Christmas is over and now all I have to do is write "Thank you" notes. Lots and lots of "Thank you" notes.
In this cold, dark time of year we get one last shot at celebrations, except that I'm going to be getting an early night instead. Staying up late drinking just isn't on my list of things to do.
My sons are going to be watching DVDs until late with friends so I hope whatever they watch first is something that I'm going to want to see before I sneak off to bed. My husband will be watching Top Gear or dogfights on tv given the chance and I shall definitely be giving those a miss.
I suppose the New Year gives us all the chance to start again if we feel we need to. If your year has been a bad one, I wish you better times in 2009 and if you've had a good year then I wish you more of the same.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas Cats
Rufus has been having fun. His help with the present wrapping was beyond belief. Then he decided to investigate all the presents under the tree so I've been wrapping and rewrapping his toys so that he's in a constant frenzy of ripped paper. As long as I spray everything with catnip, he's happy.
His Christmas dinner was gourmet cat food sprinkled with dried fish flakes and I think he rather overdid it, judging by his glassy-eyed appearance when he'd finished.
Bonnie has been behaving like a lady. The only one in this house, I have to say.
I think Rufus is asleep in that last photo. He has the disquieting habit of sleeping with his eyes open.
Hope you're all having a wonderful time too.
His Christmas dinner was gourmet cat food sprinkled with dried fish flakes and I think he rather overdid it, judging by his glassy-eyed appearance when he'd finished.
Bonnie has been behaving like a lady. The only one in this house, I have to say.
Rufus helping with the present wrapping
Bonnie taking her ease
Rufus after Christmas dinner
I think Rufus is asleep in that last photo. He has the disquieting habit of sleeping with his eyes open.
Hope you're all having a wonderful time too.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas!
Seasons Greetings!
Happy Holidays!
Wishing you all the very best this holiday season, however you celebrate it!
(I tried to get more exclamation marks in but I couldn't manage it.)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The result of the Dvorak experiment
It took me six months to get up to 45 wpm with Dvorak which was much slower than I expected.
The layout was better than QWERTY in some ways: the positioning of 't' and 'h' next to each other works well so I never once typed 'teh'. On the other hand, I missed being able to type 'were' and 'are' and 'here' so easily and I hated the strain of having 's' on my right little finger together with 'l' and the shift key for 'I'. Although Dvorak is meant to be better for RSI my finger got quite sore at times. Plus it's a nuisance faffing around changing the keyboard set-up for different users. So I decided that Dvorak is not right for me.
My QWERTY speed had dropped to 15 wpm but now, less than a fortnight later, I'm back up to 48 wpm.
I don't know if Dvorak is inherently hard to learn, or if I'm too wedded to QWERTY. Maybe it's because I get brain fog from my thyroid problem. I don't know.
I'm not sure if I regret the experiment or not. At least this way I won't wonder about it and now neither will you: I did the experiment so you don't need to. No need to thank me!
(For a completely different view of the attractions of Dvorak, see Holly Lisle.)
The layout was better than QWERTY in some ways: the positioning of 't' and 'h' next to each other works well so I never once typed 'teh'. On the other hand, I missed being able to type 'were' and 'are' and 'here' so easily and I hated the strain of having 's' on my right little finger together with 'l' and the shift key for 'I'. Although Dvorak is meant to be better for RSI my finger got quite sore at times. Plus it's a nuisance faffing around changing the keyboard set-up for different users. So I decided that Dvorak is not right for me.
My QWERTY speed had dropped to 15 wpm but now, less than a fortnight later, I'm back up to 48 wpm.
I don't know if Dvorak is inherently hard to learn, or if I'm too wedded to QWERTY. Maybe it's because I get brain fog from my thyroid problem. I don't know.
I'm not sure if I regret the experiment or not. At least this way I won't wonder about it and now neither will you: I did the experiment so you don't need to. No need to thank me!
(For a completely different view of the attractions of Dvorak, see Holly Lisle.)
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Bedtime Story
Sorry this is late. I've had technical problems like you wouldn't believe.
Last time I read I was told my voice was suitable for reading children's stories so I thought it might be fun to read something adult in my children's-story voice. Robin kindly supplied the material. She has links to all the other people who are reading this time and they are unmissable.
CONTENT ADVISORY
This is an adult story about two people making love, in other words a sex scene. I won't be offended if you choose not to listen to it.
I really enjoyed reading that and I felt like I was getting to know the main character. Thank you, Robin!
Last time I read I was told my voice was suitable for reading children's stories so I thought it might be fun to read something adult in my children's-story voice. Robin kindly supplied the material. She has links to all the other people who are reading this time and they are unmissable.
CONTENT ADVISORY
This is an adult story about two people making love, in other words a sex scene. I won't be offended if you choose not to listen to it.
I really enjoyed reading that and I felt like I was getting to know the main character. Thank you, Robin!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Can you write?
At age five (5) everybody thinks they can draw a cat. At age twenty-five (25) very few still believe.
From: The Great Sea (Look in the comments to find it.) The post is very encouraging for those of us who are not ready for publishing yet.
I think I'm in danger of losing sight of the reason I ever wrote anything in the first place - it was because I wanted to. I used to keep a journal, or "whinge-book" as it mostly was and I've written a couple of stories of which one was finished. I think that I'm putting pressure on myself from hanging around with people who are better writers than I am and there's no need for me to do that. There's room for all of us, whether hobbyists or professionals.
Oh, and I do want to do my reading today for Robin but I'm rather behind as I had to reinstall Windows. Well, when I say I had to, I mean my son did most of it but I keep finding programs that I need to reinstall.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
A meme by any other name...
I've been tagged with, sorry Sophie, I mean I've been awarded the honest scrap
I'm guessing that "I'm a 54 year old married woman with two grown-up sons" isn't interesting enough but by the time you reach the end of this post (a big assumption there) you may think that is comparatively exciting after all. Here goes.
1. When I was a little girl I was called "Lulu" and as I got older I outgrew that and came to regard it as a shameful secret. My sister calls me "Gee" and my Mum calls me "Ginny Liz" and I'm old enough now not to mind what I'm called.
2. I love science fiction. When I was a kid this too seemed shameful as science fiction wasn't quite respectable and it certainly wasn't written with girls in mind.
3. I used to have a crush on Patrick Stewart or rather on his Jean-Luc Picard persona.
4. I loved climbing trees and even when I was sixteen I could often be found up a tree.
5. I took up springboard diving when I was forty-two. I've always loved the water and when I used to go to the seaside with Nanna she was always scared I'd drown. She was afraid of the sea so she used to support the RNLI and now if I make a donation to them I think of her.
I was recently tagged with the "six random things" meme so my other five true things can be seen here.
I'm not tagging anyone else as I think you're probably all memed out but if you fancy doing this one then consider yourself tagged.
Monday, December 08, 2008
A "chest cold" never was so funny
You must visit Mom in Scrubs for a hysterical "what my kid said" story. The funny story is cleverly hidden at the bottom of the post under the heading "And a Plato funny:"
