The luggage carrousel comes around for the last time and your stuff is not on it. 99.99% of all suitcases are delivered within 2 days. Even when BA's computer crashed and all Heathrow bags were waylaid, our group in India had suitcases within 48 hours. A total loss is an extreme rarity. Today's news is new suitcases with tracking devices embedded.…
Italy in the Spring: NYTimes 36 Hours in Rome
This is the 2014 Tuscany Cooking Group, soon off again to Pisa for our week of fun. Stay tuned for next year's date.
Many of The Women's Travel Group trips are arranged so solo women can easily connect with the group if not flying with a friend or one of us. March 8 produced another terrific article about Rome where we start our Sweep Through Italy trip April 29-May 10 2015.
Yes some women will arrive in Rome a day or two before the group, so here goes some of the newer Rome sights: MAXXI by Zaha Hadid, where the building even moves as you do, slanted floors and art made from lights/string/google users and more.…
Women's Tour or Women's Travel Club?
What is the difference between The Women's Travel Group and its former incarnation as The Women's Travel Club? Obviously no dues. What differentiates The Women's Travel Group from a basic tour company is five fold:
We update all the time (Louis Vuitton Fondation Museum is in our Paris Christmas trip)
We are not afraid to examine history: (Ireland and Northern Ireland in July).
We like to question speakers: (India November, why not pose the question of rape in India?).…
1 in 4 Women Take Psychiatric Drugs
This photo is from our Ethiopia trip; next trip Jan. 2016
According to the NY Times Week in Review Section, 1 in 4 American women take drugs for psychiatric problems. Does that mean a quarter of us are nuts? Will newcomers find women at The Women's Travel Group intolerably neurotic? History with hundreds of terrific travelers says yes/no/maybe?
Most women worry about travel the night before they leave.
Most women angst about packing, travel wardrobe a way of saying: will I fit in?…


text:
As Don Ho once famously quipped, I never met a Tiki bar I didn't like. Grungy holes-in-the-wall are of particular interest, because all the owners need to do is hit the Party Warehouse for some fake coconuts and palm fronds, get some cases of cheap rum, and mix up some Hawaiian Punch, and they've got themselves a party. It's especially egregious that high-end tropical bars like Smuggler's Cove have cropped up — the place does indeed have some good drinks, but you aren't going to walk out of there without spending your weight in puka shells. (I will leave The Tonga Room out of this discussion, for it is an immaculate concept that needn't be tainted by my words.)
The Bamboo Hut is junky-looking both inside and out, and you might miss it the first few times you pass it. It is surrounded by sex shops and titty bars and gives off an "Is this joint still open?" vibe. It displays a gigantic "ATM" sign as big as the bar's own sign, which is usually the mark of a classy establishment. Intrigued, I finally made my way past the Polynesian gates last week.
Just as I suspected, the inside was like the Dole-presented Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, if it were sponsored by a Mexican beer company. It was packed, and everyone was either in college or had already dropped out.
Oh, there would be some projectile vomiting in my future. Yes indeedy.
What kind of a loser goes to a tiki bar by herself? This one. The good news was that there were so many drunk people that it only took me about three seconds to attach myself to a group hunched around a volcano bowl. I knew I was close enough when one of them said she smelled curry. I had just eaten some Indian food. That's right, gentle reader, the night was on.
Watching my new friends giggle and frolic (friends who really still had no idea I was part of their group ... yet) brought me back to my halcyon teenage years, when my pals and I would descend on the only bar in town that actively recruited underage drinkers, The House of Chen in Champaign, Ill. The owner, the now-deceased George Chen, was famous for saying "Money talk, bullshit walk." Well, no one's cash speaks as loudly as that of high-schoolers desperate for a buzz, and Mr. Chen was happy to oblige. He also played a pivotal role in my writing career when he inspired the following alliterative phrase from me at 17: "I'm feeling the effects of my fuzzy navel." The cops would routinely sweep the place, but we had an "in" with the cooks, who allowed us to hide in the walk-in cooler whenever we smelled bacon. It also probably had to do with Mr. Chen not wanting to lose his best customers for 48 hours (or until we made bail).
"OMG!!" yelled one of the girls. (OMG? People really say that?) A guy sitting with them had bogarted the entire punch bowl in one full slurp. I was one step closer to seeing someone puke.
"Whoa!" I added, all smiles, eager to become a part of the action.
"He's buying the next one!" she said, giving me an in — I could buy that next one. When I suggested it she looked at me like I was a creeper. I assured her that I was just waiting for my boyfriend and he was super late.
"You guys seem cool," I added, remembering that the word "cool" is not "cool" anymore, if you believe junior high kids.
"Cool!" she said. (Whew, she still thought "cool" was cool.) I lumbered up to the bar and ordered a volcano, motioning to my posse, who, if I were a paranoid sort, I might say were laughing at me. When I got back they had cleared a space for me. It was awkward, but that's why God created gigantic rum drinks.
They started into the sort of small talk you engage in when you are chatting with your friends in front of a stranger: Was so-and-so gonna show up? Did you hear that she got fired? I don't want to go to school tomorrow. I decided to sit with the discomfort. They would come around.
By this time even more people had forced themselves into the place, and they all looked sober and horny. Rest assured, both problems would soon be solved.
"So what do you do?" asked the one with manicured nails. I told her the truth, that I was a probation officer but was considering the U.S. Marshals after watching Dog the Bounty Hunter.
"Actually," I continued, "Timothy Olyphant is so hot in Justified; that influenced me as well." I was on a roll, and decided to make it sound like everything I did was precipitated by a TV show (which is actually sort of true). "Yep," I continued. "I was watching the Brady Bunch Hawaii episode and I got a hankering for a mai tai, so I came here."
"Never seen it," she said, clearly trying to change the subject.
"I usually watch reruns while cleaning my house after a particularly harrowing Hoarders."
"Huh," she said, turning to talk to her friends.
Well, at least I had somewhere to sit, although the Bamboo Hut was getting really raucous. I checked the time and announced that I had to get home to watch American Bible Challenge, figuring that would seal the deal. As expected, they couldn't wait to say goodbye to me.
Too bad, because the champion slurper looked a bit green. I guess that was one show I was going to have to miss.


text:
Tests and reviews of different batteries to help you find the Right One…
Time for another tests of 1.5V IKEA Alkalisk alkaline batteries, this time a pack of AA sized batteries with a fresh production date that we especially check when picking up the 10-battery pack from the store (after getting AAA IKEA alkaline batteries with old production date recently). The production date of these affordably priced batteries from IKEA is 07-12-2018 and the expiration date is 2023, so a 5 year warranty and pretty fresh batch of batteries at a good price in 10-pack box, but let us see what we can expect from them in terms of usable capacity in our tests…
The 1.5V AA IKEA Alkalisk Alkaline batteries are performing quite well in our tests all the way up to the 0.5A constant current load, after which the usable capacity shows a larger drop. The capacity levels are above average for these IEKA batteries, but are far from the top performers in our tests. Still the 1.5V AA IKEA Alkalisk alkaline batteries do manage to provide a very good price/performance ratio for everyday use without having some more specific requirements.
The performance of the 1.5V AA IKEA Alkalisk Alkaline batteries in our tests:
– 2127 mAh at 0.1A load
– 1845 mAh at 0.2A load
– 974 mAh at 0.5A load
– 310 mAh at 1.0A load
– 2.618 Wh at 0.1A load
– 2.230 Wh at 0.2A load
– 1.108 Wh at 0.5A load
– 0.344 Wh at 1.0A load


text:
This was a really fun project that we did with
Noush Projects
They make really cool wooden dolls and animals, but we wanted something a little creepier.
So we figured out how we wanted these little guys to look, drew it up, and sent it off to them to see what they could do. We loved how they turned out.
We then painted them to make them even creepier.


text:
European Top 100 Albums :
09 (08) – Madonna – Confessions on A Dance Floor
European Hot 100 Singles :
03 (01) – Madonna – Sorry
27 (26) – Madonna – Hung Up
European Digital Tracks
11 (09) – Madonna – Sorry (Album Version)
15 years online
European Top 100 Albums :
09 (08) – Madonna – Confessions on A Dance Floor
European Hot 100 Singles :
03 (01) – Madonna – Sorry
27 (26) – Madonna – Hung Up
European Digital Tracks
11 (09) – Madonna – Sorry (Album Version)
01 – X & Y, Coldplay (8.3m)
02 – The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey (7.7m)
03 – The Massacre, 50 Cent (7.5m)
04 – Monkey Business, Black Eyed Peas (6.8m)
05 – American Idiot, Green Day (6.4m)
06 – Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna (6.3m)
07 – Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson (6.1m)
08 – Curtain Call, Eminem (5.5m)
09 – Back to Bedlam, James Blunt (5.5m)
10 – Intensive Care, Robbie Williams (5.4m)
"Popjustice Idols" is a brand new range of illustrated pop biographies created by leading pop website Popjustice.com and popular artist David Whittle (Channel 4's Bromwell High). The first four Popjustice Idols books are published by Friday Books, priced GBP 3.99 and will be available soon at Waterstones, Virgin, HMV and all good book outlets.
'A Girl Called Madonna' tells the story of frankly the most amazing 'n' important female singer in the history of everything. Among the breathtaking revelations: * Madonna likes to sing and dance! * Madonna was very honest about kissing people and made other people realise that kissing people was a good thing! * One day Madonna drank a special potion called 'bitter'? it turned her into an English lady! 'A Girl Called Madonna' is part of a fairly amazing new series of ultra-concise and brilliantly illustrated pop biographies.
Click on images bellow to see the small previews of this book.
Alison Goldfrapp has scrapped plans for a duet with Madonna, because she's scared the Material Girl would expose her physical weakness. Madonna is a fan of the British Black Cherry hitmaker, and a collaboration has been rumoured. But Goldfrapp insists, "I would look so stupid next to her. She would be very agile and I would be trying to drag myself around the stage."
source : contactmusic
Hot 200 Albums :
75 (67) Madonna – Confessions On A Dancefloor
Billboard Comprehensive Albums :
76 (68) Madonna – Confessions On A Dancefloor
Hot 100 Singles :
82 (77) Madonna – Sorry
Hot 100 Singles Sales :
03 (03) Madonna – Sorry
14 (10) Madonna – Hung Up
Pop 100 :
66 (64) Madonna – Sorry
72 (73) Madonna – Hung Up
Hot Dance Music/Club Play :
06 (04) Madonna – Sorry
Dance Radio Airplay :
03 (01) Madonna – Sorry
Hot Dance Singles Sales :
02 (02) Madonna – Sorry
04 (04) Madonna – Hung Up
Hot Videoclips :
21 (20) Madonna – Sorry
I have managed to obtain the first details of Madonna's forthcoming world tour.
And if you thought re-Invention was special, this one is shaping up to be even more spectacular.
Her Madjesty is recreating wild scenes from notorious New York nightclub Studio 54 famous for its debauched antics and drug-fuelled dancing in the Seventies.
The Queen of Pop is even learning to krump a cool hip-hop dance based on body-popping and breakdancing.
And I reckon krumping also known as clowning after its inventor, hip-hop dancer Tommy The Clown could be as big as the Vogue craze she started in the Eighties.
The dance featured in Rize, a documentary by film-maker David LaChapelle.
A source said: "Madonna has been practising krumping ever since she filmed the videos to Hung Up and Sorry.
"It started as un underground dance in gangland LA and Madonna now wants to make it her own.
"Madge has ordered a unique spinning platform to be designed so she and her dancers can recreate Studio 54's extravagant scenes.
"She has also ordered dozens of disco balls to decorate the stage with authentic Seventies lighting."?
The show will open with a Disco Queen section, featuring girls in sparkling suits, male dancers dressed as pimps and more dancers roller-skating.Another section, American Land, will indulge Madonna's obsession with horses, with video walls showing footage of her riding scantily clad in the pouring rain.
A third part, Oriental And Eastern, will see Madonna joined on stage by a Kabbalah singer to perform a remix of her brilliant album track Isaac.
One section will have a Parkour specialist the wacky sport on the BBC promotional film with a bloke running across London rooftops. Madge will also showcase some new music, if her label Warner give the go-ahead.
And I have the provisional setlist on above right to prove it.
Producer Stuart Price has been working on Keep The Trance and History, which I hear are both killer tracks, and he has completely reworked Erotica and Who's That Girl, which are almost unrecognisable.
Madonna has had her wardrobe designed by old allies Jean Paul Gaultier and Dolce & Gabbana, with her jewellery and accessories by Lacroix.
Madge has been locking herself away for 13 hours a day perfecting her routines for her most dance-oriented show ever.
She has also started a strength-building diet and is jogging to get into shape for the gruelling two-hour shows which kick off in LA this May.
Set List :
Hung Up
Where's The Party?
La Isla Bonita
Love Profusion
Get Together
Nothing Really Matters
Dress You Up
I Love New York
Bedtime Story
Ray Of Light
Keep The Trance (new track)
History (new track)
Like A Virgin
source : thesun.co.uk
Best Pop Dance Track :
Hung Up – Madonna (Warner Bros.) (Winner)
Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson (RCA/RNG)
Don't Cha – The Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes (A&M/Interscope)
Listen To Your Heart – D.H.T. (Robbins)
Technologic – Daft Punk (Virgin)
Love Generation – Bob Sinclair featuring Gary Pine (Yellow/Tommy Boy Silver Label 2490/Tommy Boy)
Best Dance Video :
Hung Up – Madonna (Warner Brothers) (Winner)
The Other Side – Paul van Dyk (Vandit/Mute)
Lose Control – Missy Elliott featuring Ciara and Fat Man Scoop (The Gold Mine/Atlantic)
Don't Cha – The Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes (A&M/Interscope)
Deep Dish – Say Hello (Deep Dish/Thrive)
Best Dance Artist Solo
Madonna (Winner)
Mariah Carey
Gwen Stefani
Kristine W
source : True Hectic (MadonnaNation) / wintermusicconference.com
Here's Madonna and Guy Ritchie stepping out in casual clobber for a Kabbalah meeting in Hollywood.
The mish-mash of sports wear was a far cry from the glam duo we're used to. As for Guy he opted to team his Nike zip-up with a Puma hat. That is a big no-no, fella.
Madge is in the middle of rehearsals for her world tour, which kicks off in LA on May 21.
Let's hope the Material Girl leaves this dodgy get-up at home.
source : thesun


text:
Nonin 7500 and 7500FO Tabletop Pulse Oximeter
Flexibility, Durability and Convenience in a Compact Tabletop
With the advent of the 7500 and 7500FO tabletop pulse oximeters, Nonin has created a dependable and flexible product that will fit almost any need in the clinic, hospital or at home. Packed with features, the 7500 series pulse oximeters include versatile power, transport, alarm and sensor options. The 7500 and 7500FO even include an analog output that allows you to interface the unit with other equipment. The rugged design and Nonin's PureSAT® technology mean the 7500 series pulse oximeters will provide reliable patient data for years to come.
Stationary or Portable - Your Choice
With the ability to operate on either standard AC wall power or the included rechargeable battery, it's easy to use the 7500 or 7500FO in patient transport situations or at home next to your bed. Each unit includes a 7500B rechargeable battery pack that will operate the unit for a minimum of 16 hours of continuous monitoring. Also included is a battery charger - that takes only 4 hours to fully recharge the battery! Not going anywhere for a while? Plug the 7500 into the wall and continually monitor your SpO2 statistics.
Alarm Functions to Meet Your Needs
A vital part of many monitoring situations is the capability to program alarm limits on pulse oximetry equipment. The 7500 and 7500FO give you choices when it comes to how the unit's alarm works. Set your own alarm limits and volume settings to your specific requirements and make sure they are not accidentally altered with Patient Security Mode. This mode locks in the alarm limits, volume, time/date settings prevent unintentional changes. A recall function pulls the user's last customized alarm settings so that manual entry is not required each time the unit is restarted.
70 Hours of Memory and User Friendly
The 7500 series of pulse oximeters doesn't stop at just being flexible. Both the 7500 and the 7500FO both offer 70 hours of memory for continuous, long-term monitoring. Download the data in the memory using Nonin's nVision software (not included) for long term storage, analysis and reporting. The bright LED displays are easy to read and include critical information like:
- Pulse Strength Bar Graph - a color coded bar graph gives a visual indication of the patient's status while an audible tone can sound with each pulse. The tone will change with the patient's saturation level.
- Pulse Quality Indicator - detects patient movement or signal quality changes that may require you to reposition the sensor, ensuring the accuracy of your readings
- Sensor Fault Indicator - indicates when a sensor has become disconnected, misaligned, failed or is not compatible.
5 buttons provide access to all the functions including alarm silence, volume control, and alarm configuration.
What's in the Package:
Each Nonin 7500 unit includes:
- 1 - 7500 pulse oximeter unit
- 1 - 8000AA-3 Adult Finger Clip Sensor (3 meter)
- 1 - Battery Charger
- 1 - Power Cord
- 1 - 7500B Battery Pack
- 1 - Operator's Manual on CD-ROM
Each Nonin 7500FO unit includes:
- 1 - 7500FO pulse oximeter unit**
- 1 - Battery Charger
- 1 - Power Cord
- 1 - Avant B Battery Pack
- 1 - PC Pole Mount Clamp
- 1 - Operator's Manual on CD-ROM
**No sensor is included with the 7500FO which must be purchased separately
A Variety of Options and Accessories are Available
The Nonin 7500 and 7500FO are compatible with a wide selection of accessories and sensor options.
- Nonin nVision software for reporting, data storage and analysis
- A full line of Nonin PureLight® sensors
- Fiberoptic sensors for use with the 7500FO
- The 7500 carrying case
- Rolling stands
- Analog output cable for integration with other equipment
|Tech Specs


text:
You don't have to be an expert with a pastry bag to make cupcakes with a decadent sweet, salty and nutty filling surrounded by moist cake. An easy trick that requires no extra equipment makes the process simple. Chocolate is a classic peanut butter accompaniment, but vanilla-, banana- or coffee-flavored cupcakes work well, too.
The Filling
The trick for making cupcakes with a filling that doesn't melt or collapse in the oven, leaving a hole in the center of the cupcake, is to freeze the filling ahead of time. As the cupcake bakes, the filling thaws. Combine creamy peanut butter and confectioner's sugar, roll the mixture into half-inch balls, place them on a sheet pan covered with waxed paper and cover them with another sheet of waxed paper. Put them in the freezer up to 24 hours in advance. To make it easier to handle the peanut butter balls, spray your hands with cooking spray. If you make extra, store the balls in resealable plastic bags in the freezer.
The Cupcakes
Preheat the oven and prepare cupcake batter from scratch, or use a commercial mix. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups and fill each one about two-thirds full. Gently press one frozen peanut butter ball into each cupcake, taking care not to push it all the way to the bottom. If necessary, smooth the batter over the peanut butter ball so the top is completely covered. Bake the cupcakes for the recommended time, take them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. After they've cooled, remove them from the muffin tins and place them on a wire rack.
Make or buy chocolate or vanilla icing and, once the cupcakes have cooled, spread a generous amount of frosting on each cupcake. If you have extra peanut butter filling, thaw it until it's pliable, roll it out, and use a cookie cutter or a sharp knife to make shapes. Lay the peanut butter shapes on the frosting. Load leftover filling into a pastry bag and pipe it onto the frosting. Instead of vanilla or chocolate, keep the theme going and ice the cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.
Add flavor to the peanut butter filling with a drop of vanilla, cinnamon, banana or coconut extract. Create peanut butter and jelly cupcakes by rolling out a small circle of the peanut butter filling, placing a little bit of jelly or jam in the center, and crimping the peanut butter around the jelly before freezing. Experiment with other nut butters, but avoid extra-oily butters like walnut or pecan butter. For an elegant butter, grind pistachios or hazelnuts until they're mealy, then mix them with cream cheese, form into balls and freeze.