"WHERE IS IT?" Mason roared. The mechanics nearby jumped, and rapidly turned their attention to minute tasks. Mason glared at them, but getting no response, he began stomping around the car. "What's going on?" Melissa asked, approaching Mitch with his drinks bottle. They watched the spectacle from their side of the garage. "Mason has it in his head that he needs his lucky wristband," Mitch shook his head. "It's a …

I've made lots and lots of New Year's Resolutions before, both on the blog and in my head, and very few of them have worked out. This year, I changed the concept around completely and debuted the Life List - a long-term set of goals and things to aim at. Some are crazy, some are impossible, some are easy and most will take time. I figured a quick review for …

The BBC have gradually been building up to this evening's episode, with behind the scenes stories and footage littering the news and blogs and a great campaign to get listeners to tweet-along with the episode. Although I knew it was supposed to be something special, I was just going to treat it like any other episode and listen to the podcast when I had the chance. How much damage are …

For the new, I'm switching up the way I change headers on the site. I'd come to a position where I could make a perfectly good header in a week and that was fine. I could keep on finding brushes and doing what I could, but a week wasn't really long enough to make anything particularly special. Instead, I'm going to do a monthly header, with the hopes that I …

To celebrate Christmas with the Archers (and a year since I have been blogging about Ambridge - a year? Where's that gone?), I thought I'd do this post a little differently. I'm experimenting with the format a little, and will go through the month show by show. It's not as scary as it sounds. Let us just begin. 1st - Tony is mean to Kathy again, but she is still …

This may be the first time in a long time that we have watched enough recent films to create any form of top five list. We have indulged in many a movie night, so I tasked Mr C to choose his top five films that were released in 2010, that we watched in 2010. Here is what he came up with: Inception. "The closest thing to the Matrix since the …

I treated myself to the first series of Miranda, and after watching the first episode I found myself ever so confused. The iTunes version has the Channel 4 logo at the beginning. How odd, I thought. Miranda couldn't be more BBC. Created by BBC Productions, broadcast on the BBC. The show came about because of a radio comedy that was on... wait for it... BBC Radio. But there it was, …

Just cuteness today. Credit: Ross Manges/Flickr

Today I braved the supermarkets to pick up ingredients for the mammoth piece of gammon we received. I told you about it yesterday, and the fact that I am even blogging about the results means I didn't burn it. That is a bonus! I was following this BBC recipe, but I sort of modified it for my own results, due to constraints with both time and the size of the …

Last night, there was a Celebrity Mastermind episode in which one of the contestants chose the Back to the Future trilogy as their specialist subject. Thanks to Alex for pointing this out to me, these questions could have been made for me! As is becoming a bit of a tradition when there's a subject we know about on Mastermind, I thought I'd gather the questions for others to see how …

Someone gave us a gammon joint! Mr C is partial to a bit of gammon, and I normally buy the ready made slices that just need grilling or frying up, with a bit of pineapple thrown in for good measure. Now I am faced with this: I didn't have a clue what to do with it, but after a quick search, I found a nice, simple recipe. It starts with …

Remember a while ago I was blogging about my Rubik's Cube? That is still in progress, by the way, but I am in the same predicament I was before - keep trying to achieve something but messing it up and finally scraping back to having just one side complete. At some point I will just go ahead and buy the book to attempt to move on, but I am not …

When they announced that this year's Christmas Doctor Who would be based on the Charles Dickens novel, I thought that sounded quite interesting, particularly as I knew they would be incorporating time travel and that's my favourite bit. Then they made a big deal of announcing the name, drum roll please, A Christmas Carol. I felt a bit deflated. That's not very creative at all, is it? Naming the story …

I really just have to point out this amazing food blog called Zoom Yummy. I think perhaps I discovered it via Wordpress's Freshly Pressed feed - a daily selection of the best posts from anyone using Wordpress, and it turns out that's quite a lot of people. I usually only scan through the list and see if anything catches my eye, and this blog certainly did. I can't really do …

At the weekend, Lukeh posted a great item on his blog, the age-old game of who you would invite for a dinner party. It never gets old because your tastes change, there are always new people to discover, and mostly because it is always fun. At the bottom of the post, Lukeh warns to give it some serious thought - if you're going to be spending an entire evening with …

Part of the BBC's festive output this year will be a one-off special comedy show from Ronnie Corbett, quite sadly entitled The One Ronnie. I don't particularly like the naming convention of the show, and I wasn't at all convinced about watching it. There are times when these comedians really should hang up their hats, you know? However, Mr C pointed me in the direction of Engadget, who particularly enjoyed …

Travelling in and amongst the snow is a nightmare, but I refuse to moan as I know plenty of people have had it a lot worse than me. What I would like to do is plug the RAC Traffic App, available via both Apple and Android. It is super duper useful, pointing out the tricky situations on the roads - from slippery bits, to hefty delays due to accidents, to …

I wanted to do something to commemorate all the snow we have been having recently, and I pondered the idea of taking a photo of the white stuff, but didn't find it all that inspiring. Instead, I went in search of some snow-related brushes and found some really good ones. With a bit of adjustment to the scatter patterns, this is what I came up with. Made with: Pixelmator Font: …

This morning, Mr C pointed me in the direction of the Quest Visual site, where they demonstrate a brand new iPod/iPhone app called Word Lens. It is crazy! You open up the app, hold it up in front of some signs and it translates them on the fly. At the moment it only does English to Spanish, or the other way round, but I would imagine there are more dictionaries …

I must say, being back on Wordpress is just like putting on your favourite jumper. It may not be pretty, but it's warm and comforting. The Squarespace adventure was a bit of a disaster. I have never known such unfiltered spam to be allowed through. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, missing some kind of obvious step but no. The commenting system over there just isn't up …

It's getting to that time of year when the inevitable will happen. It's unavoidable, you will be sucked in. It's that dreaded period of indulgence known as: Christmas TV. Actually it's not all that bad. This is the one time of year that I buy a TV guide to help keep track of what is on and when. Most of the year I can rely on perusing the iPlayer and …

I had a few minutes to spare, so I browsed to the App Store on the iPad for a new game to play, and there was iPad Jenga - a featured game just pleading for me to buy it. So I did. It's brilliant. For £2.99, you get to play Jenga without having to stack up the bricks every time, without the noisy clatter when they fall down, without having …

Remember last week I told you about the Natural World Special that was to be shown on BBC Two on Tuesday? Well, I watched it and here are my findings. "We have pushed the symbol of conversation to the brink of extinction." Hehehe, he said International Rescue. Around 2000 giant pandas remain. How can it be a carnivore but only eats grass? Founded with just six pandas. AWWWWW. That woman …

I know I am late to the complaining party regarding the latest iOS upgrade on the iPad, but I have to get my rant down in black and white, otherwise it will just swirl around in my head forever more. The iPad used to enjoy the luxury of a volume switch on the side, alongside an on/off toggle that would lock the orientation of the screen. If you're swinging the …

This one started when I was investigating the Quartz Composer, and found the option of radiating circles outwards. I can't quite remember which one it is, but once I had that and I added in some of the best colour in the world - purple - I had it set. Made with: Pixelmator Font: Didot Brushes: Nature (I think these came with Pixelmator)

A fascinating month in Ambridge this time out, with lots and lots of little bits and pieces helping to set things up for Christmas, and keep the longer storylines bubbling along nicely. I have no idea how I'm going to cover this all in a reasonable space, but let's just dive right in. Ed, Emma, Will and Nic What used to be a complicated love triangle has now become more …

Now, I'm going to have to be upfront and honest here, it's not proper whisky. It's a whisky and cola, pre-made and sold to me in a can. I'm sorry in advance. I was browsing in the supermarket and stumbled across this whole section of alcohol that I hadn't noticed before - the sort of pre-mixed cans as pictured above. There's everything from rum to Jack Daniels to gin and …

Sometimes, when I load Google Reader, it turns Turkish. It's been happening for a long time, and I have no idea why. All the settings I can see are set to English, but I must have hit a button at some point in the distant past that pointed it towards Turkey. It happens on all different types of browser, on various gadgets, and on various internet connections, so it's definitely …

You can't blink without seeing talk of WikiLeaks at the moment, and I have little to say on the political side of things. Mr C, though, pointed out this video of where the controversial site is now hosted - deep in the heart of Sweden. It really looks like the kind of spy bunker you will see in James Bond films, take a look. I particularly like the moon room, …

It looks as though FKM has disappeared again, after his win in Zhuhai. His website has not been updated, and the only place to go for any Franck related goodness is Facebook. There are a couple of cool (but old) videos that were posted recently, but as they are in Facebook, I can only share the links. Here is one, and here is another one.

Next week, there is a programme on the BBC all about the Chengdu Research Base in China. I will definitely be watching the programme - although probably not as it goes out live, which is Tues 7th at 8pm on BBC Two. iPlayer all the way! I'll report back my findings next week. Meanwhile, in advance of the programme going out, the BBC offered up three super cute videos of …

You know, I did not remember this episode at all. The only bit I could recall ahead of viewing was that Rose touched the Dalek and that's when all hell broke loose. Otherwise, the rest was a blank. Sometimes those are the best ones! Sometimes. The concept of an alien museum is so good. I wish we had one of those. Actually, if the Doctor ever gave up his time-travelling …

Last night, Mr C introduced me to some of his children's TV purchases from iTunes. What you watched as a child is a conversation that is always popular, everyone has good and bad memories of things they used to consume via the tellybox, and nostalgia is often a good thing. This also reminded me of a post by Alex, where he pondered each generation thinking the next is going to …

I wanted to do something with the image of the giant maze from Longleat, but it didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, and wasn't interesting enough for a header. Instead, I upped the green colour, and used a kaleidoscope tile effect. It's not what I was going for at all, but I find it intriguing. Made with: Pixelmator Original Image: Maze Font: Apple Chancery

Here I am with another list, and I can tell you that this one came about solely from my desire to talk about the first item mentioned below. These are my top five songs with brand names mentioned in them. It's not really product placement in the "money for saying our name" sense, but more where reality clashes with culture. Let's get right on with the list. Arctic Monkeys - …

Now, remember I told you before about Cutest Food? I just adore this Panda Gummy Bear picture. Who would ever eat that? It's far too cute for consumption. And, the always excellent ZooBorns has a whole host of baby panda goodness - photos taken at a research base in China. I particularly like this quote from the comments on that post: I am surprised that the intense concentration of so …

I've not been sleeping well for the past week or so, nothing major to complain about, but just a lot on my mind. I downloaded an app (as recommended by Eric the Baker) called Sleep Machine. I've always been skeptical about the idea of white noise helping you to drift off, but if there's an app for something, I am usually curious to test it out (see: running a 5k …

I still haven't quite figured out what the theme of Show Your Spots meant this year, unless it had to to do with John Barrowman's suit, which is very likely. Anyway, remember I mentioned I'd be Factbyte Factboxing the Children in Need charity telethon spectacular? It happened, and I did! Seven long hours worth of glitz and pop and cheese and a bizarre cross of Eastenders and Coronation Street. It …

I found the gradient tool under Quartz Composer, and whilst you can easily make a gradient with the required colours in the toolbar, this purple one was too good not to use! After pondering some new brushes, this header was conceived. Made with: Pixelmator Font: #PCMyungjo Quartz Composer - Generator - Gradient Brushes: Glowing Stars

I've done Top Ten lists before, but thought I would bring back the idea in a shorter form - half, in fact. This is not for every Friday, but if I feel like I might have a list to share, this would be the place to do it. I haven't been to the cinema for years. I know the last time I approached one with the intent of going in, …

11 weeks ago, a zoo in Vienna, Austria welcomed a little baby panda. Now they're trying to decide on a name for the youngster, and are asking for people to vote. His brother is called Fu Long, and the choices they've come up with are Fu Hu, Ao Kang and Wei Xing. Does anyone else think Fu Hu sounds like boo hoo? Sadly that name is winning at the moment. …

A while back, I talked of time spent at my first official job - messing about with stationery. It was a mundane job, and one which I was quite good at, which meant as long as the work was done, slacking off was a bit more acceptable in the eyes of the bosses. Back then, I casually mentioned that we used to doodle things on post-it notes. There was a …

Over on Sidepodcast, we quite regularly live blog the practice, qualifying and race sessions, in something we have called the Factbyte Factbox. Essentially, I gather all the information I can from the screen, from Twitter and from other sources, and keep everyone updated, in what I hope is both an amusing and useful style. Now that the off-season has begun, we are looking for more ways to use the Factbyte …

I was just messing around with some filters for this one, and really loved the dotty effect. Then browsing through fonts found this one which just seemed to fit really well. Also, the turquoise/green colour sets the effect off. It was simple to make, but I think it's quite effective. Made with: Pixelmator Font: Desdemona Quartz Composer

One side done! I should have posted this a while ago, because it's dangerous having a Rubik's Cube just sitting about on the desk. First, I managed to get the white side complete but the edge pieces didn't match the ones they were supposed to. After a bit more fiddling about, I got the white side done correctly. I don't quite know how I did it, and I don't remember …

Oh dear. I bet I'm not the only person to use that pun. Terrible. When Microsoft first announced the Kinect, did anyone else think it would never see the light of day? It seemed far too magical, a technology far greater than what we currently had, a step beyond what anyone would want in their homes. Think: Microsoft Surface. But here it is, launched in the States, and ready to …

At least that's the way it seems. An experiment to move I Heart Franck off Wordpress led me to Posterous, which is really good, but not for blogging. It's great for uploading a picture or some kind of media and sharing it, which is what it is ultimately designed for. As you know, dissatisfied with Wordpress I made the transition to Squarespace, and have found it mostly good, but there …

So, last time I was here, we discussed the Thursday test, in which Peugeot dominated. The weather turned against the drivers during Friday practice, and the first session saw Bourdais' car on top again, with Franck and Sarrazin finishing slightly further down. # 1 Team Peugeot Total – Peugeot 908 HDi FAP – 1:28.751 # 7 Audi Sport Team Joest – Audi R15 TDI – 1:29.389 # 8 Audi Sport …

Franck was out and about today, as he and teammate Stephane Sarrazin took to the track at Zhuhai for two test sessions. These are pre-practice sessions for the weekend, which seems a bit odd, but any testing time is good. The first session had Peugeot on top, but it was the other one, with Bourdais and Pagenaud. Franck's car was third, with a pesky Audi splitting the two of them. …

The conclusion of a two-part story that I started watching ages ago. For once I was grateful for the "Previously on..." montage. There are some excellent Doctor moments in here, starting with his unique ability to escape pretty much anything. I particularly enjoyed him being backed up against a lift and then using it to escape, but that's because little things please me. He's also smart enough to know that …