Scottish lass seeks…

I had a couple of teeth pulled yesterday including a wisdom tooth. I’ve spent today working on my Marlon Brando impersonations now that my jaw is puffed out to where my cheekbone is, which would be fine if I had a square face but as it’s me it’s the Don Corleone look instead. Next week root treatments. Fun, fun, fun. You can just about see the gleam of pound signs in my dentist’s eyes. Amidst the pain I have to acknowledge that my abuse of the hard stuff, i.e. Irn Bru and Pepsi is partly responsible for my current malaise with my own negligence. I do the worst possible thing with sugary chemical drinks and that’s the girly thing of sipping, take a sip, put the bottle down, half an hour later another sip and repeat. I don’t like hot drinks while I’m working because the gap between sips means drinks go cold. Guys just glug down fizzy drinks whereas I bathe my mouth in acid all day, nae wunner the teeth are crumbling, the Acropolis is probably in a better state than my teeth right now. Inspite of it all I wouldn’t have changed my behaviour, I wouldn’t have swapped the sheer pleasure gained from consuming ‘ginger’ which refreshes me like no other concoction and I speak as a tee-totaller. Fair trade?

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OK, so who pulled the plug on David Starkey? There’s me, 9pm Channel 4, should have been his “Monarchy” series and Charles II…instead nothing, no really, nothing. Black screen, nada, nuthin. All the other channels are OK just not channel 4. And the irony is that the next programme in the 4 schedule is called “Without a Trace”. Quite.

See what happens when you try to go highbrow on the telly? There’s no monarchy? Maybe the anarchists have taken over. Quick send for Helen Mirren we need another queen to tide us over during the blackout. Ach well, just have to flick the lowbrow switch and watch “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” then and the scary creature in the jungle but enough of David Gest.

Technorati Tags: Monarchy, Channel 4, David Starkey

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Interesting article The Sound Of Your Blogging Voice. Trying to decide tone for this is easy - just any old guff in ma heid and “Scottish Lass” does the translation. Disclaimer: other alter egos are available. Tony Bennett said something great in his advice to aspiring contestants in last week’s X Factor,

“Just be yourself…and you’ll be unique”

Technorati Tags: blogging, Tony Bennett

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Well it feels like Christmas, gizmos are like buses, nothing for ages then two come along at once. I’d put in an order with Apple weeks ago but delivery was delayed to today. Shh don’t tell anyone Christmas pressies for folks o mine but I’ve baggsied a shuffle for myself. I know people keep saying it but it’s so small! I’m female with small hands and even I was having difficulty picking it up. It’s teeny weenie. I originally wanted a shuffle for an older woman who likes listening to things while she’s out in the garden. Shuffle seems perfect, less chance of being damaged in the muck outdoors, lightweight, she doesn’t have great eyesight so a display on a device would be of limited use plus there’s few controls less chance to get confused. Mine will get used for the walk to work. I don’t now feel the need to lug my entire music library around with me on the iPod when it’s usually only a handful of tech podcasts I manage to listen to during the day - “Buzz Out Loud” is my favourite just now for tech news in the morning, light-hearted, entertaining technology talk, two women one man, refreshing change - stuff equality When the shuffle first came out I laughed at it, who on earth would want a thing like that with so little capacity and no screen, bah. Well for me it’s now the right gadget for the right time. I still need to get used to the clip though, out of about five times four of them I’ve pressed the wrong end of the clip to get it to open.

Gizmo 2, the Sony RH1 has also arrived. It’s a nice weight in your hand and black with LED on the side and sound level meters - handy to see if you’re still recording in low light situations. V. nice, the buttons are a bit smaller than in previous versions but solid metal rather than iPod plastic. It’ll be interesting to do a long term test and see which lasts better the RH1 or the Shuffle 2G.

Technorati Tags: iPod Shuffle, Sony RH1, Buzz out loud

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Anyone see what I mean about media imbalance? Barely a ripple of press commentary past the purely factual on Sheilagh Kesting’s Church of Scotland appointment it was well buried in the inside pages of the broadsheets, meanwhile an opinion poll about more than 50% of Scots wanting full independence has the media hanging on every word from the Cardinal. How to interpret the lack of ‘news’? Is it good? Maybe folk just don’t see anything newsworthy any more in women being appointed to top jobs, if so good. Maybe feminism has succeeded in pushing for equality, it’s the norm. But you’ve got to set these things in a historical context, it’s a change, a female minister at the head of one of the biggest non-governmental organisations in Scotland. Is the lack of proper coverage a reflection of ignorance of history or disinterest? I can’t help contrasting this episode with the splash that Eilish Angiolini made with her Lord Advocate appointment, that was all over the place. Ah but that was politics. Sad when the spiritual life of the nation is pushed so far out of the spotlight. Can’t help think that we’re losing something.

Technorati Tags: religion

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My God another ane! Female reverend is new moderator Sheilagh Kesting is the new moderator of the Church of Scotland. I say, steady on old chaps, is that two women at the helm within the last 5 years. Being Catholic I don’t really know what the Moderator does, except that the heidie rotates on a regular basis. This is good and bad, good in that a range of different people have a go at it, in the Catholic church an archbishop/Cardinal usually has to die in office first - bit of a bummer for ambitious souls. The downside for the CoS head is that they don’t get much time to establish themselves in the public limelight, you’ve only just got to remember the name before the next one’s being installed. It also leads to a really wierd imbalance of power in the media. The Catholic archbishops seem to get a hell of a lot more media time in proportion to the size of their flock. Moderators crop up every now again, going on peace marches and the like but when moral issues are in the news it’s strange how little their views are canvassed for by press. I don’t understand why.

Technorati Tags: Church of Scotland, Moderator, Sheilagh Kesting, church, religion, Christianity, Catholic

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Well as the podcast says. “I should be writing”. Why? It’s November. And you know what that means. National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo. Do 50,00 words in a month. Tried it last year, started OK but got struck down by a gammy arm. Also this year I’ve got central heating for the first time so I can try writing in the garret and not freeze to death.

They have a great page of Widgets and even better for the programmers Word Count API

Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing

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