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Snowsales
Up now.
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OMG life will never be the same
I was all ready to post a slightly sarky post about a new device I bought last week, but I thought I'd try it out first to give you a rounded review. It is, ladies and gentlemen, a steam mop. I was going to talk wryly about how I was taking my dedication to steampunk a bit too far, har har, but then I switched it on. And mopped.
And I am telling you the truth when I say that my heart skipped a beat and I realised, then, that life would never be the same. In as long as it takes to do a not very thorough hoover, my floors are steamed to a sterile gleam. Plus it sounds a bit like the Enterprise powering up. Also: steam! Great billowing clouds of the stuff.
I heartily recommend that you acquire such a device, as soon as you can. Life enhancing, truly.
Steam mop!
(Yes, I know I am sad. But clean floors are good for the soul.)
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You saw it here first, folks
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The second in an occasional series...
... entitled 'Ow, my eyes'. After the delights of that fabric website, here's another astonishing website for you.
All together now:
"Ow, my eyes!"
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Shabby
Bad Lulu. They have miscommunicated in the worst way to their customers - by making it look like their books have been singled out for special treatment when the opposite is true.
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Maneater review
In Hellnotes. V exciting to have our books reviewed on top websites like this.
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That's good
Yesterday, Going Postal was at 118,000 on Amazon. Now after the documentary aired last night it's at 2,607. I don't know how many units that is yet because the report hasn't updated but I'll tell you tomorrow.
So that's good, anyway.
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Anniversary
It's my 4th wedding anniversary today. Hooray!
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Going Postal documentary
Tomorrow, Monday at 10pm, on BBC 2. Watch it!
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Baby Cubs
My mum seems to have horrible rolly-polly baby fox cublets lolloping around her garden and play-fighting. Urr. Keep reading to see how unappealing they look. I only had my point-and-shoot camera with me, not my DSLR, so the camera insisted on doing its own thing - which is to say, it tinkered with its focus and dithered about what exposure it wanted to use instead of getting on with taking pictures of grubby fuzzy little foxlings. So they're not very good pictures at all. And of course I'm to blame at least as much as my camera. Anyway, I'm hoping next time they appear I can get pin-sharp close-ups of their unpleasantly fluffy little noses.
Continue reading "Baby Cubs" »
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How to avoid success.
I liked this bit in the paper. If it's not actually wise then it's certainly funny. And very nicely written.
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Snowsales
Ro is now of the age where he's paying very close attention to what I say. This means I can't swear any more. That means that I am swearing, in compensation, more than usual when I use the written word. So high-tail it over to the Snowsales blog to hear me cuss at length.
(I can't swear on the Snowblog because my mum reads it. Hello, Mum. But she doesn't have the password to Snowsales so all bets are off, there.)
(I don't actually swear that much on the Snowsales site. I'm all talk no trousers.)
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The Unbelievers launch
I am truly gutted to be missing Alastair Sim's launch party of The Unbelievers. But you don't have to. Here are the details.
Continue reading "The Unbelievers launch" »
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Blue Handbag review
Remember I told you about Fiona Robyn's innovative 100 readers? Here's the first review, and it's a peach.
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Sue Hepworth
I recommend you read this affecting piece in The Guardian by Sue Hepworth.
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Snowsales
Up now.
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Barclays
Good morning, world. Hope you had a nice weekend. We went to Wales and it was exceedingly pleasant, except for the long journey, which Ro was quite firmly against. Ah well, all back in one piece which is the main thing.
I don't really care about the following, so it's a very half-hearted rant. But still.
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Random bullet points
* Am I missing something? People are much more annoyed that MPs put a flat-screen telly on expenses than that they illegally invaded a Middle East country?
* Dollhouse has been renewed for a second (cheaper) season. Hopefully they'll get the kinks out now.
*John Lewis have exclusive UK rights to sell the red version of the Sony e-book reader. But bizarrely their sexy gadgets catalogue in the Sunday papers calls it a 'portable audiobook' and suggests you need headphones for it. (It'll play MP3s but that's hardly its function.) Strange to get an exclusive deal on a device you don't understand.
* If you saw in the news that a place that trains firefighters caught light - and most of the fire damage was to their collection of fire engines (oops) - you might like to know that's where my local gym is. Finally, a satisfactory excuse for not going - at least until they tidy up.
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No return address either
I assume it's because I live in the country, but my letters don't usually get put through my front door. They get put in a post box built into the garden wall nearest the road. Yesterday when I checked my post there was a big dead bee in there. Who would have posted me a bee? It remains a mystery.
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Your turn
You've heard me grumble and pontificate about the U.S. TV show Dollhouse, but if you live outside the U.S. and you're not all internet-savvy, like what I am, you probably won't have seen it. I mentioned this a while back, but if you're as Whedon-obsessed as I am, you might like a reminder that it's premiering in the UK on the Sci-Fi channel at 9pm this Tuesday (the 19th). So now you can start forming your own opinions/theories/complaints instead of relying on mine.
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The Immorality Engine cover
Because I don't think I've shared this yet!
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Breaking news
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100 readers
Fiona Robyn is a very innovative lady. Get thee over to her latest project, 100readers to read interviews with ten readers of The Blue Handbag, who will pass their books on to ten more people, then ten more... You won't be disappointed - it's fascinating.
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Snowsales
This week's post up. Don't hurry, bit dull.
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Day tripping
Those of you who read my pal Verity's blog will know that a couple of times there have been no takers for the afternoon trip over to the island she's living and volunteering on. It's an hour on the boat out from Cardiff Bay and it sounds like an excellent way to spend an afternoon, so any of you who live near there might think about making the journey (details here). I think it's a fun time for kids too, so maybe you've got some of those who need entertaining.
I also discovered that Google have included the island on their Google Maps 'satellite' view. Go here , zoom in to explore and then zoom waaay out to see where the island is.
Continue reading "Day tripping" »
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Gurkhas, et al.
"Ministers are worried that they may set a precedent that would allow any overseas soldier who had fought for Britain entry along with their family."* It's a strange world in which you might not be welcome in a nation you'd risked your life to defend. If we're not planning to be grateful, perhaps we should ask them not to defend us in future.
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Sidewise Award
Great news! George Mann's The Affinity Bridge is shortlisted for the ultra prestigious Sidewise Award. Here's the full list.
The Affinity Bridge, by George Mann (Snowbooks/Tor, 2009)
The Dragon's Nine Sons, by Chris Roberson (Solaris)
Half a Crown, by Jo Walton (Tor)
Nation, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins/Doubleday UK)
Swiftly, by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Fabulous company, no? Congratulations, George!
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Laughter
It's nice to know that even when things are pretty grim, it's still possible to laugh. It's a very sad time for my family at the moment because my little brother passed away at the weekend. But despite lots of grieving people around, my mum's cat wasn't deterred in his attempts to find an unguarded glass of water to drink from. He has a bowl of fresh water of his own, but a drinking glass on a table, even if it only has a few sips in it, right at the bottom, is irresistible. We were in the middle of some sad reminiscence when we noticed he'd jammed his head so far into the glass he'd had to fold his ears right back on his head. And when he lifted his head, the glass came with him. Sorry the photo is so blurry; I was laughing when I took it. (click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version.)
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Snowsales
Snowsales post now up. A modest, baseline type of a week.
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Rich at last
The Snowblog is worth $19,194.36.
How much is your blog worth?
The author of this widget says: "Inspired by Tristan Louis's research into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc, I've created this little applet using Technorati's API which computes and displays your blog's worth using the same link to dollar ratio as the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal."
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The Coming Aporkalypse*
I don't want to steal the whole thing, because it's too coarse for you refined types (or me, actually. I'm very delicate) but I liked this unpleasantly macabre headline from The Daily Mash.
SURVIVORS TO ENJOY GLORIOUS SUMMER, SAYS MET OFFICE
BRITAIN'S small band of pork flu survivors can look forward to a hot, dry summer, the Met Office confirmed last night.
Continue reading "The Coming Aporkalypse*" »
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Wow (and not in a good way)
I bought a sewing machine last week, and have had fun making small bits of clothing for Ro. None of them fit, of course, but that's the fun of it, right? (erm...)
Anyway, I just came across this website whilst looking for nice fabric. Possible contender for most bizarrely designed website of all time in the whole world forever? Or do you know of worse ones? Click below for just one of the many startling images it features, which has nothing to do with fabric that I can see - just there for the heck of it, I suppose. Perhaps the snowblog should get us some of them.
Continue reading "Wow (and not in a good way)" »
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Now in colour
Here's a good thing. My friend Verity (remember?) is back on dry land for a few minutes, which means she's got the bandwidth to transfer some photos from her camera onto the world wide internet. So if you've enjoyed reading her earlier posts, you might want to go back and look at the photos and drawings as they gradually get added.
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I'm different
No one likes to think of themselves as a mutant or outside the parameters of normal human anatomy, but that's the conclusion I've reached. I got the Bluetooth headset (pictured) a few months ago because it got such fantastic reviews, and was supposed to fit really well. But I tried and tried and couldn't get it to sit comfortably. It was either painful (and then would fall off) or dangling (and then would fall off). And since then, every few weeks I think 'but it must fit. I'll try again.' Whatever you can think of, I've tried and it won't fit. And then today I flipped over the hook and tried it on my left ear and it clipped on nicely. So now I know. I'm an asymmetrical mutant.