This weeks title bears no real relevance to the Roast at all, I just liked it and wanted to use it. It appeals to my sense of the absurd (and if you’re wondering, yes it is a quote from our dumb cousins across the pond) – come on, terrorists are using mice now? Robot mice? What are they going to do, eat all the cheese?

Anyway, enough American mocking because, fun though it is, for some reason large numbers of my readership normally fail to see the funny and get all annoyed at me. I don’t want hate mail – it’s no fun 🙁

Yes, Cas is in a silly mood today. And talking about herself in the third person which is never a good sign…

Curly Durly always made some pretty groovy cakes for birthdays when we were growing up – my favourites were the tipper truck where the truck bed actually tipped and cascaded sweets all over the table and this beautiful piano cake – but even she never made something as impressive as this Discworld wedding cake. The Discworld doesn’t scream matrimony to me as much as the traditional white with two figurines on top, but still – good cake.

Lelia is one hell of a lot braver than I am. I saw MySpace and ran away in screaming terror. She saw MySpace and like any good anthropologist would, decided it needed investigation – read her field notes.

How to survive a plane crash. Doesn’t really need much more introduction, does it?

There is now a penguin robot in existence. Do I have to spell out how freeking happy this makes me? 😀

I’ve played with the idea of creating an online shop a time or three (what’s stopped me is that I have nothing really to sell – the jewelry, notebooks and quilts I make, I make on a commission/request basis) and the instructions for Shopify and PayPal integration always scared the crap out of me. These instructions to mod WordPress into a shop seem (slightly) less scary and have the benefit of using WordPress which we all know and love.

See, it’s not just my American readers who don’t like my US-bashing, it upsets the Federal government as well!

I like science when it proves something I already believes: scientists have shown that black tea really does calm you down. I’d always thought it was the combination of the act of taking a break, making the tea, and holding the warm mug, as well as what was in the mug in the first place. Nice to know that millions of British people haven’t been party to a mass generational cultural disillusionment.

In the latest reported case of politician foot-in-mouth syndrome, Jack Straw announced Muslim women should not wear veils which cover the face.
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Yes. I think you can work out the response from there on your own, don’t you?

Not just a good minion, but a talented photographer as well. What I want to know is how you got that cat in there in the first place Jay! Is it a habitual haunt, or did you just block it in with books?

Which five bloggers would you love to meet?
A question impossible to answer without offending the people I didn’t mention. Suffice it to say, if you comment on the blog I’d love to meet you. I’m not going to list you all because you know who you are. Plus I know I will forget people, not because I don’t love you, but because, well, I have the memory retention of a brain injured goldfish.

Because it illustrates why I am actually happy in my new job and enthused about the work I am doing: five tales of the trouble former prisoners have on leaving prison. Hopefully, the new team that has been set up (and which I work for) is going to be addressing just these sort of problems.

Apparently I’ve stolen Moose’s blogging mojo. Entirely unintentional, I assure you! I’m not really sure what I can do to remedy the situation either – I can hardly be blamed for being so wonderful now, can I? I considered taking a break from blogging, then realised that you can probably take altruism too far. I refuse to feel guilty however, refuse I say!
And she also assures me in no uncertain terms that her site is *not* pink, it’s a nice lavender colour. It looks pink on my screen…

And on that note I shall finish and run away to buy a new VCR before Moose comes chasing after me with an unripe banana. Have a lovely Sunday everyone 🙂

Firstly, if you haven’t already noticed, Bright Meadow has gone pink for October. The “Oh good god what have you done?!” comments issuing from Moose when she got greeted by the pink this morning made it all worthwhile. In answer to her plaintive question of “but why does it have to be SO pink?” I answer that if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. In for a penny, in for a pound. And all other applicable cliches. I loathe pink in all it’s forms (unless it is ironic pink, a concept that not everyone understands) so when I made the decision to go Pink for October I knew I would have to go so far over the top as to come back on it from the other side. I am actually glorying in the sheer Barbie-ness of it.

As mentioned on the previous post, there are 7 changes, some major, some minor, that have been made to the site to ‘pinkify’ it. If you can spot all seven Minionhood awaits 🙂

And now, back the regularly scheduled programming.

The Pew Internet and American Life project recently released part 2 of their ‘Future of the Internet’ report. Fred over at ClaimID wrote a very interesting piece on whether transparency will make the world a better place?. Whilst I’ve not had the time, or I must admit inclination, to give either the report or Fred’s article the full attention they deserve, there are some VERY interesting and startling findings in there. A must-read for anyone who claims an interest in the future of the Internet.

Clive Owen’s latest film Children of Men tops the UK box office. This doesn’t surprise me as it is a very solid film. I saw it last weekend and throughout it is pitch-perfect. The disillusionment, terror, and casual violence of a world without children is beautifully portrayed. I’ve never read the PD James book the film is based on (Moose assures me the book is also very good, but differs widely from the film) but the film stands perfectly well as a piece of wonderful cinema. Disquieting to watch because you can all to easily see society going that way, even without the loss of children, and with some very strong performances – Michael Cain is a joy to watch as always. Honestly, go see the film. A very firm four penguin film.

One word sprang to mind when reading of Josh’s plans to sail a viking boat on the Ohio – why? Followed by a secondary thought that this boy is insane. Which was followed by “good, that’s perfect behaviour for one of my Minions” 😀

Apparently, finger length shows if you will be sporty or not. Now, my 2d measurement is approx. 8cm, whilst my 4d measurement is approx. 9cm. and I *SUCK* at running. I can put on a fair burst of speed when I have to (running for the bus etc.) but I am, at best, a short-distance sprinter. And not a fast one at that! I have no/very little endurance and even if I was at the peak of physical fitness, I would still be a bad runner – women with decent sized breasts are NOT, I repeat NOT built for movement at speed. Or bouncing activities. Trust me on this. So I feel that I singlehandedly disprove this theory, but then I’m not a scientist, so what do I know?

I’m not linking to the following story for the content, rather for the headline. In my mind you don’t ‘mull’ nuclear bombs. The word ‘mull’ just seems too… fluffy… for weapons of mass destruction. But that’s me.

It’s been hard, nay impossible, to find American Long-grain rice in the supermarkets here for the past month or so. I had my suspicions this was because of a GM incident I’d heard about recently. I do so like it when I’m proven right.

Now before we go any further I must stress I am not conservative a never will be. Most of their political platform sends chills into my heart and I disagree with them on pretty much every issue. At the same time, I’m curious about WebCameron (don’t you just love that little ‘beta’ tag in the top right? How very Web 2.0 now excuse me whilst I go make an offering to the web gods in apology for using the term ‘web 2.0’ on this site) which is David Cameron’s video blog. I tried to access it most of the day yesterday but it was down because of a link on the BBC News site – not a good start there. Launching a video blog you hope will raise your profile and… you’re not prepared for the demand.

Anyway, enough with the snark. I can access it today (servers have obviously been frantically bullied into behaving) and, I must admit it, I’m impressed. It looks unoffensive. It works on the Mac. It bends over backwards NOT to look like any other government site. I’m… damn it! There’s nothing I can complain about!

Hang on, yes there is. No RSS. Naughty – you expect me to manually check in with the site to see if there has been a new episode uploaded? Oh, how very old school.

Other than that though, there is a distinct lack of grump material. I am genuinely impressed that the Conservatives are making this effort to communicate directly with people. I like that they have an ‘open blog’ where, if you register, you can join in the discussion. I’m not sure I want to register (do I *want* the Conservatives to have me email address and details?) but that’s my personal decision. Yes, it smacks a little bit of jumping on the ‘blog’ bandwagon, but why not? You use whatever you can to gain an advantage, and where are the Lib Dem’s or New Labour?

My recommendations – get RSS feeds implemented.
My reservations/questions – how ‘open’ is the Open Blog? Do they screen posts before they are posted? What level of interaction will there be between commentors and David/other Conservative party members?
Why I probably won’t be watching WebCameron on a regular basis – my deep and abiding distrust and dislike of the Tories. I’ve got a feeling a few candid camera shots of David Cameron doing the washing up isn’t going to make me change my mind.

Kudos for trying though 🙂

I do take umbrage at David Cameron’s quote in the middle of this article though where he says “a young person would no more think of going to a public meeting than boiling an egg“. I LIKE boiled eggs. I regularly have them for brunch. Moose had boiled eggs for breakfast only this morning. On top of that, I *work* in local government and I’m only 24, so 😛 you Mr Cameron.

I spotted this recipe for Mooncakes and, whilst I’ve never had a proper Mooncake in my life, I want to try them. Probably won’t be able to get half of the necessary ingredients in this country, but they look intriguing if nothing else.

And lastly for this Sunday Roast, because my finger feels like it is about to burst open at the seams and start gushing blood all over my keyboard (ick) I am saddened to find out that Orbit gum will not get you into heaven. What about other sorts of gum? And how do they know? And why the need for the small print?! I mean, it’s not like you’re gonna be able to come back and say “well actually, I ended up in hell so I’m gonna sue…” I mean, you’d be dead, and if it’s one thing the dead are known for it’s not suing people.

That’s it for today folks. Go, have fun, and remember – breasts are for life, not just for Christmas: be aware.