I hate Christmas
This entry was posted on November 30, 2007
Every year towards the end of November, it seems like the whole world is being taken over by Christmas. There’s adverts on television, there’s adverts on the radio, there’s thousands of websites dedicated to Christmas; even bloggers are making new layouts just for this once-a-year event.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against every part of Christmas, I’m just against the parts that take over the world. I don’t like the fact that Christmas stuff starts appearing in the shops before Hallowe’en. Can’t we at least get that (and November) out of the way before we start Christmas?
There are many things I love about Christmas. I love giving presents (even if some people have no idea what they want), I love spending time with my family, I love having time off work, I love over-eating, and I love having those little sausages wrapped up in bacon.
I just hate the fact that Christmas is like some kind of plague which takes over the world and makes everyone act like mad people. It’s Christmas; it’s not the apocalypse. There’s no need to get so stressed and worked up, and sing Christmas carols and send millions of Christmas cards. Just calm down, take a deep breath, and think about what Christmas is supposed to be about. It’s so commercialised these days that we (myself included) don’t even pay much attention to the true meaning of Christmas anymore.
To me, Christmas is a lot like religion: I know where to find it if I want it, but if I want to stay away from it, please don’t force it in my face everywhere I look!
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Back to basics
This entry was posted on November 29, 2007
If my site looks smushed to you, press control + f5 to refresh. I hope you like my new theme! I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible. I know that my strengths don’t lie in beautiful graphics, and I’ve always been a fan of clean and simple layouts. I’ve tried to put my strengths to good use, and play down my weaknesses.
What we have here is a clean and simple theme. There is a lot of whitespace which I’ve softened by making it ever so slightly off-white (for the geekier of you out there, my background is #FEFEFE rather than #FFF). I’ve gone back to basics with everything and really thought hard about what this site is and the best way to display the content.
I’ve removed my “goodies” page for several reasons, and after my “review” from the Internet Police, I’ve renamed my “misc” page to “domain” which should make it clearer what that page contains.
I’ve tested the theme with Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 6, both on a PC running Windows XP. If you could test it on your own browser / operation system configuration, it would be much appreciated.
Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome. I know this theme may not be to everyone’s taste - some of you may find it too plain, even boring. If that’s the case, let me know how you think I can “jazz it up”, and I’ll see what I can do.
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Viewty, you beauty!
This entry was posted on November 28, 2007
I’ve been wanting a new phone for some time, and after much consideration I finally settled on the LG Prada. It had everything I was after : music, camera, document viewer - all on a phone!
And then I found the LG Viewty. After reading Lil’s blog entry about it and doing some research, I promptly changed my mind and went for the Viewty instead. It’s a spiffy touch-screen phone that I like to describe as “better value for money than the iPhone”.
The LG Viewty may not be an iPhone killer, but that’s because it’s being marketed in a completely different way. The iPhone is basically an iPod with phone capabilities, which also has a camera. In that respect, the Viewty is basically a camera with phone capabilities, which also has music features.
I pay the same amount per month for the Viewty as I would for the iPhone, except I get three times as many minutes, five times as many texts, and I didn’t have to pay £269 for the handset. Not a bad deal, I don’t think.
The Viewty comes with a 5 megapixel camera (that’s only 1MP less than my actual camera!), and the touch-screen is more fun than any phone I’ve used before. I haven’t had any trouble hitting the wrong buttons or having the buttons be unresponsive. In fact, I wish all technology was touch-screen. I wonder if I can get a touch-screen (or touch-key) keyboard for my computer.
So far I’ve only encountered one problem with sending text messages, and that is that I can’t find the delete button! If I make a mistake, I have to wipe the whole thing and start fresh. That’s a serious usability issue right there. Luckily, I don’t find many mistakes. There probably is a delete button somewhere, I just can’t seem to find it.
If you’re after a new phone, I definitely recommend the Viewty! If you’ve got a new phone recently, or are planning on getting one that isn’t the Viewty - what put you off?
