Monthly Archives: January 2006

I look like Rita Hayworth!

Cas' Rita Hayworth match on Flickr Browsing the wilds of the Internet this morning, looking for something to blog about as I am wont to do, I stumbled across MyHeritage thanks to Profgrrrrl. A deep and meaningful tool, to be sure, but one corrupted mercilessly by me to see what celebrities me and mine look like, and I have to say, turns out I’ve got some pretty good looking Blog Minions.

Me: As well as Rita Hayworth, I get Avalance Face herself (Katie Holmes), Hilary Duff, and Drew Barrymore, depending on the photo used. I also got Elton John at one point, but I blame that on the glasses 😐

Moose: Sofia Coppola. Rather appropriate given her love for film.

Spooky: George Clooney. Yes girls, I had a George Clooney lookalike on the course. And I end up dating…

… the CC: who looks like Linus Pauling (whoever that is). Though on a second run through I did get a 45% Brad Pitt match, so the program must know something after all 😉

Brainy Snail: A bit Paris Hilton, but don’t hold that against her. I only had one face-on shot that the system would recognise and I don’t think it is fair to blame the Snail for that misfortune.

Bimbostar: Got a bit of a Sophia Loren thing going on.

Who do you look like? Comment on the post, and even better, get yourself a free Flickr account upload a screenshot, and tag it “myheritage“. That way we can all share 🙂

My Heritage, myheritage, flickr, rita hayworth, katie holmes, hilary duff, drew barrymore, sofia coppola, george clooney, linus pauling, brad pitt, paris hilton, sophia loren

Sunday Roast – Jesus didn’t go home for the weekend!

For your clicking pleasure, I bring you the second Sunday Roast of 2006. If you fancy a snack afters, there are always the leftovers

Good Film, Shame About the Helvetica – New York Times. Clearly, a slow news day in the NYT Movies office.

The Cute Factor – New York Times. I’m really not sure if this article makes me more resigned to being classed “cute” or less. Laps and cuddles are more fun than pedestals though…

BBC NEWS – Mental health overhaul demanded. I’ve been fortunate this time around that I am at a University with a competent counselling service to pick up the slack. Last time when I had to go through my NHS practice, it was much harder. What care you get for mental health issues in this country really is too hit and miss, so I applaud this report.

The WEB 2.0 Quiz. Shocking, especially considering I side with the people who say that Web 2.0 as a term should be put out of its misery, but I couldn’t resist. 6 out of 10. Eeek. I have much to learn, Obi Wan!

EchoEcho.Com – Complete Web tutorials . One more tip garnered from Liz at Successful Blog. It’s amazing what you forget after a year of blogger and wordpress lets you get lazy.

The Best Gaming Mouse Pad You’ll Ever Make at PaulStamatiou.com – You laugh, and then you think on it a bit, and realise that this is actually rather a clever little idea. Only to be recommended if you own your furniture (or think your landlord won’t mind sticky marks left on his desk).

Firdamatic: the Design Tool for the Uninspired Webloggers. I’m currently playing round with a design for part two of the Grand Master Plan for Bright Meadow, and I stumbled across this shiny little tool. As Firda says, “you’re not lazy, you’re just uninspired”.

BBC NEWS – Sony Reader targets book lovers and the Gizmodo take on the same thing. I’ve always maintained that the only thing keeping me from my (legally, I stress) downloaded e-Books is the reading format. The laptop just isn’t working for me in that respect. Whilst this Sony product looks like a great leap forward, I am going to be dubious about this sort of tech till it passes the Cas-Test – namely, can I read it in the bath without fear of (1) destroying an expensive piece of equipment and (2) death from electrocution.

And finally, this week we learned that traditionally, the 40 days and 40 nights of Lent does not include Sundays. This incensed Moose’s sensibilities. As she quite rightly points out, Lent is supposed to echo the time Jesus spent in the desert being tempted. He didn’t pop home for a Sunday lunch with Joseph and Mary each week now, did he? (At least, I can’t remember being told that he did in Sunday school). As a Christian I am so lapsed that I am starting to approach it from the other side, so I am (of course) not up to date on the latest theological thinking, but until I am told otherwise, I am just going to add this to my growing list of bits of religious thinking that make me blink in sheer incomprehension.

RSS Icons

One of my pet peeves about RSS is that there has been no standard icon to represent the feed. For a while, it looked like the ugly orange ‘xml’ box would win, and Apple tried for a while with their nice blue RSS in a box, but consensus on the web seems to be settling on the concentric arcs familiar to Firefox users if nothing else.

I’ve bitten the bullet and now Bright Meadow is all standardised with its RSS icons. Just because Microsoft is doing something doesn’t necessarily make it right, but there’s starting to be enough impetus behind this move now to make me think ok, why not?

So, in the ‘Meta’ section, the little ‘rss’ buttons (that I was quite fond of) have now been replaced with the blue rss icon graphic. I just couldn’t quite face the orange, so I photoshopped them to better fit the colour scheme.

See more about the standardisation on Improbulus’ post, “Feeds: new standard feed icon at last “.

And if you need a set in a colour scheme to match your blog but can’t face photoshop yourself, contact me and I’ll be happy to help 🙂

feed, feeds, RSS, feed icons, standardisation, blogs, photoshop, Improbulus, Microsoft, Apple, Firefox, Feedburner

Day Two – and I am doing this because?

ingredients for smoothie - click to see bigger on Flickr Today, so far (it’s lunch time), has been remarkably healthy. The day started at the ungodly hour of 8.30 with a cup of tea and a banana, before Moose and myself dragged each other up to the gym. We even walked there and back! I dusted off the exercise plan that I got back at the end of August, hopped on the machines, and decided to teach my body who’s boss.

For my records, and your curiosity

  • Weight: 82 kg, which is 10 kilos more than I was last time I went to the gym. Damn it! I put on more than I’d thought.
  • Bike: Alpine pass; level 2; 15 minutes; 3.76 miles
  • Rowing machine: 2500 m; level 6; 15.07.3 minutes

Next aerobic time it is the X-Trainer (and we all know how much I hate them), on Trail blazer, level 1, for 15 minutes, and the Rowing machine again.

I actually feel quite good right now – tired, but all exercised. Tomorrow, I am going to be in serious pain, I can tell. Well, next time I go to the gym, it’s all resistance, and predominantly on the arms, so my legs can have a rest. Ug. This whole health kick really is hard work!

If you care to look at this comment from JB, you will see a suggestion for a smoothie. Seeing no reason why not to, I tried it today on return from the gym, though with two bananas not three, and plain yoghurt. Verdict? Not bad, not bad at all. It needed… something… possibly another fruit alongside the banana, or a different yoghurt, and I’m not totally sold on the idea of drinking my breakfast (I like to get my teeth into something), but it’s early days yet. Experimenting is half the fun 🙂

Right, I’m now off to undergo the unique torture that is trying to find a swimsuit. Fun :S

Day One of the “you will eat a freakishly large amount of fruit for breakfast” diet

Bowl of fruit for breakfast - click to see bigger and notes on Flickr Day One of the “you will eat a freakishly large amount of fruit for breakfast” diet.
For breakfast today: one banana, one clementine, one golden delicious.

First impressions? Do I eat this with a spoon, with a fork, with my fingers, with chopsticks?! What’s good form? I’m currently in a no-mans land between fork and fingers. Mainly because I am surfing at the same time and I don’t want to get the keyboard all mussy.

I actually quite like banana. I have held off eating them for years – ever since I was old enough to be allowed an opinion about what I ate – for the simple reason that I can’t bite into a whole banana without gagging. There is a reason for this slightly bizarre response. When much, much younger, there was a rule in our house that you had to clear your plate before you left the table. After several tearful altercations between Baby Cas and Curly Durly, it was deemed less hassle for all if Baby Cas wasn’t forced to eat bananas. The people that tell you your childhood can’t scar you for life are lying. Ever since then, it’s been a pavlovian response – deep in my brain, something goes “Ack, banana! We don’t want this!” I have decided however that, approaching my mid twenties, I really need to get over myself, so when I braved the greengrocers yesterday, a bunch of bananas were forced into my basket. I can’t quite face munching on a whole banana yet, but chopped up they are actually rather pleasant, and go surprisingly well with clementine.

Conversely, I do not like golden delicious apples. Apples as a whole are another fruit I have had troubled relationships with in the past. I expect most kids who had braces growing up feel much the same way. I have vivid memories of the time I bit into an apple and felt my teeth move a little bit… Even though my teeth are now all shiny and straight (with not a single filling I am proud to reveal) and have no marked tendency to wobble, I still baulk at chomping on a whole apple a la Eve. So they are also sliced up into the bowl. Not liking golden delicious though. They seem a bit floury with no real taste. Good thing I only bought a handful – what variety should I try next?

Whether this lot will keep me going till lunch remains to be seen. Two pieces of toast used to do the trick, but I’ve just finished the bowl and don’t exactly feel full :S

Well, it’s an experience, if nothing else 🙂

AutoDiscover Tags

I’ve just changed the autodiscover tags on the blog to show the FeedBurner feed and not the default WP one (lots of reasons for this, can’t be bothered to explain). It all seems to be working happily for me, but if you find a problem YELL! and I’ll do my best to sort it.