First introduction to the Kitten Wheel

November 10, 2009

My Dad made us a cat wheel so that Mewton and Grabbity can burn off a little energy – energy that they would otherwise burn off at 2am by jumping up and down on our heads. This is a prototype, made of steel, hardened woven kevlar and, yes, duct tape. The wheel is whisper quiet [...]

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A self-publishing project to inspire

October 29, 2009

I’m still trying to figure out exactly how to do my self-publishing project for Revenge of the Book of Hay. I’m constantly riddled with doubt: Is it going to be good enough? Will enough people be interested? How will I convince people to support me given I have no track record? What exciting things could [...]

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Pay as you go

October 25, 2009

I have been on a lengthy crusade against the evil that is sugar, but must confess to mainly being on the losing side. The summer has been quite stressful and where once I lost my appetite when stressed now I seem to feel constant hunger. Part of that hunger is down to the amount of [...]

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Cat perch

October 21, 2009

I hope Grabbity doesn’t see this – she might get ideas.

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Grabbity’s double fangs

October 4, 2009

I’ve had cats all my life, including some kittens, and I’ve never caught one in the act of getting their adult teeth. Usually kittens teethe, swallow their milk teeth and the new ones are there to fill in behind so there’s nothing much to spot. But I was surprised to see Grabbity – who has [...]

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Make yours a handmade Christmas

October 2, 2009

I can’t quite believe it, but I’ve started my Christmas shopping early this year. I mean, it’s only just October and we haven’t even had Hallowe’en yet, but already I’m looking for presents for people. This is mainly because of the knock-on effects of recent strikes by Royal Mail workers which have resulted in a [...]

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Dear Lily

September 30, 2009

Dan Bull’s Dear Lily, [an open letter to Lily Allen]:

Best bit of activism I’ve seen all year!

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Reading aloud

September 23, 2009

I have always loved to read aloud. (I think it’s something to do with loving the sound of my own voice. Arf.) When I met Kevin, I was delighted to find out that he likes reading aloud too, so we frequently read to each other before we go to sleep. I love it. It’s a [...]

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Finally spotting the blindingly obvious

September 22, 2009

Sometimes, I get stuck on projects and have no idea why. Then, like a log jam suddenly freeing up, I have an idea that sets everything flowing again.
I’ve been stuck fast on Revenge of the Books of Hay for longer than makes me happy, mainly because I hit a structural problem that my brain just [...]

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Book Oven update

September 18, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned Book Oven, the publishing start-up that I have been working with, but great progress has been made behind the scenes. We have removed the need for an invitation, for one, so you can now just pop along to BookOven.com and sign up without any sort of code or [...]

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Yeti shaving and the project kill file

September 16, 2009

You know about yak shaving, right? All those countless little tasks you tell yourself you have to do before you can get started on the thing you really need/want to do?
“Oh, I would start writing my new book but I need to buy a nice pen and a notebook first, and then I need to [...]

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New directions in time for Christmas

September 12, 2009

I’ve had a little time lately to have a play with some of my jewellery-making supplies and whip up a few more items for my shop on Folksy. I thought I might try something a little different to my normal line, so I did a few sets of earrings and then some necklaces that [...]

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The Use of Social Technologies in Civil Society – Report Request

September 7, 2009

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More on the evil in the woodshed

August 31, 2009

CnV is still having spam injection problems. Unfortunately, the upgrades to Wordpress and Thesis didn’t solve the problem, and a few days later it was full of spam again. You won’t have noticed because it was hidden, but it would have made the site slow to load and has probably totally screwed my GoogleJuice. I’ve [...]

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Something in the woodshed

August 20, 2009

Something very strange happened to Chocolate and Vodka, resulting in it loading a blank page except for the background image. It appears to have been a problem with Thesis, the theme I had been using, although I had not upgraded or changed it (or Wordpress) in any way in months. I’m not sure how it [...]

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