life with booyaa

i will have one of these. oh yes.

spotted this, in kingston john lewis. so good to know there are more of us out there. first time i've let out a whoop of joy in a fitting room for many years, i can tell you ;)

or:
linkomatic

click this

thank you mr goodyear

... or, possibly, boots for fat lasses ;) at duoboots.com

thanks to the wife of one of boo's work colleagues i now have in my possession a catalogue of gorgeous, sexy boots which are made in twenty-one!!! different calf widths. *does happy dance*

so i'm gonna get me at least one pair of knee-high boots that actually fit. i'm so fed up of seeing my kind of boots on the high street but when i go to try them on i find that i can't fasten them up or they fit round my calf but are nora batty round my ankle. ugh. so far this winter i've been wearing some mid-calf boots. but it's just not the same. so, i will be sending off for a pair of day-to-day boots very soon, and if they work out then i'll also be getting some dressy boots. so expect drooling praise and photos in a few weeks :)

beautifully designed and lovingly executed, random access memory is, according to the site itself, "an experiment in collective recognition". i can't vouch for that from what i've seen so far, but it's a weird and wonderful place to dip into from time to time. you'll come across frank confessions, wondrously poetic snapshots of life, odd snippets of a stranger's thoughts... and all encased in such a perfectly simple yet effective design. well done, guys.

i first came across youtube a couple of months ago when a friend of ours dropped a link to some snippets of his currently in post-production first movie.

wow could i do some namedropping here!

uncle ralphy, as he likes us to call him, is going to be very big news. the movie is going to be a hit, it's got real actors and a respected director to support james's (uncle ralphy, james, the less sexy of the Ks, whatever) undoubtedly fabulous script. i've read enough of his stuff elsewhere to trust him. there's also a short, a tv show and more goodies in the pipeline. so i am keeping in touch. oh yes. and that beermat he once threw at me - that's currently in a bank vault for when i fall on hard times.

where was i?

right, so youtube.com. his bit is no longer there, unfortunately, but let me tell you about the site, if you haven't heard of it already. you upload your videos, send the URL to all your mates and that's it, the essence of the thing. but what can also happen is that you spend a whole sunday afternoon reliving your youth and watching 1980s siouxsie and the banshees videos (wow, spellbound was pretty far ahead of its time if you compare it so what else was around then, even the money-no-object bands) and bits of the poll tax riots, and blondie, x-ray spex, joy division, lemonheads...

the one thing i found is that the quality of the videos uploaded varies wildly. the better quality, the better, obviously, but it does also take longer to stream and you may find it valuable to start the stream but put the video player on pause until you've downloaded half of the stream. then you can watch without it guttering at you every 30 seconds.

name dropping part two

and my sister pointed me to the item i've chosen to link to here. that petrol emotion didn't make a big splash in the world of commercial pop/rock music, but had a fairly hardcore following in the warm shores of peel-blessed indie music. i have, on a knackered old C90 somewhere, a copy of their song keen, taped off a peel show (in the days before you were scared to do such things for fear RIAA would shoot you in your own home.) it's been replayed to bits. and i've never found it on vinyl anywhere, as they pressed very few copies of it. years later i got to know three members of the group, in particular the truly lovely ray and ciaran, who are mates of my brother-in-law. even they couldn't get hold of a copy of the single for me. but they kept the video quiet. yeah, guys, we can see you've aged. but you've done so gracefully. some dark years followed that video but what counts is where you are and what you have now. this video shows you full of life, without a care in the world, on your way to achieving a place in the heart of many a young music fan. something to be proud of.

so, go, right now, without further ado, to listen to one of my favourite songs of the 80s. keen, by that petrol emotion

presentation zen show you the truth of good and bad presentation. mostly focussed on powerpoint plus presenter combos but drawing on pure design, product packaging, web design, photography and typography, they tempt you away from the darkside of dizzy backgrounds, clipart and multiple fonts over to pared down elegance; allowing for the sheer impact of your ideas to shine through.

lots of real examples for you to compare and contrast and they also talk you through various techniques, so you can learn to create better presentations and a better style of presenting, you don't have to just copy their ideas straight out. for people who have never been taught how to present or those who have been using the same powerpoint template for the past 15 years, this is the place for you. go. be inspired.

... are coming to london! they are playing at the barbican on july 17th and we're going to buy tickets this weekend! it's seated only which is a little disappointing as there are a few toe-tappers in their repertoire that would be nice to dance to, but hey, who cares. it'll be great.

www.thebegoodtanyas.com

the very passionate kathy sierra wrote recently about user enchantment.

huh?

we (i mean, anyone reading this is by definition a bit geeky at least) have all come across the concept of the user experience, and how getting it right brings in the bucks. see google for a great example of this. albeit a new science, user experience is establishing firm roots grounded in fact, not just marketing buzzwords. combine usability, information achitecture, accessibility and this je ne sais quoi which is the final element and you get - tada!!! - the user experience.

kathy sierra's article pins down some of the je ne sais quoi and makes it tangible. for each of us there is a reason why we use the same sites over and over, or why we try some new software and stick with it - or not. it's about the whole experience from start to finish. it's about making it easy to find the information you want with a decent site search engine. it's about transparent e-commerce procedures and faith in security when offering up your visa card, it's about an attractive design, well thought out and engaging content, it's about cross-browser performance and de-bugged, non-glitchiness. it's about all that and more. a huge part of this, for me, is standards-based design and implementation. getting it right and making it work for everyone.

what are the biggest turn-offs?

you would not believe that today, in 2006, people still use unreadable fonts in visually unappealing colours. there are hundreds of commercial or supposedly professional websites out there that still look like a personal geocities site circa 1998. flashy icons and blinking text. every type of formatting you can imagine and guaranteed 100% free from any worthwhile functionality!

i use a newsreader for most of my daily net reads, so i don't visit the site itself on a daily basis, just occasionally when i want, perhaps, to see the related images. so, when i go to the site itself i'm often offended by the swarm of adverts, many of them using bad markup or not cross-browser compatible, causing them to float over the content, with no way of "turning them off". why??? i know bloggers are trying to earn money from their writings. that's cool. pepper your pages with adwords and related links. fine. but i'm talking about serious, established companies here. come on. give me a break with these adverts that stop me wanting to visit your site. not cos they are ads as such, but because they are poorly implemented and mean that i can not successfully use your site.

then you have the sites where the poor search facility and bad navigation make it a nightmare to find what you need. by bad navigation i mean that it's either inconsistent or it doesn't break down in to intuitive categories. don't you hate when you are seardhing for something and none of the options available seem to be the right one for you? or you type soemthing into the search box and nothing relevant comes back. gah! same with those infernal automated call queue systems. none of the options are the right one but if you don't choose a number they cut you off. if you choose the wrong number you are stuck in the wrong place so you have to hang up and start all over again. *sigh*

so there you have a few poor user experience situations. let me know those places, few and far between, which give you good vibes and open the door to the golden glow of user enchantment

i have to say i was sceptical at best when i heard about this. i thought perhaps al gore was in need of some cred/publicity/bucks. and that may still be true. doesn't matter, though, cos this is a fantastic thing to happen. the world needs reminding, nudging into action, and he's a big beefy name with the power to persuade people to watch, listen and hopefully act.

watch the trailer on YouTube. then do something to help. whatever it is, however small, make a change.

got some time to kill? go here and get your google-fu ready. don't do this if you need to do something or be somewhere in the next half hour, cos you'll be late.

:::spoiler alert:::

there are message boards that can help you but they do, at times, give the game away. along with that i will give you a helping hand. sometimes it isn't what you think and sometimes its spelt differently in different resources. there. that's it. have fun, y'all!

god bless america. for her people finally woke up to reality. i am so very happy that the republicans and mr george bush jr are out on their collective ear and the democrats finally get chance to try to fix everything those eejits have been up to over the last few years. thank you, america, for i didn't choose george bush to be leader of the world i live in.

the grauniad agree

blimey, so much to tell and it's only 11.45!

long gone, the days when we didn't get out of bed (other than to make tea and turn the radio on) until well past midday.

and here endeth the fast lesson
so i've decided to break my fast today. i'd said two weeks or maybe three but i'm bored and fed up of juices now. i have very few detox syptoms now so i think i must have got rid of most of it or it's just not the right time to be doing it. i do have "detox tongue" but my fleeting headaches have mostly flit. i have to say i decided last night and i've now got a tiny headache and three spots so that's a sign i am still detoxing, but my mind is made up anyway.

in total i've lost 9 pounds (that's in two weeks) so i've done really well. and now i'm going to try to be very low fat raw for the next two weeks and then i'll be a bit more lax over the xmas period.

boo's first bushy park time trial
there's a bunch of nutters who voluntarily get up early on saturday morning, come rain or shine, and set out a 5km course through bushy park. they time everyone with some fancy gear and put the results on a website - and all for free!

then there's the nutters who do the running. through mud and fallen leaves, with deer wandering about the place. and boo decided it would be his first public race. there was a fabulous vibe and people were really friendly. complete strangers wishing him well on his first race and then asking how it went afterwards. will post his time later, once the results are published. in the meantime, this is the website to look at: Bushy Park Time Trial

the guys over at 90 percent of everything usually talk usability but here's a little outburst about evil mobile phone networks that entertained me highly.

let me tell you a story.

when i was young, about five years old, i think, but my sister and parents could be more precise, i had a very trendy bedroom. it was wallpapered in what was, according to my mum, very much the latest stuff. all i remember are bright pink and orange flowers in uber seventies style. i'm sure it would go for a fortune in these days of retro-chic. anyway. i also had some lovely red curtains which were particularly effective at blocking out light. it seems they blocked out too much light and i decided i needed a window to make the room less dark. so i very carefully cut out a square of the wallpaper, just by my bed, to reveal the pale lining paper. and i felt much better. my parents were not quite so happy about it. had this wonderful invention been around back then i'm sure it would have saved considerable heartache for all concerned.

funny to think that nowadays i need every single sliver of light blocked from the room before i can get to sleep.

while we're visiting the rather fabulous mr frank, check out this gorgeousness, which is very definitely on my wishlist, if there are any kind benefactors out there.

what a great idea. now of course i'm hoping to have an entirely architected house perched on a cliff some day. but in the meantime i'll settle for an urban green house with one of these, please.

another swiss miss find. a new take on the ubiquitous a to z.

typographic map of london

booyaa found this fabulous idea for making stairs work a bit harder. great place to keep your shoes.

thanks to swiss miss.

these guys got a shout out in wired magazine for best example of a google maps mashup. now i've not been impressed by google maps itself but i am starting to get quite excited about the mashup possibilities. i love the concept and wish the guys behind it lots of luck. i think it's a sensible, useful implementation. it's a shame it's necessary nowadays, but there ya go. we all know half the world has its head up its arse still and intolerance is here to stay for a while.

when boo and i finally get round to our stateside road trip i will use this site to find safe places to pee for us both, where we - neither of us - will get jumped by scary truckers in the gas station loos.

check it out: safe2pee.org

i joined our local freecycle groups a few months back. it's organised using yahoo groups and is a local 'swap shop' with an eco-friendly ethos.

the deal is, you post messages to the bulletin board of things you want to get rid of. so, for instance, we've got rid of the cardboard boxes we used for moving house. we shifted the plants we no longer had space for. we've got rid of pictures, ornaments, spice racks that we don't use/need/want any more. a few hours after you advertise your wares you find your inbox flooded with requests. you choose someone from the list and they come over and pick it up. end result: you have space, they have something they want and it doesn't go to landfill. can't get better than that.

we've also acquired an air filter and ioniser by the same method. i walked over to pick it up after work one day and we now have a free, working, air filter doobie to combat the pollen count from the squillion trees in this area. fab.

the list does get a bit busy at weekends so i generally get the digest email unless we are actively looking to shift stuff/acquire something. like right now we have some gear we want to get rid of. we're never going to use some of this stuff again, so someone might as well enjoy it. and i've requested an ice cream maker, after seeing tanya make almost raw ice cream (see: vegan ice cream at freshtopia dot net)

my favourite request has got to be for the loan of a goat for a week, to clear out an overgrown garden. fabulous.

and there was a rather lovely story about the guy who fixes up iPods, which is how i found out about it all in the first place. read a very kind man, at the londonist.

see, this is when i think "isn't it great to live in a big city. loads of exciting stuff going on. there's the anthony gormley statues and now this..."

"this" is the national gallery putting the permanent collection out onto the streets of the west end and offering guided tours of them. the tours are themed, so there's one, for instance, specifically designed to fit all the old masters into your lunch hour. bit of a stroll to stretch your legs and some culture, what more could you want? fresh air, i know, but that's not going to happen down trafalgar square, now is it?

shame i don't ever actually go into the city and get to enjoy all this stuff, what with living and working in the suburbs. ho hum.

get your culture fix

... or so say the folks over at the uber review.

jet packs are for sale, they tell us. the packs aren't actually on sale to the general public, but you can have a 'ride' if you've got a quarter of a million dollars to spend on a three minute thrill. but it's just the start. five years from now and we'll be jet-packing to work. in space suits. to protect us from the atmosphere that we've polluted so much as to make it impossible to sustain human life. but hey, we've got jetpacks, who cares? </irony>

read all about it at the uber review

nice, clean design to tidy up multiple plugs, but also turns off electronics set to stand-by, saving you a few bob and the planet at the same time. groovy.

see the pretty glow

thanks to booyaa for adding a functional sidebar with widgets. i've now got a blogroll of sorts and space to add notes or notices. and then there's the template. this is an off-the-peg movable type theme. it is customisable, so some colour will creep in eventually, just didn't have time for it this weekend.

it was all relatively painless to set up. i asked boo to do it, didn't fancy going through it myself but he said compared to wordpress updates it was a breeze. we do have issues with the blogroll though, as it doesn't come directly from my blog reader, it's static and handcrafted. so it won't update according to who recently posted, it will just sit there, and i think that's a great shame. it's really, as it is, just a link to a tiny percentage of the blogs i read on a daily basis. ho hum.

more changes to come in the next couple of weeks. we're sweeping away the cobwebs, getting a paint job and getting this thing all souped up and ready to get out on the open road again.

i don't know quite how this happened but there's been loads of stuff in the news and blogs today of interest. maybe i'm the only person on the planet who doesn't know that wednesdays are, like, *always* nerdy news days...

so , in partisan order...
the x-files are back! new movie almost definitely going to happen. read the article on reuters

some dudes at the radio times thought it would be a great idea to have a poll on the best sci-fi tv programmes ever. doctor who was not in the running, apparently, so guess what came first? red dwarf! i can't find the original poll results, so here's a second hand version from shiny shiny (popunder alert). and, as boo said, it's nice that craig charles is in the news for something other than his crack habit.

and then there's the shocking and yet utterly unsurprising news that despite the internet bringing information to the masses, the american public know less about the real world than they did a decade ago. read wired's article: Despite the Web, Americans Remain Woefully Ill-Informed

and last but not least, it appears that the owner of whole foods - who've just moved into the UK with a mammoth store in central london, amid much furore that they're purveyors of junk food for the thinking classes (it might be organic, but it's still got over-refined oils, sugars etc in it and flown halfway across the world, not good to the suppliers, i could go on...) - has been upping the company's financial reputation by posting anonymous messages on yahoo's financial message boards. basically, he's been promoting the company as one to watch as a non-interested party. and they're about to slam him for it. the reg has the down and dirty: Whole Foods CEO sorry for message board trolling

food diary

green juice - watercress, spinach, rocket, apples, carrots, mint, ginger
half a kilo of grapes, banana
mixed leaf salad with peppers, onion, tomatoes
green smoothie - banana, nectarine, mixed greens and pinch of chocolate (definitely some comfort eating here!)

i've had a few things on freecycle to try to, er, recycle and they just haven't moved, so what a relief that finally two large bags of stuff have now gone to somewhere they'll be used, instead of taking space up in alphonso the third (deceased). and it also means we have a little more room to manoeuvre while we get ourselves ready for mum and dad's visit.

the handyman came round today and ploughed through his long list of small jobs which will make things so much better. for instance, the runners and handles on the kitchen drawers now work - i'm sure you can imagine how evil it's been with drawers that slide off their runners all the time. he's replaced the bathroom door handle as the old one had stopped working and i was worried that one day i'd get stuck in the loo (to uproarious laughter from my family, as i managed to lock myself in the loo as a kid and they won't let me forget it.) and he's done a few other bits and pieces. progress. huzzah!

i don't use twitter and don't plan to get a twitter plug-in, but i do feel the need to twitter right now. so i'm doing it anyway.

munching the yummiest snacks in the whole world evah!

got my delivery of one lucky duck orange candy pecans (soooo sweet and crunchy!), spicy cashews (mmm, spicy, light curry flavour), buckwheat crispies, grawnola and cherry almond bars (had all of these before, so i know they're delish) and i'm very happy!

if you're in the UK you can get hold of these yumminesses via the fresh network.

no, nothing to do with my adorable nephew. charlie is a dog and his owners take photos of him in his daily life. it's a very cute site. not lolkatz cute. sweet, wholesome and genuine cute.

meet charlie!

another great find in the local health food store! situated near the checkout, along with the gillian mc keith hemp seed bars and the ubiquitous flapjacks that are (i'm guessing) laden with sugar and fat, are these little balls of yumminess. they're big, dense balls of dates, various seeds, nuts, raw cacao and agave along with spices or herbs or goji berries, depending on the variety. very tasty and handy treats. it's so cool to still be able to succumb to the 'by the till' naughtiness.

find out more at pulsin.co.uk

there's some great stuff out there on the ether for faw foodies, and as raw food creeps mainstreamward, you see a fair bit on the ubiquitous YouTube. I'm not a fan of the site and don't spend any time there other than when a blog i trust points me in that direction. so, dutifully, i followed a link which has been causing some controversy...

duriasm: shazzie gets steamy

be warned part one: this has an over-18 label, which means that you have to log in and prove your age. god's sake.

and be warned part two: when it says you can log in with your gmail account you think it's nice and easy so you'll do it, but once you've done that, and they've got your email address, they then insist you create a YouTube login anyway, drives me mad that sort of stuff. blatant lies. hate hate hate it. oh dear. i should have some chocolate, see if i can replace those feelings with loved up bliss instead.

so now i have a friggin youtube account. sorry. i was supposed to be letting that go...

while i was there i found myself watching this, which freaked me out. totally. i don't care if that makes me closed-minded and conventional.

urine for a treat: people drinking pee, but not for sexual gratification, no. for health. now i'm all for peeing on nettle stings when you're out walking but, warm pee for breakfast? no thanks. i'll have to go and watch the shazzie video again to take my mind off it.

since we moved we've found an alarm clock is not as necessary as it used to be. for two reasons. one is that the shorter commute time means we have more free time, get to bed earlier and so wake more naturally in the mornings. next reason is a combination of noisy upstairs neighbours, light coming in despite the blackout blind and birds tweeting. but i wouldn't want to give up on having an alarm clock for just in case. and in winter we'll need one, i'm guessing.

now, my current alarm clock does a very good job. it has a big display with an instant backlight so even ms myopia here can see the time in the middle of the night. it has a snooze, the beep is pretty awful but i've heard worse. however, it's on its way out and i just know one day it is just not going to work. and then i'll be mad. and late. so i've been looking for a replacement for the past many months, ready for a phasing out of the old and phasing in of the new. i even bought one but ended up taking it back cos the buzzer was so truly horrendously loud that i just couldn't stand it.

enter the tibetan bell alarm clock.

anyone building or maintaining websites should read this and refer to it at regular intervals. really good stuff.

taken from the personal blog of a BBC employee, i present the BBC's 15 web principles:

1. Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards. (nicked from Google)

2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly. (again, nicked from Google, with a tip of the hat to Jason Fried)

3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people’s content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.

4. Fall forward, fast: make many small bets, iterate wildly, back successes, kill failures, fast.

5. Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don’t restrict your creativity to your own site.

6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.

7. Any website is only as good as its worst page: Ensure best practice editorial processes are adopted and adhered to.

8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.

9. Remember your granny won’t ever use “Second Life”: She may come online soon, with very different needs from early-adopters.

10. Maximise routes to content: Develop as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks & time as possible. Optimise your site to rank high in Google.

11. Consistent design and navigation needn’t mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they’re on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won’t ever get lost.

12. Accessibility is not an optional extra: Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users

13. Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site

14. Link to discussions on the web, don’t host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale

15. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent: After all, it’s your users’ data. Best respect it.

you can find the original article here: http://www.tomski.com/archive/new_archive/000063.html

this made me laugh. who'd've thought that an aubergine and a dozen marrows could be so scary?

image after the jump

the weather in the uk has been truly abysmal for the past 6 weeks. it's rained nearly every day and been cold. not just a bit of a cool breeze but proper jumper weather. so our poor tomatoes have been getting nice and fat with all the rain, but green as green can be, due to the dearth of sunshine.

we've just hit a turnaround in the weather and we're on our second day of warm, warm, gorgeous sunshine. yesterday we spent the day in a friend's garden and it was scorching. i got enough sun for my freckles to come out. and the tomatoes are loving it! we're due more of the same, a bit cooler, but mostly sunny, for the next week, so we should have an abundance of juicy, ruby red tomatoes by this time next week. huzzah!

pretty pic of red tomatoes after the jump

via we like it raw, i read a full frontal attack on the health care strategies of the us presidential campaigns. here's a snippet:

We won't stop being sick until we stop making ourselves sick. Because - because there is a point where even the most universal government health program can't help you. They can't outlaw unhealthy food or alcohol or cigarettes. Just pot, sadly.

and this is coming from a 'regular guy' not one of my usual raw food bloggers. having recently read both fast food nation and diet for a new america (next on the list? the china study) this stuff is just par for the course for me these days. but it is fantastic to hear this in the mainstream media today. it's not some 'health freak' or vegetarian evangelist, or someone with a nutritional axe to grind. it was bill maher, who is an american political comedian-commentator. he gets round to having a go at everyone and everything, since it's his job to do so, but it's fabulous that he's attacking the root cause of burgeoning epidemics and not just blaming big pharma for everything. yes, they've got a lot to answer for, but every person in the states - and here in the uk, as we're also following in the footsteps of our trend-setting american cousins - can take their health into their own hands and get out of the 'feel unwell - take meds - feel unwell' cycle.

it's really not that hard. do some exercise. eat fresh fruit and veg. cut down on meat, alcohol, caffeine, sugar and dairy. feel better.

perhaps more appropriately a belle and a beau...

the day dawned early for me, as i woke up at 5.30am. i snuggled up to a fast-asleep booyaa for a while then got up and played with tinker, who'd just come in with mum from an early walk. she's a crazy dog but playing and being silly with her is very calming. distracting, i suppose.

i had a shower, made tea and woke mark up. dad stirred soon and the full complement was now busy getting ready for the first job of the day. i went to the hairdresser with mum. dad and mark went to collect the flowers. i was cooed over and congratulated before i left, with a head full of golden curls and a trio of crimson ranunculus in my hair. mum seemed pleased with her blowdry, too.

next, breakfast en famille. though i wasn't hungry it was reassuring and grounding to warm croissants and make toast for the others.

the we like it raw squad have opened up their community networking site, called Give it to me Raw. it's a facebook-myspace type place, but for raw foodies. and it's now been rechristened, thanks to YummyHubby (tm). welcome to RAWFACE!

he's really happy i've got a place to share and make friends and i think is feeling quietly vindicated now, since i've never shown any interest in facebook other than to tease him for being on there!

so, what's it like?

well, not being a social network type means i don't yet know how 'good' it is in terms of a social network. i have no way of comparing it to facebook or myspace. but for raw foodies so far it's looking promising. almost one hundred people have joined since i did, about 36 hours ago. there are groups being created - mostly regional so far - and forum threads are on the go.

the raw royalty are turning up, slowly but surely, and i'm sure it'll be a great opportunity for them to network and promote their products, but it's also cool that they're all so 'normal' and just join in with everyone.

what do i hope to get out of it? well, i think for the time being, mostly inspiration. at times like these, where my halo has slipped, it reminds me, in the most powerful way, why i love raw food. all these people are so amazingly vibrant, full of life, energy, enthusiasm... it's not a myth. it's absolutely the only way you can be when you follow a raw food diet, and each time i look at a profile or read a message all that positive energy comes through and pushes me back in the right direction. and, as i get back on track - we have big plans for our health and fitness regime in 2008 - there'll be ongoing support, recipe swapping, potlucks. who knows. the possibilities are endless!

the good...

the UK could get all electricity from wind turbines by 2020. hurray! hurray! hurray!

yes, my cynical side is thinking "i'll believe it when i see it" as, to be honest, all they (where "they" = the government, of course) have landed the entire responsibility for this radical and exceedingly positive move squarely in the laps of the energy producers. yes, those self-same energy producers who claim they can't make enough money off windpower to make it viable. ho hum.

whatever, it's a start.

read the article in the grauniad

the bad...

shocking. over 30 tonnes of unwanted free newspapers are collected by tube rubbish crews every day. the official number is 9.5 tonnes on 3 of the underground's 12 lines, so i'm estimating. but even if it were just on those 3 lines they have solid fact for. 9.5 tonnes! the grauniad, in their infinite wisdom, decided to spin the story with a commuter guilt trip, running the headline "Tube passengers discard 9.5 tonnes of free papers a day" but what about the makers and distributors of the free papers? shouldn't they be cutting down somewhat on the amount they produce? huh? especially London Lite which isn't fit to even put fish and chips in.

get the whole story

the ugly

coca-cola have brought out two new varieties of diet coke and they're pimping them as healthy!

i've seen the adverts online and there's an article, again in the guardian, about them today. one variety had antioxidants courtesy of a "hint of real green tea" and the other has added vitamin c and two b vitamins. so what intrigues me in all this is whether people who don't ordinarily drink diet coke because it's so horrendously bad for you will suddenly think 'ooh, it's healthy, i can drink it now' - though i have more faith in humankind than that. or, will it work that regular coke/diet coke drinkers will swap to the new varieties because they think they're doing themselves a favour?

whatever happens, my advice is to never, ever drink it. despite coke's official claim of helping people "keep up with today's hectic lifestyle", the stuff contains carcinogenic additives which are likely to shorten your life. and if you want antioxidants and vitamins then have a cup of green tea and some fresh fruit instead.

clickie for the grauniad's take on the whole thing

found this via lifehacker. it's a really nice wake up call when you need motivation to get something done or deal with a personality flaw. quite inspiring and just the right tone to work for me. go read it: hackyourself.org

serendipity is one of my favourite words. apparently i'm not alone, as it scored in the top ten of various versions of 'Britain's favourite words' type lists, so prevalent at the end of the year. but anyway. serendipity in my life comes along most often thanks to the wonders of the world wide web. not least because that's how i met YummyHubby (tm), which has got to be the best thing to ever happen to me...

sorry about that, got distracted.

so, from hack yourself i jumped onto one of the social bookmarking links in the sidebar and ended up at a wordnerd's ideal shoot em up :) you have to type the word you see in order to destroy the oncoming tanks and save your skin. good typing and spelling are essential. i thought it was fun for a few minutes then i looked at the high scores list and was utterly shocked that people must have been bashing their keyboards for hours on end to get those kind of points... scary.

go have some fun, wordnerd style: cognitivelabs.com/word_shoot.htm

and more fun for wordnerds to be found thanks to this rather cool interpretation of a thesaurus: www.visualthesaurus.com. cool as a concept from a linguistics-semantics standpoint, how the brain works, serendipitous word-surfing and so on, but also the technology involved in presenting words in this way.

i've already twittered about these guys today but i need to spread the word.

i heard 'death to los campesinos!' on 6 music yesterday (alan carr standing in for stephen merchant. have to say alan carr is one of the most annoying people on the planet but whoever created his playlist did a damn good job) and fell in love. so today i visited their website and listened/watched everything they offer. they are such good fun, quirky, bonkers lyrics, interesting cartoon videos. they are that oft-searched thing; a breath of fresh air. remind me a bit of belle and sebastian, which can be no bad thing.

neither did it escape my attention the little homage to the pixies there. more points.

and the best bit? they're playing up the road, in a uni dive, in february, so will try to get tickets and persuade YummyHubby(tm) to come and bop along with me.

go have a feast for your ears: loscampesinos.com

if you're really brave, join me after the jump for some ranting about the clueless grauniad music journo who reviewed them...

i love the cute, bizarre, frequently over the top of my head cartoons over at xkcd.com. i often have them as my wallpaper at work and they cheer me up, or make me snigger, or make me go 'awww' as my pc boots up... and this friday's cartoon was another of those worthy of living on my desktop for a couple of weeks. and cos i'm nice, i'm sharing it with you.

show mr munroe some love and visit the original: http://xkcd.com/387/