The Hive

See that fabulous new widget on the right? It links to The Hive, the new social media game for Like Bees to Honey by the lovely Caroline Smailes.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to be one of the testers of The Hive yesterday, and whilst I am far too much of a techno-numpty to explain how it works, all the details and The Hive itself, can be found here.

Go and have a play, ask a question and create a bee (mine is pink, by the way). And if you haven't read the book yet you really must, it is amazing.

Have fun and I hope to see you in my hive!

Merry Christmas

After five days recovering from an awful virus (yes, we all eventually got the sickness etc), I've got lots of catching up to do. So here are some things to keep you amused and wish you all a very happy Christmas!

Three Christmas things:

1. A Christmas quiz. It's harder than it looks!

2. Christmas lights:

(video removed due to virus)


3. Your Christmas card from me.

Enjoy.

Distraction

Thanks to Tia for finding this one. On top of everything else going on here, I've been trying to write an Open University assignment today and the cartoon says it all!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Three notable things:

1. Yesterday's football disaster.

2. Buying 16 videos for son 2 for £4 in a charity shop this morning. How long will it be before he has destroyed them all?

3. Finally registering for that next Open University course as the Tesco vouchers arrived. £320 off the course!

Incompetence

Well, it is very reassuring to learn that personal details of myself and my children and almost certainly also of my bank account have been 'lost' by the government....along with 25 million others.

I've only very recently started using internet banking, but at least having that facility will enable me to obsessively check my current account every day for unexplained withdrawals.

Ho hum.

Three notable things:

1. I saw the family counsellor for the last time today. She thinks we are doing a great job with son 1 and not overprotecting him, which would be a natural response but detrimental to his recovery.

2. I have finally decided to sign up for another Open University course to start in January and have sent off for my Tesco Clubcard deal vouchers today which will help considerably with the cost!

3. You have probably already heard about this elsewhere...I'm a bit slow here...anyway, the Freerice website is not only fun but by taking part you donate to charity. Go along and test your wordpower!

Music to match your mood

I like to listen to music while I am writing or studying. I always have done, ever since I was at school. Sometimes I make playlists from my music files, sometimes I listen to digital or online radio stations.

A while ago I followed a link from a blog and landed on the Musicovery website (sorry I can't remember for sure where I found the link, but I think it may have been Sarah Salway's blog?)

Anyway, I love this music site. You enter your mood on the track generator, tell it which genre(s) you want to listen to and sit back. The available tracks are very eclectic and I have found myself listening to all sorts of music with which I am unfamiliar. Great fun and free, unless you really want the superior sound quality version.

Three notable things:

1. Both boys have a virus.

2. I have been to Tesco. The fridge is full and we have enough food to keep two hungry teenage boys fed until, um, Monday?

3. It is too noisy and chaotic here at the moment to even consider writing. Roll on the end of half term. Only 10 days to go...

Literature map

How do you choose your next book to read? Do you rely on personal recommendation from friends? Or take notice of reviews on a book blog such as dovegreyreader, which is my personal favourite. Do you browse on Amazon, looking for authors you are familiar with? Do you read the recommendations and comments there?

Or do you go into a bookshop, where you are perhaps more likely to be swayed by a cover design, or the blurb on the back cover?

For me there are certain authors whose books I would always buy, simply because I like their style and themes. But how do you start to find others who match up to them?

That is perhaps where Literature Map could come in handy. Put in the name of a favourite author and it will suggest authors whom other readers have also liked. I'm not quite sure how it works, though I think it is linked to Amazon.com so presumably based on their sales and browsing data somehow.

For example, I have just entered Maggie O'Farrell. The database has thrown up, amongst others, Jon McGregor, Anita Shreve, Jane Austen, Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Anne Tyler and Kate Atkinson, all of whom I also enjoy. If you enter an American author, say Anne Tyler, you get even more positive results...Carol Shields, Jodi Picoult, Margaret Atwood, Sue Miller, Fay Weldon, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, all of whom also represent the sort of fiction I read. So perhaps I should also start to explore some of the other suggestions...

This is a wonderful displacement activity and unlike books in a similar vein, should remain contemporary.

Three notable things:

1. After Anne Enright, another literary controversy....

2. Author Emma Darwin's new blog seems interesting.

3. It is half term this week, but as usual son 2 has a different holiday. His half term will start on Thursday and he has all of next week off too, but there won't be any playschemes, as everyone else will have gone back to school. One of the annoying idiosyncrasies of his being in an independent special school...

Control freakery

When you live in the same house as someone who is on the autistic spectrum, you get used to living with a control freak. Everything has to be just so. Things must always be put away in the same place. Routines have to be followed for even the most basic tasks. Deviations can cause severe anxiety.

Son 2 is actually becoming more flexible as he gets older, but we are careful always to warn him in advance of changes. We have become so used to living in this way that it has become the norm.

So I was interested to do this little quiz...and relieved by the result! Why don't you have a go ?

You Are 24% Control Freak

You have achieved the perfect balance of control and letting go. You tend to roll with whatever life brings, but you never get complacent.

Are You A Control Freak?

Three notable things:

1. The bit about not getting complacent in life is so true. I've found in the past that if I do, everything rapidly goes pear-shaped!

2. It has not been raining quite so much today, but I'm not going to get complacent...

3. I've managed to get quite a lot of voluntary work done today, which is a weight off my mind.

A bit of fun

I've been far too serious on here recently. That's what happens when you don't get out enough...

So, for today, here is a little distraction. I expect you have all seen this little quiz elsewhere in the blogosphere, but I was very happy with my result, as I loved the Anne of Green Gables books. What do you think?

You're Anne of Green Gables!

by L.M. Montgomery

Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage
cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash,
honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt
your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with
kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters.
You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

If you haven't already done so, why not have a go?


Three notable things:

1. We don't have any savings in Northern Rock!

2. Son 2 has just broken the speakers on his computer. A shopping trip is needed tomorrow!

3. Work is going surprisingly well. How can that be?

Love it!

I was feeling rather serious this morning and had planned to write something completely different, but having had a friend around for a good gossip this afternoon, I thought I just had to show you this picture I took on my visit to Devon.

The name is so perfect for the sleepy retirement resort in which it is situated!

Three notable things:

1. Winning 115 kids videos and a tv/video combi for £20 on eBay, which Hubby collected yesterday. Son 2 is in his element...

2. Enjoying the company of a good friend and her daughter.

3. Graeme showing the OU A215 survivors yet another addictive computer game to act as a displacement activity when we should be writing...

Male or female?

Still on the gender theme, here is a bit of fun.

I discovered the Gender Genie web page recently ( sorry, I can't remember who led me to it...) and having bookmarked it, I decided to have a go today. It claims to be able to deduce whether a piece of prose was written by a male or female from the language used.

So I entered in one of my blog entries: male. Hmm.

A small ( admittedly smaller than the recommended 500 word) passage from my novel in progress: androgynous...equally male and female!

A whole 2000 word short story, written with the women's magazine market in mind: female. Phew!

Three notable things:

1. Son 2 was well enough to go to playscheme despite having vomited all over the sofa last night! I knew we bought leather furniture for a reason...

2. Arranging for a friend to visit tomorrow so we can catch up on the gossip.

3. A home delivery arriving promptly for once, rather than 10 minutes before the end of the delivery window.

Do you want to know a secret?

I've already written here about PostSecret, a blog I try to check every week. A community art project, consisting of weekly postings of postcards which anonymously disclose deep secrets, it is an amazing source of inspiration for writing. Especially if, like me, your writing tends to focus on gritty rather than light and fluffy subject matter.

This week I logged on, to find that the blog now has this YouTube video trailer:


A closer look at YouTube finds even more, presumably unofficial, videos based on former PostSecret blog entries. Enjoy.

(video removed)

Three notable things:

1. Son 1 has started to open up to professionals about the bullying that has ruined his life.

2. We have been looking online for gym equipment, as we hope to convert part of our garage into a home gym to help him get fit again.

3. Finding PostSecret based videos on YouTube. Now why didn't I think to look there before?

Silly season

It's school holidays again. I shall be largely confined to home for the next five weeks with just odd days off for good behaviour when son 2 is at playscheme.

This may be a Good Thing.

I may get lots written. On the other hand, the house will be noisy, very noisy, and the kids will demanding. So I may not.

So I started the holiday as I mean to go on, by wasting time creating a WeeMee which will become my new face on the web, as I hate having my photo taken. What do you think of it?

To make matters worse I have just opened an account on Facebook, which I fear could become another big distraction. Over the Christmas holidays I joined MySpace and have made lots of mainly writer friends there. Some of those are already on Facebook and I am sure that, with all the publicity it is currently getting, more and more people will be signing up. I used to think that these sites were just for kids but actually they are quite a good way to network, in a similar manner to the blogging world. So I can add social networking sites to various forums and blogs on which I seem to spend half my day. No wonder the housework doesn't seem to get done very often...

But...I need some more Facebook friends as Anne is feeling lonely. If any of you are on there, please come and say hello.

Three notable things:

1. Yet more book browsing and buying in town yesterday, followed by two free cups of Earl Grey tea in the Debenhams Goldcard lounge.

2. Son 2 bringing home an excellent end of term report. He is really making progress in most areas except reading and writing. So he doesn't take after his Mum then!

3. Son 2's video and dvd players both packing up at the start of the holiday. Hubby will have to go on a replacement mission to Currys tomorrow!

Artful illusion

It is still half term here. Can you tell?

Have wasted too much time on the internet but on Sarah Salway's always inspiring blog I found this gem. Sarah, in turn, had found it on the blog of the wonderful hagsharlotsheroines website, so apologies if you have already seen it.

(video link removed)

Clever, fascinating, beautiful and yet somehow a little unsettling too?

Holiday cheer

At the start of the two-week Easter break from school, I decided to do this little quiz to test my parenting skills ( for 'would you be' read 'are you'! ):

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need. You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law. While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top. You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!

Would You Be a Cool Parent?

Not sure if my sons would agree, but it makes me feel good!

Housekeeping

No, not spring cleaning. I don't do that (if I can help it!)

I've been rearranging my blog a little, trying to make it prettier. I've put the Jacquie Lawson monthly e-card at the top of the blog as it is such a nice graphic. If you haven't already discovered Jacquie Lawson cards do click on it and take a look. These e-cards are really fab and for a small annual membership you can send as many as you want. I love them.

Thanks to Joanna's blog, I have also discovered Zoomclouds. So I now have a Technorati-style cloud in my side bar which references what I have written recently rather than just my label headings. Some of the content is, um, interesting, but it's a fun addition to my labels listing which will serve as the main index using wide categories.

I've also listed a few more books on LibraryThing so hopefully there may be more variety in the pictures shown. I'm not sure how this random selecting of books works...some of the books I have listed never seem to show up and others seem to outstay their welcome. Never mind, it's only a bit of fun.

School holiday has started so, depending on how much time I have, I might even try to find some more fun things to put on here. Then again perhaps I would be better using that time for reading or writing, rather than procrastinating!

Writing prompts

I'm afraid I am a sucker for 'how to write' books and volumes offering prompts for writers. But the internet is also a great source of inspiration when you need something to trigger your creativity.

I've already written here about Oceangram. I revisited the site today for the first time in a while and the graphics have had a makeover, but it still offers the same idiosyncratic messages in bottles.

Another site which I have regularly visited is PostSecret, with its fascinating postcards sent in by the public, a combination of art and eavesdropping.

Then today, thanks to Sarah's blog, I have discovered yet another inspiring site called Found Magazine, picturing collected 'found' ephemera.

Just to top it all I also realised that both PostSecret and Found have published several books, available on Amazon...

Anyone else think I am an internet addict?

Personality disorders

Thank you so much to all of you who posted kind comments or emailed me yesterday.It is lovely to have so many fab friends in cyberspace!

Feeling a bit better today, so managed to not only do the big weekly shop at Tesco but also some studying. I have been granted a 7 day extension on my assignment so I can write it next week and the pressure is off a little. It is about personality disorders so I thought I would provide a topical quiz for you:

You May Be a Bit Borderline...

Your mood swings make a roller coaster look tame! When you're up, you're a little bit crazy... And when you're down, your whole world is crashing Scary thing is, these moods can change by the minute!

What Personality Disorder Are You?

Well that's what being hormonally challenged does to you!!

But please, if you do try the quiz, don't take it too seriously...

Distractions

This weekend's main distractions:

1. Watching The X Factor. At the moment I am backing Ben to win and I do like to see Simon Cowell sulking....

2. Sudoku. I've not got heavily into this before, but now someone has led me to this online site, so it will no doubt prove to be a wonderful displacement activity when I am supposed to be working.

3. Shopping. The fun kind, not Tesco. Including a stop for an Americano and a slice of lemon cheesecake....

A funny blog

Go and take a look at Non-Working Monkey.... it's very funny.

I haven't done any reading or writing today ( apart from a few emails) but I did have yet another visit to Tesco.The kids eat us out of house and home (something to do with teenage hormones I think) so I have to stock up on a Friday for the weekend. We have already run out of the mini choc bars left over from Halloween, when for once the only trick or treater who knocked was our tiny next door neighbour.Perhaps people are waking up to the fact that Halloween is little more than an excuse to rip off gullible parents.Those costumes and accessories don't come cheap!

Fun quiz

I'm feeling too tired to think of anything even remotely interesting today, so why not have a go at this quiz on 'What type of writer should you be?'. I came out as science fiction, which is very funny because I never ever read science fiction and wouldn't be the slightest bit interested in writing it....