that canadian girl

Latest adventures…

  • Three is company!

    No, don’t worry, I’m not announcing we’re having a baby! We’re having a bunny!

    Keira, my Nabaztag/tag bunnyThat’s right, Keira, my Nabaztag/tag has been with us since before Christmas, but only recently has it become usable. First there were all the server issues at Violet in Paris. Then there was the unavoidable busy times with the holidays, Pepsmedia and well, being sociable for a change?

    But yesterday, I was working from home and gave a work colleague instructions on sending messages to my bunny. I later found myself in fits of laughter when Keira started humming Jingle Bells Rock for me.

    I’ve yet to write any clever services for it (read: Get Andrew to write them) but it definitely has potential in that area. In the meantime, it’s just a nutty entertaining talking clock, who occasionally also does a bit of Tai Chi, and loves to sing Philippe Lafontaine – Coeur de Loup when given the opportunity!

  • Quote of the day: MySpace and Merlin

    Merlin Mann’s FAQ:

    Do you have a MySpace page?
    Only if it’s waiting for me on some kind of ironic eyeball-searing machine in hell.

  • From Bermondsey to Harlow…

  • Lush rumours

    Thought I’d post this to let the girls know… Lush*, who usually make funky soaps and can cause a cloud of girly candyfloss smell to take over a mile ’round every one of its shops, is opening a few spas across the UK. No details as far as locations go, but the goss from the shop girls is that they will open in the Spring-Summer.

    Another little notice to Lush fans is that their whole Ginger range is being discontinued very soon, so if you’re a big fan of it (I’m not, but I know some who are) get it while it’s still around. It’ll be replaced by another full range of no-doubt lovely-and-hippie-smelling fragrances.

    So yup, that’s it for my ickle Lush update.

    [* I apologise on the behalf of their website. It’s less ugly than the old one, but could still do with some improvements. I’d kill to do that website…]

  • College Lecture Prank

  • Weird things that have taken my fancy recently

    • Knitting: I don’t know why, I just want to knit something painfully kitsch. I think it’s a mix of watching Ugly Betty, coming across an old blog entry by Katie mentioning crocheting, and just wanting one of those really soft scarves but never finding one I like.
    • Get a Wacom graphics tablet: I’ve had a few short flashbacks to my teenage years when my right wrist was hurting so much I could hardly type. Hasn’t been bad so far, but it does concern me a bit. Plus I wanted to get some basic image editing software for Mac, and it looks like the tablets come with either Photoshop Elements or Corel Essentials (which on their own cost about the same price as the tablet) so … why not?
    • Wanting to write services for the Nabaztag: So she’s officially called Keira (much to Andrew’s great pleasure), but she hasn’t done much so far other than telling me what time it is and doing a bit of tai chi. Longer post on this topic in the next few days.
    • I soooo want these: A shoe rack wheel, the b00tiful iPhone (not bizarre, just droolingly nice!), a little dog like Spudgy and a kitty like this.
    • Gingerbread house: At Christmas, I put together a gingerbread tree, but it was a total cheat and I’d like to do a full house from scratch. It’d be pretty, with lots of jelly tots and candy windows, iced sugar snow and a little house number by the door.

  • New plugin: Technorati tags

    Using categories for blog posts is a nightmare: You start off with a generic category name, then you’re tempted to split it into multiple categories, at which point you realise said category contains 428 posts begging to be reorganised. So you promptly give up on reorganising the categories and go play Wii, or eat a cookie, or something.

    So I’ve adopted a new little plugin for WordPress called SimpleTags. It makes it easy to add Technorati tags to the bottom of a post, and can also be used to create a tag cloud. Sure, tag clouds are oh-so-2006, but they’re also an interesting way to see what I’ve been blabbing about recently.

    We’ll see about the tag cloud later, since I’ve got a stinking head cold, which makes it hard to even keep my eyes open, but the plugin was drag and drop, so that’s in use already.

  • If only…

  • Tip for Rayman: Raving Rabbids players

    I’ve been playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids, and I’m loving its complete insanity. However, one minigame, “Bunnies have natural rhythm”, is a bit rubbish. You’re meant to kick four coloured stereos to turn them on, then get rid of the bunnies while they’re dancing. After a dozen attempts, you realise your Rayman simply isn’t kicking when he should and you’re getting seriously pissed off.

    No, your Wii Remote isn’t faulty, you’re not incompetent (not really, anyways!), it’s a bug in the game. According to GameSpot, the best way to solve the problem is to change your Wii settings to 60hz*, at which point the game becomes easy again… Otherwise, you can always just skip that minigame, since you only need three minigames and one “boss” to move on.

    We’re about halfway through the game, I think, and I feel this is a bit like a school play – everything early in the play is well-rehearsed and nobody makes any mistakes, but the end of it hasn’t had its share of attention and rehearsal, things are more improvised and flukey the closer to the end it gets.

    Did anyone else get this impression?

    [* It’s my understanding this only affects those playing on 50hz tvs]

  • Five reasons to use compact fluorescent lightbulbs

    This might seem like a bit of an inane topic to be posting about, but Seth got me thinking tonight. (he does that a lot…)

    The reason this got me thinking is that we (my husband and I) have swapped every possible lightbulb in our house with energy saving ones, and I take such a thing for granted. However, very few people do. If every household changed a single regular lightbulb for a more energy-efficient one, it could make a significant difference.

    Five reasons why we’ve moved to compact fluorescent lightbulbs

    1. In the UK, they’re generally called “energy saving”. Doesn’t it give you a fuzzy feeling in your tummy to use something that’s got such a positive name yet requires so little action on your part?

    2. It’s a tiny way to know you’re doing your part to save the world. My husband and I are both notoriously bad at recycling and our car is far from energy efficient, so at least it’s one small area where we can do good.

    3. They save marital arguments. As Seth points out, they’re not cheaper than regular lightbulbs, and if you calculate the savings you’ll make in a year, it’s not insignificant, but it’s a drop in the ocean of your yearly spending. The reason they’re great is that they don’t burn out half as often! They last SO much longer, it allows us to avoid “Oh where the hell did you put away that box of lightbulbs THIS time?” conversation for a long time.

    4. They’re kind of funky. They look a little bit odd, they sometimes come with a slightly rubbery outside, and we generally buy them at Ikea. These three things make it cool.

    5. They can be left on and my OCD husband won’t worry the house is about to burn down. Enough said.

    So why not make an effort to pick an energy saving lightbulb or two on your next trip down to the store? Go on, it’ll make you feel good.