Not.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
How-To: Build a Cardboard Cat Rocket @Craftzine.com blog
How-To: Build a Cardboard Cat Rocket @Craftzine.com blog
Today I found this wondrous cat project thanks to @PixelAddiction on Twitter. I have an abundance of spare cardboard boxes at work. I can see me beginnign this project. My worry is that as with so many other 'great projects' it may never get finished.
Sil and Pawlie surely deserve such a wondrous den though? I could even pipe Space Oddity and Life in Mars into it :-D
Tome Time - The Other Half Lives by Sophie Hannah
Started July 31st, finished 7th August. 552 pages.
I was lent this book by a friend who really enjoyed it. I was keen to read it as it was by a local author.
It's best described as a psychological thriller. It's a hulk of a novel that is definitely very cleverly written. It takes you through many twists and turns. Looking back to people's pasts as well as telling the story of their present. The length of the book gives plenty of time to look into the character's and let them grow on you. The main two characters are well written. I didn't believe the male characters as I did the female though. They seemed a little more caricature. I didn't get a sense of depth with the male figures in the book. especially the male police officers that pop up here and there.
My downfall with this book was the style of writing. It's written in a very 'trendy' style and it grated on me somewhat. It didn't feel natural it felt like a style had been adopted. This grew less grating as the book went on but never really disappeared. Because the story is well thought out, clever and quite gripping it didn't manage to spoil the book for me. I did enjoy the story but I can't see me reading any more of this author's work. It's not that she's a bad writer, just that the style of writing isn't for me. I was left satisfied with the ending. Which is always a worry when a novel is all about the suspense.
3 out of 5 pawprints.
Next - Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich
Thursday, August 18, 2011
You know when...
... you open a book and the first thing you read is...
...that it's going to be interesting :-)
...that it's going to be interesting :-)
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Book 52 of the 50 Book Challenge
No Off Switch by Andy Kershaw, 401 pages
I heard Andy Kershaw being interviewed by Richard Bacon about this book. As he's a local lad I decided to give it a go.
A lot of the sentiments expressed by the author are similar to my own. I'm impressed by his vast knowledge and immense passion for his music. His bravery in covering some of the world's most horrible hotspots is commendable.
The problem is the man's arrogance. It oozes out from every page once he gets on his high horse about something. The old fashioned case of 'You may be right but I can never condone a case put so smugly and so condescendingly'. A little bit of charisma goes a long way to help your cause. A bad attitude, borne before you had a point to make, does not.
Then there's his attitude to women. It's terrible. He seems to know this and yet does nothing to improve it through his adult life. I'd love to like this guy, he has a lot to offer. Sadly he just comes across as a gobby, chauvinistic, Northerner. The book is still an interesting read. Just be prepared for your hackles to frequently lift.
3.5 pawprints out of 5
Total so far, Books - 52, Pages - 15,374 Yeah, made it over 15,000 :-) Next year I'm going to try a different challenge. One to expand my horizons. Maybe read some of those classics I never got around to.
Started July 19th, finished July 30th.
I heard Andy Kershaw being interviewed by Richard Bacon about this book. As he's a local lad I decided to give it a go.
A lot of the sentiments expressed by the author are similar to my own. I'm impressed by his vast knowledge and immense passion for his music. His bravery in covering some of the world's most horrible hotspots is commendable.
The problem is the man's arrogance. It oozes out from every page once he gets on his high horse about something. The old fashioned case of 'You may be right but I can never condone a case put so smugly and so condescendingly'. A little bit of charisma goes a long way to help your cause. A bad attitude, borne before you had a point to make, does not.
Then there's his attitude to women. It's terrible. He seems to know this and yet does nothing to improve it through his adult life. I'd love to like this guy, he has a lot to offer. Sadly he just comes across as a gobby, chauvinistic, Northerner. The book is still an interesting read. Just be prepared for your hackles to frequently lift.
3.5 pawprints out of 5
Total so far, Books - 52, Pages - 15,374 Yeah, made it over 15,000 :-) Next year I'm going to try a different challenge. One to expand my horizons. Maybe read some of those classics I never got around to.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
WeightWatchers
As with many women I am no stranger to dietary regimes aimed at losing weight. At one point in my life I lost 25% of my body weight. Mainly through willpower, with a little help from a site called WeightLossResources.co.uk That was an excellent site based on calorie counting. The best part of the site was the forum community. Always happy to help and great for tips to help you along. The second best part was their insistence that you could not go down to silly levels of restriction on what you ate. Unfortunately sticking to a safe level, without enough exercise was my downfall. I'm very short and that means a smaller amount calories for me than most. I couldn't lose more than a tiny amount per week without going beyond their 'safe levels'. There was no accounting for height.
A couple of months ago I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for a while. I never thought she had weight to lose in the first place. Apparently though she'd lost 1 1/2 stone. As a group we were chatting about it and she'd done it online with WeightWatchers. I liked the online idea but the WeightWatchers bit put me off. Further into the discussion I learned that it had changed. The 'points system' had been revolutionised. Towards healthier eating rather than just restrictions. The best bit I heard was that you could eat as much fruit and veg as you wanted.
I went home and looked it up. Various newspaper reports gave their take on it. Apparently the 'points' are now calculated differently. Rather than just taking into account the calories, fat, etc they look at how your body digests the type of food group you're consuming. The new version of Points is ProPoints. It seems to me to be geared against Carb's as well as fat. Bread, potatoes, etc seem quite high in ProPoints. That means I just eat less bread at one sitting. Apparently under the old system a Banana was the same points value as a Curly Wurly. Guess what, this meant people picked the Curly Wurly. Now a banana has no ProPoints value, it's free.
I've found I can still eat what I want. Just a little less. Portion control has been key. With much less sugary snacks in my life. The best bit is I can eat enough to still have the energy to go running. Running is the only exercise I've found that gives back a fair number of ProPoints. It's a good job it's my main exercise! I am eating loads more fruit & veg. Obviously you can't eat fruit all day long and not expect it to have an effect. I'm eating a fair amount though on top of my ProPoints allowance and I'm still losing. I'll always be wary of too many bananas. I save them for a post run snack.
For the first couple of weeks I was getting to know the programme. I had a few misjudgements on portion size and the like. It's an easy system to use though. There's a great App that means I'm never in the dark about what I'm eating if I've got 3G or wi-fi. There are restaurant guides to average points for if you're eating out. Overall I'm impressed. I haven't spent any time on the forums really. They seem quite new and I'm not feeling the need to chat with others. They are there though and people are helping each other out. I think that side of things will grow quite a bit.
Weeks two and three I had the opposite problem. I'd found enough food low in ProPoints to ensure I never never reached my allotted amount. I wasn't eating enough. So I went out and bought some nice snacks to fill the gaps. I think now I have it sussed.
I get 29 ProPoints a day that I cannot 'rollover' from one day to the next. On top of that I have 49 weekly ProPoints for use whenever I feel like a treat or if I go out for a meal. When I run, I get more ProPoints that can be rolled over. Running is great for wine enabling ProPoints :-)
In the six weeks I've stuck to the plan my skin's improved and I've lost 7lbs. Before I started the plan I was running but eating more than I'd earnt in compensation. The Structure of this and the focus on healthy and filling foods has given just what I need to get healthy. Without miserably starving myself for a fortnight, then splurging only to try again a month later. This is by far the healthiest, most sensible of the big name diet plans I've seen. Hopefully more will push towards this kind of lifestyle rather than limiting your food groups or starving yourself.
I'm hoping to use this to get me to a healthy weight and keep me there. I'm too old to keep promising myself I'll get on it tomorrow.
A couple of months ago I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for a while. I never thought she had weight to lose in the first place. Apparently though she'd lost 1 1/2 stone. As a group we were chatting about it and she'd done it online with WeightWatchers. I liked the online idea but the WeightWatchers bit put me off. Further into the discussion I learned that it had changed. The 'points system' had been revolutionised. Towards healthier eating rather than just restrictions. The best bit I heard was that you could eat as much fruit and veg as you wanted.
I went home and looked it up. Various newspaper reports gave their take on it. Apparently the 'points' are now calculated differently. Rather than just taking into account the calories, fat, etc they look at how your body digests the type of food group you're consuming. The new version of Points is ProPoints. It seems to me to be geared against Carb's as well as fat. Bread, potatoes, etc seem quite high in ProPoints. That means I just eat less bread at one sitting. Apparently under the old system a Banana was the same points value as a Curly Wurly. Guess what, this meant people picked the Curly Wurly. Now a banana has no ProPoints value, it's free.
I've found I can still eat what I want. Just a little less. Portion control has been key. With much less sugary snacks in my life. The best bit is I can eat enough to still have the energy to go running. Running is the only exercise I've found that gives back a fair number of ProPoints. It's a good job it's my main exercise! I am eating loads more fruit & veg. Obviously you can't eat fruit all day long and not expect it to have an effect. I'm eating a fair amount though on top of my ProPoints allowance and I'm still losing. I'll always be wary of too many bananas. I save them for a post run snack.
For the first couple of weeks I was getting to know the programme. I had a few misjudgements on portion size and the like. It's an easy system to use though. There's a great App that means I'm never in the dark about what I'm eating if I've got 3G or wi-fi. There are restaurant guides to average points for if you're eating out. Overall I'm impressed. I haven't spent any time on the forums really. They seem quite new and I'm not feeling the need to chat with others. They are there though and people are helping each other out. I think that side of things will grow quite a bit.
Weeks two and three I had the opposite problem. I'd found enough food low in ProPoints to ensure I never never reached my allotted amount. I wasn't eating enough. So I went out and bought some nice snacks to fill the gaps. I think now I have it sussed.
I get 29 ProPoints a day that I cannot 'rollover' from one day to the next. On top of that I have 49 weekly ProPoints for use whenever I feel like a treat or if I go out for a meal. When I run, I get more ProPoints that can be rolled over. Running is great for wine enabling ProPoints :-)
In the six weeks I've stuck to the plan my skin's improved and I've lost 7lbs. Before I started the plan I was running but eating more than I'd earnt in compensation. The Structure of this and the focus on healthy and filling foods has given just what I need to get healthy. Without miserably starving myself for a fortnight, then splurging only to try again a month later. This is by far the healthiest, most sensible of the big name diet plans I've seen. Hopefully more will push towards this kind of lifestyle rather than limiting your food groups or starving yourself.
I'm hoping to use this to get me to a healthy weight and keep me there. I'm too old to keep promising myself I'll get on it tomorrow.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Book 51 of the 50 Book Challenge
More Cat Tales from Moon Cottage by Marilyn Edwards, 282 pages
Started June 30th, finished July 29th
As the first book in this series was a perfect titbit book I opted for more. It is just as says on the cover more tales about the author's cats. If you're a cat lover you'll recognise plenty in this book. If you're not a cat lover it's probably not for you.
I enjoyed reading it and I've ordered the next in the series. There's not much to say other than what the title describes. It's a quick, fun read. I'm unsure I'll read it again but I'm glad to have discovered the series.
3.5 out of 5 pawprints
Total, Books - 51, Pages - 14,973 Just short of 15,000!
Next - No Off Switch by Andy Kershaw
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