Once again, the Internet is down at Meadow Towers and I’ve been told to expect it to be down for the next 24 hours.

I’d make complaints against Tiscali, however it’s only actually been twice in two years, it just seems like more because the last time was so recent.

This means that I can only access the internet at work and, as I’m not working this afternoon (Monday) or at all tomorrow (Tuesday):

1. I won’t be able to check email till Wednesday
2. I won’t be able to respond to comments till Wednesday
3. I won’t be able to rescue any comments from the moderation queue till Wednesday – any comments with links in them are automatically moderated, so if you want to avoid getting stuck, don’t put links into your comments. Also, moderation is set to kick in if I’ve never had a comment from you before. I know this sucks for new people, and I am very, very sorry but if you saw the amount of spam Akismet catches for me on an hourly basis you would understand.
4. I will be climbing the walls because I’m going to be missing my internet fix!

Just to keep you informed 🙂

If you really, truly want to freak everyone around you out, I recommend switching the colours on your computer screen. This is very easy to do in Mac (hit apple key+alt+ctrl+8 all at the same time) and works really well, just giving you the negative image. In Windows XP it’s harder and less effective, demanding a trek into the Accessibility panel (Start – Control Panel – Accessibility – though there is a shortcut once you’ve activated it), and once it’s activated EVERYTHING is slightly altered, with different icons and IE is totally screwed, so it’s not quite as seamless. ¹

Why do it at all though, other than the afore mentioned freak-out?

Well, it’s one hell of a lot easier on the eyes. I’ve long used the ‘white on blue’ option in Word and love that WriteRoom lets you have total control on the colours of your font and background. Whenever I read text on a website or on screen, I almost always highlight the paragraph I’m reading with the mouse. I guess this is the digital equivalent of sticking your finger on the page but it has the added advantage of changing the contrast from (normally) black on stark white to (in my case) black on soothing lilac ².

Switching the whole computer does take a bit of getting used to and some things just don’t work – pictures for one. And there are some websites that just look weird – the Bright Meadow penguin (Mr Flibble) is currently freaking the crap out of me. But that’s all ok because it’s just the case of hitting a few keys and normalcy is returned. ³

Before I go any further down this route, I will say this to a few people who might be reading this and going “but Cas, I’ve spoken to you before and you are rather vocal in your hatred of white-on-dark themes”. I still am. There are perhaps a handful of white-on-dark designs I’ve seen which I like. The majority just don’t do it for me, whatever ‘it’ is. They don’t float my design boat. I prefer light, fresh and clean. Dark is just too, well, dark. Plus it’s really hard to get the contrasts right and they all to frequently end up unreadable. I’m not advocating that everyone suddenly start designing white-on-black – though bearing the use of off white in mind might be a good idea.

Rather I am suggesting users try for themselves switching their monitor colours. It does ease strain on the eyes and, as mentioned at the start of the post, it totally confuses those looking over your shoulder. This isn’t a design choice imposed on me, this is my own choice.

And all you designers out there: I know you’re probably already fed up to the back teeth with talk of accessibility, but think on this. I’m average. I have fairly normal eyesight. I’m viewing the web on an averagely priced LCD screen. I’m using a fairly common browser (Safari) with no bells or whistles. Yet if I’m flipping the colours and playing around with the accessibility options on my computer, it’s a good indication that I might not be the only one. There’s more of us out there than you think and if I can’t view/use your site for whatever reason when I’m doing something not that unusual, I probably won’t be back.

So here’s what I propose: everyone flip the colours on their computer for the afternoon. See what you can do, see what you can’t do, and then think how you might be able to make it a bit better. For me, I’m off to tweak some of the grey I’ve used here on Bright Meadow as the contrast isn’t quite good enough.

End notes:
¹ XP might be more customizable in this respect than I am giving it credit for. The only Windows machine I have access to is my work one in which most of the customization is locked out

² As an aside, I do so love how customizable things are on Macs. OK, so you can tweak things in XP too, but it’s about five advanced degrees harder than it should be.

³ I did try to take screenshots to show you what I see when I look at sites like 9rules (dear lord there’s suddenly a lot of peach) or Flickr, but I can’t. Because it turns out that OSX flips the colours in such a way that my screenshot widget doesn’t pick it up. It just shows what should be there, not what I see.

As a fourth aside, having to flip my screen colours and needing to bump the font size on most of the websites I read is a sure sign I need new glasses. Good job I was getting bored with my current frames really, isn’t it?

I’m not sure if it’s reassuring or not to hear a track that’s been used on some show, fall in love with it, google it to find what the track is, head to iTunes to download it… only to find you already own it.

This has happened to me more times recently than I care to admit. Lately, with Syntax and a track I now own three times. With They Might Be Giants and a track I now own twice. And now with Snow Patrol and a track I only don’t own twice because I’ve finally learnt my lesson and actually check through the iPod before I download!

Why reassuring? Well, it’s nice to know my tastes are at least vaguely consistent and once I like a track I always like a track. Why not reassuring? Because I don’t like to think my memory is that crap! Either way, it’s definitely a sign that 4000 odd tracks is about where I should draw the line with my music collection. That, and I need to dig through it more often as opposed to just playing the same ten bands over and over. Oh, the dilemma. It used to be so much easier – I only had to choose between my two Jason Donovon cassette tapes…

And plus? Curses at TV shows for suddenly putting decent tracks on their soundtracks. Used to be I never paid attention to what was playing in the background. Now, I can’t watch an episode of Bones or Grey’s Anatomy without rushing to Google afterwards with a lyric. (Must admit, I am loving how Brit Indy is making it’s presence felt across the Atlantic tho 😉 )

In the spirit of things I know today that I didn’t know yesterday: Yakult original tastes like lemon cheesecake, which is not what I was expecting it to taste like at all.

I’ve been on a course of WMD-strength antibiotics this past week and my entire digestive system has gone into massive upheaval as a result. I will spare you the gory details (I am trying to woo all my readers/commenters back after my prolonged absence after all) just suffice it to say I’ve not been feeling great lately. As in “had to take the past two days off work not great”. I made it into work yesterday then got sent home after scaring my boss… I only made it as far as the front door this morning.

I’ve actually made the decision to come OFF the antibiotics a few days early (*sharp intake of breath* I know, I’m related to doctors, I’m aware this is simply not done) because to be honest? The whole sore throat actually left me with rather a sexy/hoarse/bluesy voice which isn’t all that bad when you think about it. Plus we’re moving office on Friday, I really can’t miss more work.

Yes Phil, I know I should be taking it easy, but 😛 I’m not overstating my importance on this one. Much though spending the rest of the week reclining on the sofa appeals to me, I am needed in the office.

So in an attempt to get my entrails working like they’re supposed to as quickly as possible, I’ve decided that I need me some of those friendly bacteria. It still feels far too much like alternative medicine for my tastes but, I did grow up in the New Age capital of the UK, so I can live with that.

Come to Cassy little friendly bacteria… I’m not gonna hurt you…

Dear all –

This is really rather ironic. I’m ready to get back into the online chunk of my life and… we loose the internet at Meadow Towers. Our ISP is having a few hiccups at the moment. Whilst I have internet at work, most of the sites I use personally are blocked, and I AM meant to be working. On top of that I don’t work at the weekends and I’m not sure when our internet is going to be back up (hopefully sooner rather than later as I’m getting withdrawal symptoms!)

All this means that if you’re waiting for: email from me; instant messages; Flickr; Facebook; Twitter; 9rules; blogging stuff; the whole online kit’n’kaboodle – you’re going to have to be patient.

It is really rather annoying that the moment I have things to say and do, I can’t say and do them, but clearly the gods want me to watch more BSG season 2, and who am I to disagree with them?

Talk to y’all soon, my internet lovlies 🙂
~Cxxx~

And now for something just a little bit different.

Those who’ve read Bright Meadow for a little bit will be familiar with Moose from the stories I tell and from the comments on assorted posts. For those of you who aren’t so hot on the history around here, Moose is my long suffering flatmate. And when I say long suffering I mean it – she’s survived me + mornings since 2004. That’s impressive to say the least.

Anyway, I dragged Moose into the whole blogging gig shortly after I started (I like to lead by example) but what with one thing and another she hasn’t added to hers since last October (naughty Moose). Apparently I’m partly to blame for this as I always seem to blog the stories first… Um, oops?

So with me on a blogging break, Moose decided it was time to take matters into her own capable hands and write a guest post about something that happened to us a few weeks back. Can I just say how weird it was sitting in the living room knowing that Moose was writing something for MY blog? Eeek. But I like the results and I hope you do to.

Ladies and jellybeans, please bring your hands together and welcome Moose.

The other weekend I dragged a not-so-chipper Cas out for the evening to see my favourite band – Barenaked Ladies. We arrived at the Guildhall in plenty of time, stood in the wrong queue for a bit (what is it about us Brits and queues? we see a long queue and automatically gravitate to it), but finally managed to find a cosy spot inside against the wall so Cas had something to lean on. It was pretty good spot. It had a reasonably clear view of the stage, the aforementioned wall, it was next to an exit for an easy escape and/or route to the toilets, and was next to the bar should we wish to partake. It was in fact a perfect spot… until the support act came on.

The second the lights went down people appeared from nowhere to stand in front of us. Not just any old people mind, people taller than us. I went from seeing three quarters of the stage to seeing the back of someone’s t-shirt in less than 30 seconds. At one point I made a comment to Cas about people standing in front of us, which the women who had just come to stand in front of me overheard, she glared at me before turning her back and reducing my view even further, to the back of her head. After about 15 minutes of standing on tippy-toes and bobbing around like a Fraggle on speed I finally gave up and suggested we move to the back where there appeared to be more room and better chance of finding a clear spot.

I am just over 5’2″ (or 158cm for the metrically inclined). Most of the time I am perfectly happy with this. I’m quite comfortable with the majority of the population in the UK being taller than me. The only time I’m not is when I’m with a crowd of people, oh say, like 500 people at a gig. Unless I arrive super, duper early so I can be right at the very front I am reduced to not being able to see much of anything. If people could just be a little more considerate and think about the fact that they may be blocking someone’s view as they squirm their way to the front things could be so much better for everyone. But they don’t. Last weekend was an extreme case I have to admit, it was the first time I’ve ever had to go to the back (emphasise back) of the room to get a better view! It was then that I introduced Cas to ‘The Plan’.

‘The Plan’ is to introduce height restricted areas at all gigs and concerts where there is standing room. All people below 5’4″ could go in the front section, between 5’5″ and 5’9″ could go in the middle, and anyone over 5’10” could go at the back. That way us short-arses could actually get a chance at seeing something once in a while. Now, I’ll admit this plan isn’t perfect. It still has a few kinks to iron out. What happens, for example, if you’re partner is taller than you are? As someone who is attracted to tall men (something to do with restoring balance to the universe according to a friend of mine) I do appreciate the problem, but this is a minor consideration I feel. Overall the concept is sound. Now I just need to convince the venues of this…

Oh, and the post title? It’s the title of a song by the support act that night, the very funny Boothby Graffoe, which he got the audience singing and I’ve had stuck in my head ever since. “Baseball playing spi-der, baseball playing spi-der, baseball playing spi-der, baseball playing spi-der, baseball playing spi-der”

Before you get your hopes up, I’m still on a blogging-break (don’t expect anything from me till after Easter), but since you are all lovely people who have expressed concern in the past, I figured I’d let you know what was going on with my rapidly deteriorating body. Look away now if you are squeamish 😉

I got the results of the blood tests back and I’m not dying of anything hideous (yay!) but I do, as expected, have iron levels you’d need a super-duper, super-conducting magnet to discover (boo!). This explains the tiredness etc and is a pretty easy fix with iron tablets and oodles of spinach for the next three months. Just call me Popeye. Oh, and I should eat lots of apricots. Apparently apricots have lots of iron in them – who knew?

Following on from that, the doctor then decided that the reason I’ve been croaking like a frog all winter is (and I quote) “a persistent bacteriological infection of the voice-box”. Yummy. THIS is going to be treated with some antibiotics. Hopefully. She muttered something about “if that doesn’t work come back…” and then she got this look in her eye that doctors get when they’re plotting a round of hideously painful and demeaning tests. Fingers crossed that the antibiotics work because (1) I’m fed up of croaking like a frog (and feeling like I’m swallowing razors) and (2) I really don’t want anymore painful and demeaning tests.

And THEN the doctor decided that she still wasn’t happy with the whole hormone/ovaries/god-knows-whats-going-on-in-there debacle that are my insides and ordered another round of blood tests to try and get the bottom of that whole mess. I tried to tell her I’ve pretty much given up on getting a straight answer and am willing to just wait and see, but no! She wants answers, damn-it!

Which, all joking aside is really a good thing. Still, what is it about doctors that you go in with one thing and come out dying of quite another?

So that’s me. I’m still alive. The prognosis for me getting my va-va-voom back is good. And I shall see you all shortly no doubt 🙂