Category Archives: Links

Better at starting things

I am definitely better at starting things than finishing them. Two years ago, I almost started a diet.  What I actually did was set up a fancy spreadsheet to record my weight loss. Then found the whole thing about actually reducing my calorie intake was a bit mind-numbing, and got no further.

I am increasingly aware however, that tackling my weight problem is something I should take seriously, so fired up the spreadsheet and recorded a second entry.

I can tell you that in 729 days, I have gained 4 kilos. Which could be a great deal worse, I suppose.

A cixen on Flickr has come up with the bright idea of photographing absolutely everything she eats, and the results are posted to a group.  They’re certainly striking.  And they make her think hard about every single thing she puts in her mouth, since she has to reach for her camera before eating.  I wonder if she goes hungry if she forgets to pack her camera before heading for work.

Bloglists

A quick wave and a thanks to Nich and Stephen who have both included me in their lists of favourite Lib Dem bloggers this week – thereby driving up my traffic in an otherwise quiet week!

Man-eating badgers

Just found this quote amusing:

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.

Thank goodness for that!

Aunty has more. (via)

Tenbury II

Tenbury Wells, Worcs, was flooded for a third time this weekend – more dramatic photos on Flickr, including a public loo whose foundations were undermined by flood water slipping into the river.

The BBC has pictures too.

Meanwhile, friends on UMRA have discovered this dramatic sequence of photos covering the floods in Evesham from the perspective of a chap trapped in a hotel.  The water rose 17 feet over it’s normal level. 1 2 3 4 5 6.

I live  most of the way up a hill.  These photos are clearly something to bear in mind the next time I’m huffing and puffing up the hill with a heavy shopping bag and wishing I lived somewhere flatter.

The proms

The proms are a wonderful institution, but I don’t tend to have a great deal to do with them. (I mean of course the BBC music thing in the Royal Albert Hall, not the evil heteronormative behemoth that marks the end of formal schooling in the US and increasingly over here too)

In any given year my sole engagement with them is to vaguely hear something on the radio round about now and think “Gosh, are we in Prom season already?”

Then, a few months on, there starts to be massive trails for the Last Night of the Proms, and I think, “Gosh, is Prom season over already?”

I don’t even normally make the effort to tune in to the LNOTP – but if I’m home, and near a radio or TV and not otherwise occupied, I might turn it on for the best of the flagwaving.

I have once been to a prom, which was quite exciting, but as it was in the middle of a choir week, and I was a wee bit knackered, it was all I could do to stay awake.

This year, however, I am looking forward to note-by-note sarcastic commentary from a rather nice-looking young man who seems to know what he’s talking about. He’s doing video blogs and taking photos and everything. He wasn’t very impressed with today’s effort, and displayed his displeasure in a series of photos of himself looking less and less pleased. I shall watch with interest.

Luna Lovegood? Who’s that?

  You scored as Luna Lovegood, You are Luna Lovegood. You daydream and often seem to be drifting off into your own world. You have very strong opinions that many agree are not logical. You place a lot of faith in these beliefs. Possibly, you see more than what meets the eye. You are very accepting of others. You may have only a few close friends because you refuse to sacrifice your opinions and true self for social graces.

Luna Lovegood
 
78%
Severus Snape
 
66%
Neville Longbottom
 
63%
Sirius Black
 
63%
Remus Lupin
 
59%
Ron Weasley
 
53%
Albus Dumbledore
 
50%
Hermione Granger
 
50%
Harry Potter
 
44%
Bellatrix Lestrange
 
38%
Draco Malfoy
 
34%
Oliver Wood
 
31%
Percy Weasley
 
31%
Lord Voldemort
 
9%

Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test
created with QuizFarm.com

Over 100 questions to tell me I’m a character I’ve never heard of! Bah. (via)

Nottingham on TV

Nottingham’s been on the telly a lot recently – or at least it’s been on ours!  Two fictional characters in two days have said they’re from Nottingham.

First John Smith, the human that Dr Who turns into in the most recent episode, said he was from “a house in Broadmarsh,” but for plot reasons couldn’t remember a great deal about it.

Then last night, we watched V for Vendetta – a bleak vision of a totalitarian future for a Britain kept on its knees in fear of terrorism, where the government bans free protest, locks up and tortures its own citizens, routinely spies on them, and prevents them from criticising the authorities.  In it, there was a lesbian character who found herself removed from her flat, locked away in a prison, has her hair shaved off, and is eventually murdered.  She was from a “a farm in Nottingham, Tottlebrook,” which made us both double-take a little.

Incidentally, I’ve started using Flixster on Facebook to record movies seen, ratings and reviews.  It seems really good – and will be even better when they sort out their engine properly to merge “Flixster-on-Facebook” with their main website http://www.flixster.com so that we can have the full functionality without having to be on Facebook.