"There's nothing worse than a cold hot water bottle."

Maybe I should start offering drabbles to anyone who can give me the character saying/context of my subject lines :) Might get me writing again...

Having Monday off has completely thrown my week. It's...Wednesday...today? Possibly? I've also lost my profile on the network, so none of my shortcuts are in the right place, my taskbar is all wrong and the day seems very baffling. On the plus side, the chestnut tree outside my office window is coming into full leaf, the sun is shining beautifully, and my cold is definitely on the way out.

Oh, and while I think of it, I don't know if you can get the iPlayer outside the UK, but I'm really enjoying Horse People. Alexandra Tolstoy annoyed me at first, but she obviously adores horses and copes when a lot of people would just back off. I didn't get to see the Siberia episode, but the Andalucia one was very good, as is the Montana one. It's as much about the people as the horses, and the insights into cultures where the car is not completely king is fascinating.

( Today's list )

ETA: My mother has mastered *asterisks* for actions in emails. This gives me a warm snuggly feeling :D

ETA2: I just got a phone call from Armenia. That's a new one...

Links of the day

Some cross-posted from my library blog:

For my friends in Japan: What Tokyo libraries are doing in the recession. And the Boston folks too.

Libraries with views. I thought this was such a lovely idea, but it did make me think about the line from Ladies of Letters: "I was sorry to hear about your picture window. The best thing about your living room was being able to see out."

And so it begins. Yup, they're studying Twitter already.

Other things:

Some Roman historical fiction recommendations. The blog's author is looking out for books about Catalina at the moment, and since that's a pet subject of mine, I'd heartily recommend these as well!

Actually, while we're talking about all things Roman, it probably says something about my brain that I saw the following link and thought "Well, if Nightdog ever wants to take James and Gregorius to Rome, they'd arrive here." *ahem*
A wonderfully photographed blog about Ostia Antica
Still in that general area (historically speaking): Is this the origin of Scylla and Charybdis; The trials and tribulations of Roman publishing; celebrating Rome's 2762nd birthday

Coming back to our own time, the latest Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, so have some links of a more literary nature:

And The Pulitzer For Forgotten Fiction Goes To...

Bookswim. Netflix for books. It's easy to mock this by saying "isn't that what libraries do", but not everyone can get to a well-stocked library easily, quickly and frequently.

Long and interesting article about the enduring appeal of the Harlequin romances

Reviewing a review or "reviews should not be needlessly bitchy." Considering the golden-rule of fanfic concrit communities is "criticise the story, not the author", I thought this might be of interest to people.

Judging a book (bag) by its cover. WANT! (Creator's website)

Slightly more randomly:

Still Tasty gives you an idea of how long the food in your fridge will stay edible for. It's actually pretty realistic, rather than telling you to just chuck things past their sell-by date. Of course, I tend to follow the rule: if it's furry and/or moving, it's probably not good to eat. Before anyone asks, no, I don't eat peaches *shudders* FRUIT SHOULD NOT BE FUZZY!

*ahem* Moving swiftly on.

The Mistake Bank is an interesting concept for a website, collecting together both what people did wrong and what they learnt from it. Embarrassing in places, but also constructive.

Toorcamp. Hitting new highs on the geekometer. Not only is it a camp for hackers, it's a camp for hackers being held in a Titan-1 missile silo. Oh yes.

And even more randomly:

Bohemian Rhapsody as you've never heard it before.

[cross-posted from DW to LJ to try that out...]

Links of the day

Some cross-posted from my library blog:

For my friends in Japan: What Tokyo libraries are doing in the recession. And the Boston folks too.

Libraries with views. I thought this was such a lovely idea, but it did make me think about the line from Ladies of Letters: "I was sorry to hear about your picture window. The best thing about your living room was being able to see out."

And so it begins. Yup, they're studying Twitter already.

Other things:

Some Roman historical fiction recommendations. The blog's author is looking out for books about Catalina at the moment, and since that's a pet subject of mine, I'd heartily recommend these as well!

Actually, while we're talking about all things Roman, it probably says something about my brain that I saw the following link and thought "Well, if Nightdog ever wants to take James and Gregorius to Rome, they'd arrive here." *ahem*
A wonderfully photographed blog about Ostia Antica
Still in that general area (historically speaking): Is this the origin of Scylla and Charybdis; The trials and tribulations of Roman publishing; celebrating Rome's 2762nd birthday

Coming back to our own time, the latest Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, so have some links of a more literary nature:

And The Pulitzer For Forgotten Fiction Goes To...

Bookswim. Netflix for books. It's easy to mock this by saying "isn't that what libraries do", but not everyone can get to a well-stocked library easily, quickly and frequently.

Long and interesting article about the enduring appeal of the Harlequin romances

Reviewing a review or "reviews should not be needlessly bitchy." Considering the golden-rule of fanfic concrit communities is "criticise the story, not the author", I thought this might be of interest to people.

Judging a book (bag) by its cover. WANT! (Creator's website)

Slightly more randomly:

Still Tasty gives you an idea of how long the food in your fridge will stay edible for. It's actually pretty realistic, rather than telling you to just chuck things past their sell-by date. Of course, I tend to follow the rule: if it's furry and/or moving, it's probably not good to eat. Before anyone asks, no, I don't eat peaches *shudders* FRUIT SHOULD NOT BE FUZZY!

*ahem* Moving swiftly on.

The Mistake Bank is an interesting concept for a website, collecting together both what people did wrong and what they learnt from it. Embarrassing in places, but also constructive.

Toorcamp. Hitting new highs on the geekometer. Not only is it a camp for hackers, it's a camp for hackers being held in a Titan-1 missile silo. Oh yes.

And even more randomly:

Bohemian Rhapsody as you've never heard it before.

[cross-posted from DW to LJ to try that out... ETA:it works, but I like to use different icons, so I think I'll stick with ctrl+c for now...]