http://chocolateandvodka.com bubbling enthusiasm for $arbitrary_topic Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:22:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Last week 1 decided to buy a Wacom Bamboo fun graphics tablet, Partly to see if its would make a better way of getting around my Mae rather than my track pad, and partly to see what the handwriting recognition is like. 1 have to say that the built in ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/06/11/testing-out-my-new-wacom-graphics-tablet/ Steph writes the blog post that I'd write if I wasn't a) so busy and b) also a perfectionist. http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/06/03/this-may-ring-bells/ I prick my ears up every time I hear words like "open" and "translation" and "project" used together in a sentence in case it's something that might be interesting to the Welsh language community. So when I saw that TED, the insanely expensive Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, was providing English ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/05/16/ted-open-translation-project-is-not-so-open/ I haven't worked much on The Revenge of the Books of Hay lately, mainly because I've been insanely busy with moving house, travel and work. It's nice to be busy with paying work after the crappy year last year was, but it hasn't left me with much mental space to ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/05/15/whos-the-hero/ How are civil society organisations using social media? Which tools do they favour, and what do they hope to achieve by using them? These are some of the questions I hope to answer in my survey, Civil society associations and their application of social & new media, and I need ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/05/11/survey-examining-the-use-of-social-media-by-civil-society-associations/ I just discovered, through the wonders of Twitter, the fabulousness that is Tim Minchin, a London-based Australian poet and musician. He does the funniest stuff I've seen since I first encountered Eddie Izzard, although I don't remember the last time I saw a comedian combine music, poetry and a Goldacre-esque ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/05/02/tim-minchin/ Ar hyn o bryd, dw i'n teithio i Aberystwyth i siarad â myfyrwyr am y we, y dyfodol, ac eu gyrfâu. Hefyd, bydda i'n cymryd rhan mewn sgwrs am y we Cymraeg. Dw i'n meddwl fod 'na ddau problemau efo'r we Cymraeg. Mae'n dychrunu i ddysgwyr sy ddim yn rhuglDoes dim ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/04/26/y-we-cymraeg/ I've just 40 minutes of battery life left on my MacBook, and nowhere to plug it in. I might well be sitting in United's "Economy Plus", but they haven't seen fit to install plugs for anyone wanting to, y'know, do work on an 11 hour flight. Things have been utterly insane ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/04/16/update/ I'm going to be in San Francisco between 15th and 23rd April, although up in Sebastopol for the weekend. I have two projects running at the moment that I'd like to explore with anyone who's interested. The future of the social web What might the future of the social web look like? ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/04/08/coming-to-san-francisco/ I'm sorry, I know this is childish and silly, but Porter's anti-Google screed is the most ludicrous thing I've read in a long time. It is so misinformed it's barely worth fisking. The ever-growing empire produces nothing but seems determined to control everything If indeed a new era of global responsibility ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/04/05/henry-porter-is-just-an-amoral-menace/ For the last few months I've been working with Book Oven, a Canadian start-up whose aim is to make it easier to prepare long texts for publishing by making it a simple, collaborative process. The first thing we've focused on is how to proofread a manuscript for typos. The problem with ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/04/01/proofreading-the-public-domain/ I'm revising almost everything I've already written for The Revenge of the Books of Hay, and adding in a lot more. The total word count currently stands at 25,112, which is about 20,000 more words than I originally thought this story would bear. Whilst the backstory has blossomed, the stuff ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/03/17/revised-opening-scene/ I know that this might seem like jumping the gun a little bit, but I'm thinking about what to do with The Revenge of the Books of Hay when it's done. From the reading I've been doing, novellas aren't a popular format with agents and publishers, and given I don't ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/03/14/planning-ahead/ I managed to cram in a bit of writing last night, much to my delight. I've had very little opportunity to write recently, and with a house move on the cards, it's going to get harder to find the time to write. But I managed and even though I only ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/03/10/a-question-of-balance/ First draft of opening scene from Revenge of the Books of Hay. Comment at will. Ernest Scrimshire pulled the nape of his jacket up over his head. He hesitated on the bookshop doorstep as the heavy oak door shut behind him, then plunged into the pelting rain. The remains of the ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/03/01/rain-on-the-green/ I've been thinking a lot about my style of writing, and about what's missing from my current draft of The Revenge of the Books of Hay. I read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother recently. It is quite probably the best thing that Cory has ever written and definitely one of the ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/02/28/are-cliffhangers-necessary/ In early November last year, I had steroid injections in both wrists to try and treat my carpal tunnel syndrome. After some initial side effects, the injections seemed to have done the trick. Instances of pins and needles in my hands over night decreased to nothing and I pretty much ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/02/24/lets-try-and-avoid-the-slice-and-dice-shall-we/ Earlier in the month, Vince blogged about Valentine's Day and being single and writing: Now, it was only the other day that I realised how many things I've deferred on the grounds of being single. I have films I've bought that have gone unwatched. I've never bothered to take my ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/02/22/being-solitary-with-someone-else/ If you want to do something about this, please write to your MEP and support the Open Rights Group so that they can continue to campaign on your behalf. http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/01/29/how-copyright-extension-in-sound-recordings-actually-works/ Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal today. It was kinda sweet watching him go through the winning process on Twitter: neilhimself: woken up by assistant at 5.30 in the morning. Not quite sure why. All rather bleary, to do with someone trying to call. argh. -- 13:47:53 neilhimself: oh. forget ... http://chocolateandvodka.com/2009/01/26/a-book-that-is-not-this-one-wins-the-newbery/