Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I'd like to celebrate it as a day of love for everyone; not just romantic love but love for family and friends.

I've made some very dear friends online and I want to let you know how much I value you. Thank you for being there for me when I've needed you.

And if you're a new friend, then welcome! New friends are just old friends waiting to happen.

Rufus and the snow

Where is Rufus?

Here he is!

Can you blame him?

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then?
Poor thing.

He'll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing.

At least the humans made it as far as the pub!

How much is yours worth?

They aren't for sale. Rufus is needed to keep the local rodent population down; he was found eating a mouse on the doorstep the other day. Bonnie is needed for her decorative function and as a doorstop.

How much is your cat worth? Go to WeBuyAnyCat.com and see! (Their terms and conditions are hilarious!)

What shall I call it?

Not for sale!

I want to change my Etsy shop name because I hate it that it's currently called fairyhedge; I couldn't even get my full pseudonym accepted!

You only get one chance to rename it, ever, so I really need to get it right. I rather like the idea of My Crochet Shop but what if I start selling other things in it? Would that matter?

Any thoughts, anyone?

The Stop Online Piracy Act Protest

Tomorrow this blog will go dark to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, generally known by its initials as SOPA. In case you haven't heard, this is a nasty piece of legislation that the United States are planning to pass to make it easy for anyone to take down someone else's website if they claim copyright violation.

It doesn't have to be the person who's complaining that their copyright has been violated, and there is no need for a trial: the website will be taken down before any case is heard. You will be held to be guilty until proved innocent - which is going to be bloody hard in the case of copyright law.

It's very easy to inadvertently violate copyright. Indeed, some of the people behind the new law have been found doing just that. We're all at risk of being taken down and so are all of our favourite websites.

If you want to protest, you can find the code to make your blog go dark here: http://sopablackout.org/
You can find out more about SOPA on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Take_action


Edited to Add: to black out your website, open the template for your blog. In Blogger, you go to Design, Edit HTML. I recommend clicking on Download Full Template first: this will allow you to save a version of your blog on your computer.

Then find < head>, and after that insert this code: <script type="text/javascript" src="//js.sopablackout.org/sopablackout.js"></script>

It helps to leave a space before and after the code, so you can find it easily when you want to delete it. Save the template and check your blog. It should now have gone dark!

Shameless Plug

I made some phone cosies over the weekend and as I can only use one at a time, I've put two of them up for sale on Etsy. Please feel free to pop over there and favourite my shop!

All the cosies in the picture above are the same size, but one has a phone in it!

Arty Farty

My Beloved and I visited Tate Britain today. Paintings look so different in reality. The John Singer Sargent painting that heads this post was lovely: the light on the face of the girl on the left was wonderful.

To my surprise, I find I love looking at portraits so I'm hoping we can visit the National Portrait Gallery next.

We're so lucky to be only a train journey away from all the London galleries. Do you have any galleries near you? Do you even like visiting art galleries?

Alice in Wonderland rules, OK?

Following my recent competition to find a name for my new sock monkey, I am pleased to announce that his new name is:

The Professor

Runners up in no particular order were: Jazz, Sockit, Seamus O'Reilly, and Mundungus.

It was a close-run competition, so "everybody has won, and all must have prizes". If Old Kitty, jjdebenedictis, Debbie, Simon Kewin, and Kate will email me your postal addresses I will send you a tiny token of my esteem.

You can email me at the address in the right sidebar, or at theprofessormonkeycompetition.fairyhedgehog@recursor.net

Thank you, all of you!

Video Games Are Good For You

When you react to reality as if it was a computer game it can save your life, according to New Scientist.

I've often thought that the old point-and-click adventure games taught me to be methodical; not to give up; and to believe that problems are solvable (if not always by me). But the single most important thing I've taken away from computer games is to respond to setbacks with "that's interesting". When something doesn't go as I expect, that's useful information. I think that's probably how scientists are supposed to react, too!

What's the most important lesson that computer games have taught you?

Manic Monkey?

Mac (left) and his new friend (right)

Last Christmas, my sister gave me Mac the Monkey. This Christmas she gave me the makings of a sock monkey and I made a friend for Mac. He doesn't have a name yet, so any suggestions are welcome. There may even be a prize for the best one!

You might like to caption the picture, too!

Edited to Add: picture of new monkey in his new jacket. I thought he looked a bit plain.

Final ETA:The competition is now closed. Results will be published shortly. Shortlyish anyway.