more animals
I've been having a sluggish week. Work's been busy but my mind is chugging along rather lethargically. So I thought how about an upper-lifter link? Or two?
Here are a few interesting reads that brightened up my day:
Gardening Tips that Can Grow Your Freelancing Business: Such a great comparison. And so true about fussy clients.
10 Steps to the Perfect Portfolio Site: Since I am still working on my portfolio site (one day it will be done, yes it will) I thought this might be worth checking out. Great article!
Prewriting (The Owl at Purdue): This was fun to read. And provided a much need prod. I must try this and see what works. *whips out pencil and draws a diagram*
I found this wonderful site about the English language Guide to Grammar and Writing.
The page I am focusing on is the Notorious Confusables.
Excerpt:
Every breath counts, so breathe deeply now.
I really really must finish my website. And somehow developing website = more browsing for inspiration.
Well, after my idea of a menu failed horribly, I decided to browse around for ideas ... again!
Here are few sites I noted down ... all of them gave me some excellent ideas for designing the nab menu. Now if only I would stop surfing the net.
* From Css Zen Garden - Lonely Flower
I love the idea of striking out text as a visited link. Nice!
* From Veerle's blog: Css Breadcrumbs
I am always tempted to include a "You are here" option. But should I do the breadcrumbs or a rollover effect?
Excellent tut by the way.
* From Listamatic: different types of nav menus
This site is the best place to check out the basics of setting up a horizontal or vertical menu system. So if you are starting out, would be a good reference site.
* From Webdesigner Wall
It has a fabulous tut about making a restaurant menu list. While that in itself is fascinating, what caught my eye was the rollover effect on the main site's menu. Now that's what I am talking about.
Hmm, still looking. Any particular favorites you'd like to mention?
This was such an interesting article. I found it via Get rich slowly.
The article is feature piece from Newsweek. The gist of it? That you make your own luck.
It's a tad long but worth the read. It's true, you do make it happen on your own. Just have to kick yourself outta bed sometimes.
I know I am one of the wallowers at the worse of times.
There's gonna be a new Tolkien book out soonish.
Don't worry, it's not the result of a Rankin style experiment. Seems like it is an unpublished book/novel of sorts by the creator of Gimli, Gandalf and all that jazz.
Apparently he was working on this way, way before he came up with the concept of a cute, hungry halfling.
By the bye, isn't that picture of him (on Yahoo) rather cute? Like a happy looking author; how many modern authors pose with such unabashed enthusiasm? Why, you'd have Rowling showing her best profile shot, which is right next to that castle methinks.
Ah, nee!
This article did make me laugh. I agree with a lot of the writer's points. I must admit, some client types mentioned are unfamiliar to me ... well, as yet. I am sure I will come across them soon. It's always good to know the traits, isn't it?
Article: 12 Breeds of Clients and how to work with them
By the bye, I also wanted to link to this article. I've recently been reconsidering a few assignments and clients; my main concern is the rate per freelancer and ghostwriting as a whole. This was another article that highlighted my own concerns about pricing.
Hurrah for support groups.
What's been going on, noteworthy stuff etc. etc.?
Happy Belated Darwin Day
Well, it was Darwin Day yesterday and people world over were celebrating in their own day. Phrayngula's blog mentioned that the Google logo paid tribute to Darwin but I missed it. Well, I hope others got to see it.
By the way, check out the events log on this site. See if there is anything planned near you. Or will it all be covert?
Entaro Adun ...
While on the topic biological beings and celebrations, SC site has purdy wallpapers dedicated to valentine's day. The Zerg ones looked like of creepy, in a I-have-bacteria sort of way.
Thanks to QTN for the link. :)
Youtube Download
Hmm, Youtube is testing a download option for their videos. Interesting. I think whether it is free or for a certain amount depends on the partners. From what I have read, this is done via Google Checkout. Isn't that kinda like Paypal where some countries cannot open an account with them?
Try out this Stanford video. They are one of the few testing out this new venture and thus, you will find the download option along with their video (bottom left of vid).
Well, check it out for yourself.
What were they thinking? The News Quiz is going to have a field day with this one.
Story goes that someone from the British Conservative Party changed a date in Wikipedia. Why? So that is backs party leader David Cameron's statement!
Excerpt from News24:
"You told us the other day you were like Titian aged 90. The fact is Titian died at 86," the leader of the Conservative Party told the Labour prime minister.
Within minutes, a Wikipedia user registered at Conservative party headquarters logged on and changed Titian's date of death from 1576 to 1572 to conform with Cameron's statement.
Can't ... stop ... laughing ...
I found this article about Blizzard getting miffed and moody with Glider creator.
Read all about at NYT - the battle, the anger and the way this Glider program plays WoW for you. Kind of defeats the purpose of the game, if you ask me.
However, what grabbed my attention was the corrections and updates written after the article.
Well, at least they admit their mistakes.
A reminder. The second part to Living with Alzheimer's (with Sir Terry Pratchett) is on tonight on BBC 2. Time: 10 pm.
Arrgh! It's annoying that iPlayer won't let you view past episodes outside of UK.
I see what they mean. An app that links to all the medevial manuscripts online.
That's what the article in Science Daily is all about.
I think the argument, in their case, was this - that it was time consuming and required a bit of work to find these scanned manuscripts online.
You gotta scuffle through all the blogs and other data out there before you hit jackpot.
Reason I paraphrased the argument of the article is because, as a general rule, I would be quite particular about what keywords I used to google something. So that I increased my chances of finding the relevant data in a short period of time.
To that effect, I wondered what they meant about Google not bringing up the cambridge manuscript. I mean, yea, Googling "Edward the Confesssor" results in epic failure but that's not what I would have used anyway.
Try "Cambridge manuscript edward" for luck.
Well, the important point is, this search engine annoyance resulted in a brilliant site that catalogues medevial docs. Hurrah! I am happy about that.
Here is the link to Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts
I found this funny spoof; it seems to be a reaction to Rowling being a favored author in libraries ... or something to that effect.
I particularly love this bit:
The only books tea-leafed more than Pratchett's are The London A-Z, and Ordnance Survey Maps, (which were probably teefed by people with little or no sense of direction) leaving Mister Pratchett as the most 'thieved' author of all time in the UK.
Excerpt taken from The Spoof ...
Update: Wait, so there was a grain of truth to that?! In fact, it seems to be all there as opposed to all out there .... you know what I mean.
Read this article by Times Online.
Got this in my email.
Richard Dawkins has got his own Youtube channel. So those of you who are interested, be sure to check it out.
Must make time to watch all the videos.
Oh my word. This was so funny! Both the writer's description and the news article itself.
Someone robbed not one but two stores using a, wait for it, wait for it, batleth!
As the writer points out, even I am impressed that the clerk recognised it as a Trekkie weapon.
That is hilarious!
By the way, quick reminder. Tonight (4th Feb) BBC2 will air the first part of Living with Alzheimer's, a documentary that follows "Terry's progress through his first year with Alzheimer's".
That was a quote from BBC2, in case anyone was wondering about the sudden jump to a first name basis.
Note: I scheduled this as a post for Wednesday, somehow it wants to be published today. Alrighty then. Just keep in mind the doccie airs on Wed.
Whilst working on something today, I came across this wondering expose of sorts by Derren Brown. I was introduced to Brown's work by my husband who holds the fellow in high regard. And I can see why.
Well, I can't mention the pseudo-sciencey stuff I was having to look up today and I can't very well criticize it in other parts of my writing. Garrr! So here's answer to the annoyance I felt at reading the pseudoscience nonsense earlier today.
Cold Reading By Derren Brown
Photo Source: MTV via Battlenet Forum
The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.
Quite a creative little venture. Well done.
This little video is credited to percula.
Curious little discovery. The phrase "just deserts" popped up in my head, as stuff tends to happen when the clock is ticking ever closer to 5pm and you still have tons of work to do.
So I figured now was a good time as any to look up the word. Incidentally, I was planning to use that word so it was work related. Somehow.
Well, it was an interesting little bit of research.
For one thing, contrary to popular belief (and my initial misguided spelling attempt), the phrase is "just deserts". One S and not two.
And the origin?
According to Ask Oxford,
• plural noun (usu. in phrase get or receive one’s just deserts) what a person deserves with regard to reward or punishment.
— ORIGIN Old French desert, from deservir ‘serve well, deserve’.
Back to work then.Someone bludgeoned that poor fellow and dragged him into a dark alley. Will we ever see him on the streets of Birmingham again?
I am referring to that dastardly decision (you Philistine, you!) to take down apostrophes from the road signs in Birmingham.
Yea, that is the way forward. *sarcasm*
I love this justification by local councilor:
"Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed," he said. "More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don't want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it."
Er, I believe I learnt such basics of grammar way before I did my O'Levels. Is this the state of modern school systems?
On an ending note, I am quite curious about this change. Would it serve them right if these folk, who might be tetchy about the controversial ads on buses, find themselves removing the apostrophe from signs like ... oh I don't know, God's Way? God's light? God's Mercy?
Okay, so now there will be ads saying "There IS a God"?
This is in response to the recent campaign claiming there just might not be a big deity in the sky, stop worrying about it.
Honestly, I wonder how ads will convince someone who is firm in their beliefs, whatever they may be. If you use logic and reasoning and are comfortable with your faith (be it God, Unicorns, Teapots or just a blank nothingness), how can a silly ad convince you otherwise?
I suppose it troubles some folk out there; some fence-sitters are quite impressionable?
What we might end up seeing is a third ad campaign by these agitated undecideds and their slogan will be "There IS a God?"
I am sure everyone is talking about Ma.gnolia and the data storage fiasco. The fact that Twitter is unaccessible kind of proves that ... I think.
This story about Ma.gnolia losing data and in the end, taking days to recover is a frightening story. Like (hopefully) other net-using folk, I tend to store pictures and important work related documents on online sites.
This sort of story makes you really scared. What if my data is lost forever?
I am sure Richard Stallman is shaking his head and saying "I told you so".
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