Free Practice ran for six hours last night, with teams getting a feel for the circuit both in daylight hours, and during the night. The requirements were for new drivers to run at least ten laps, and all drivers to complete three in the darkness. I watched some of the live timing screens but couldn’t dedicate six hours to it (sadly). Instead, I’ve scoured the web for news regarding our hero, his team, and his rivals.

Apparently, the Sims 3 is breaking all kinds of records, and I don’t own it yet. Grr. According to this CNET story, EA are reporting that the game sold 1.4 million copies in the first week, is topping the PC gaming chart, and the iPhone app chart, plus it has been EA’s best game launch ever. Now, CNET suggest that whilst this is something of a surprise, it does fly in the face of criticism levelled at EA that they rely too much on long-term game franchises. So what if the Sims has been around for almost a decade? If the fans still want it, then EA would be foolish not to keep producing it.

The Le Mans site has confirmed that all the cars got through the second day of scrutineering successfully, with the following words of wisdom: None of the cars had any problems today and will all be expected to appear in the first free practice sessions tomorrow (Wednesday) from 18:00. The forecast is for yet more rain, but it will get warmer and dryer for the weekend and the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans.

If you are not already subscribed to The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog then you should go there right now and do so. Bookmark it, copy and paste the RSS feed, do whatever you have to do so that you don’t miss an entry. And when you’ve done that, go back through the archives and enjoy what you have already missed. The Big Picture is a collection of photographs around a particular theme, telling a story that is in the news at the moment. It has no agenda but just wants to spotlight moments from our lives that should not be forgotten. The subject matter can vary from week to week. Space missions get good coverage, Formula 1 is how we were first introduced to it, the tennis got a mention this week. Very often, there are harrowing images from war-torn countries, or places desperately trying to recover from a natural disaster.

Although the race isn’t until the weekend, preparations for Le Mans have been taking place for a long time, and the action really begins this week. Yesterday, Monday, the cars began to face scrutineering, with Audi going first. Peugeot are due to be inspected today. Scrutineering isn’t just a chance for the regulators to check all regulations are being met, but it’s also a time for the fans to get a great view of the cars close up, and some of the drivers as well. This is really important for 2009, as there’s no test day for the Le Mans race this week. Apparently it rained yesterday, but was still a good day.

Last week, I was reading about this Youth Centre in the US that has bought up some podcasting equipment to offer kids the chance to try their hand at recording themselves. It seems to be a summer holiday and half term kind of thing, a place to send your children - for a fee - to mingle, socialise, and learn things. According to the story from The Detroit News, the revamp cost a cool $3 million, but has the features to show for it:

Only my second update and I am already running a few days behind schedule, however I come to you with good news! My strawberries are not only surviving, but gradually turning red. In the end, I had to call the experts in, and my parents came to save the day. It turns out I really wasn’t watering the plants enough, and they needed a lot more than I provided. I learnt two very important lessons:

We’re listening to Last.fm of a Saturday night, with the 80s tag plugged into the radio station option. Don’t Stop Believing by Journey comes on and we get about two seconds into it before Mr C says: “That’s the 4 chords.” We had to pause it, drop everything, and watch the video again, because there is nothing more amazing than this. I think I may have blogged it already, but it bears repeating.

Credit: Eugene Moore/Flickr

I was not having a particularly good day, and I left my desk for just a couple of minutes only to return and find the world had ended. Newly installed in my office, I discovered… a clock! I have two issues with this: I already have a clock on the phone, on my mobile, on my iPod, on my PC, and on the air con. There is a reason I no longer find it necessary to wear a watch. It ticks. To distract myself from the fact that this incessantly noisy object is clucking away beside me, I had a quick search for some clocks that would be worth having around.

Time for some moving pictures, with YouTube videos (this time vetted for screaming women). Don’t worry panda, I can’t work out what the football thing is all about either. Baby panda wrestling.

I was browsing the Peugeot Sport site, as you do, and discovered that Franck is helping to promote some of the items in their merchandise store. With the Frenchman not having any goodies of his own, it’s as close as we’ll get to FKM merch. This is the category he takes centre stage on - t-shirts - but have a browse around, because he turns up in a few of the pictures. I wonder if the arm demonstrating the watch is his? I doubt it.

I was reading this post from Alex about a giant sweet shop, and it made me think about all those old time confectionaries that are so delicious, but you just don’t eat anymore. When the market visits, there’s a rather large pick ’n’ mix stall that has many, many varieties to choose from, but I never stop and look or buy. These days, it’s all about the bar of chocolate, or occasionally a pack of something silly like Haribo. There’s so much we’re missing out on!

Now that I no longer keep up the BBC blog, I’ve found myself drowning in interesting tidbits that I want to share. So, this is that post, collecting together some of the latest things I have been enjoying from the vast collection of BBC blogs. Moderation: Let’s Talk it Over I know a lot of people get upset when their comments are moderated on a particular portion of the site. I don’t comment there, myself, but I do find having to skim through all those ’this comment was moderated’ really quite annoying. This post is a couple of days old, but they are actively asking for input on what would make the moderation process easier, so get in there and have your say if you’ve got an opinion either way.

I found this article on The Guardian very interesting. It talks about some of the elements that have been lost in advertising nowadays, compared to some of the classic adverts from yester-year. Although some of the points are contentious - like cigarette advertising, and seemingly promoting sexism - it does seem very true that adverts of the moment do not capture the imagination in the same way. I quickly browsed YouTube for three adverts that I know I enjoy, and none of them are current ones. The only recent advert I can think that had the desired ‘cult’ effect is the Cadbury’s drumming gorilla. Otherwise, what is it about these ads that are so endearing?

I was digging around the internet and uncovered some entries from my earliest foray into blogging. I was there as blogging was becoming big, not one of the early adopters, but definitely before it became mainstream to own a domain and a site. My blogging instrument of choice was Blurty.com, which, now I look at it, is awful. Sadly, I was one of those early bloggers who didn’t try and be profound (although that may be a blessing in disguise) but preferred to give highly insightful details into the comings and goings of daily life.

My only knowledge of Robin Hood comes from three places: that film with Kevin Costner, the film by Mel Brooks, and the current BBC TV series. I know that all three are a pile of tosh, there for pure entertainment value rather than anything historical or mythical. Therefore, I’ve started looking into the legend of Robin Hood and would like to share some of my findings with you. Naturally, no one knows whether Robin Hood was a real person or not, but he has certainly been given plenty of attention in words and pictures throughout the years. The way Robin Hood is depicted these days falls within a very narrow window of personality. He robs from the rich to give to the poor, he may or may not kill people but only for the greater good, and he is fiercely loyal to his King and Country. Some of the earliest works revolving around the character known as Hood are vastly different. In fact, even within each poem, his personality traits can get very mixed up.

If you are a Facebook user, you may be interested in the Franck Montagny page. It’s something you can subscribe to as a fan, and there are news updates, videos and pictures added all the time. It was brought to my attention recently, because some pictures were posted of young Franck as he and his fellow Peugeot colleagues trained for the upcoming Le Mans. On that subject,we have more information about what the boys got up to in the Alps. Team Manager Serge Saulnier said:

The strawberries do not like their new home! The other plants are all doing okay. I hesitate to say thriving, but they at least still look green rather than a sickly yellow. My text message gardening advice service (my mother) said that assuming they are bedded in correctly, and I am keeping them well watered, there is little else one can do. I intend to give them some more attention, perhaps even talking to them. I must try and coax them back to the land of the living, otherwise the strawberry dream will be over before it has even begun!

Credit: Kenneth Barton/Flickr

Whilst I was searching Flickr for some cute baby panda photos, I came across this project called One Thousand Portraits. Naturally, the premise is to take 1,000 pictures and it’s a very simple idea. Our project is a true portrait of Britain created by photographing 1,000 people. We stopped everyone who crossed our path on the streets of London, excluding nobody, asking the same question more than fifteen hundred times.

Two Pandas Credit: Brittainy Barnes/Flickr Bored Panda Credit: Patty926/Flickr Hungry Panda Credit: Stephanie Schwob/Flickr

Just a couple of days ago, Franck climbed back behind the wheel of the Peugeot 908, reminding us all that Le Mans is rapidly approaching. On Monday, at Magny-Cours, Franck put his recent training to good use by lapping the French track and getting some good testing miles under his belt. He got plenty of good running in, which will be good practice for what comes next. The entire Peugeot team are heading to the Alps for more physical training. Apparently some pictures will appear on FKM’s official site soon, so I will keep you posted.

Remember the competition Franck introduced to design his helmet? Well, it’s over and done with and a winner has been selected. From what I can tell there were 30 entries submitted, which is nothing compared to Jenson Button’s helmet competition, but perfectly reasonable for a driver who only seems to emerge a couple of times a year. The winner is Adrien and he gets some gloves as worn by Mr M himself. The helmet may make an appearance at Le Mans but more likely it will be a design used for the future.

Following on from my post about being a little bit more green, I decided to try my hand at growing some plants. As I pointed out previously: I don’t have a garden, I live in a flat, and I can’t grow things. This can only end well. I am shopping for seeds and… whatever else one needs to garden this week, so I will report back on my progress. I roped my green-fingered mother into visiting a garden centre with me, and at first I had modest plans. Maybe a few seeds and a bowl and that would be good. However, did you know there’s some pretty cool stuff in garden centres?

Over the past couple of days, Mr C and I have found ourselves at a loose end whilst waiting for a call on Skype. This is new territory for us, we’re normally in a constant state of disarray rather than relaxed anticipation. Mr C, who has experience of such things, says that a lot of working in the media industry is like this. You wait for hours for your small part in proceedings, but you have to be there just in case. I couldn’t comprehend how one would fill the time, and suggested the Shopping Cart game. Apparently, this is not what happens normally, but we thought it would be fun away.

I don’t know why people complain about wind farms, I think they’re beautiful. They’re the kind of thing I could watch all day. Hypnotising. Like driving through falling snow. However, this news story is rather worrying. A farmer in Taiwan believes that 400 of his 750 goats have died due to exhaustion - a lack of sleep caused by the vibrations and noise of a nearby wind farm. There’s no proof, but it seems like a heck of a coincidence. More argument for taking these things off shore?

The first time I saw the MagSafe idea in action, I was impressed. The magnet is fun to play around with, and heaven knows I can be clumsy, so having a safeguard in place can only be a good thing. Mr C has the MacBook with the funky power lead, but unfortunately, the laptop is on the way out. First it needed a new battery. The existing one didn’t work. It relied on mains power.

No words, just pandas. Credit: panda baby/Flickr Credit: Patty926/Flickr Credit: Joseph Trotz/Flickr Credit: Amy/Flickr Credit: Cindy May/Flickr

The main thing they should teach you in podcasting school is that sitting on a gym ball is very good practice. Firstly, it helps with your posture and, you know, it’s better than hunching over a microphone all day. Secondly, it doesn’t squeak or creek, as most chairs are known to do. I can’t stand sitting on ours for more than about ten minutes at a time, but my podcasting partner in crime makes use of the gym ball during most of the live sessions we stream. He got the idea from our idol - Leo Laporte.

A couple of days ago, I talked about Wolfram|Alpha, which is making its way in the knowledge search universe. On a different search engine note, I found yesterday that Google wouldn’t load for me, and for a good few seconds, I was completely stumped as to where else to go. Google is so integrated into my online experience and the little box in the top right of my browser makes searching so easy. Having the Google phone means other search engines might as well not exist.

Earth Day was about a month ago, and I misssed it. I didn’t feel particularly guilty at the time because it seems to be a US holiday, but everything since then has been telling me how green I should be. Firstly, Boston.com’s Big Picture - which features sets of brilliant photos around a certain theme, if you’re not subscribed to this already, do so now - had some shots of Earth Day, which are really beautiful.

The Wolfram|Alpha search engine went live today, and it’s really, really cool. It’s not meant to be any kind of competition to Google, and in fact, links off to the Goog if you want to find web links related to your search term. Wolfram’s mission is to collate knowledge and give you hard facts about a given subject. For example: Searching for my own name gives me information on how popular it is, age distribution, expected number of people alive with that name, etc. I had great fun searching for countries, to view maps, the flag, population and more. A search on a past date gives you more information than you could ever need, including what the moon was up to, how long ago it was in days and any notable births or deaths.

When I first discovered Last.fm it was a revolutionary thing - all that music, available to listen to for free? It was a turning point for my listening habits. Most of the time, I would select a radio station - pop or indie or 80s - and listen away, occasionally skipping the tracks that weren’t to my taste. Being able to heart the best songs, track what I’d listened to previously, and share the music with others was a great thing.

An article on the BBC Magazine caught my interest, as it talks to two former “Miss…” winners, ie. Miss Great Britain and Miss Universe. The questions put to them cover what they have been doing since their title expired - now that they are “Former Miss…” instead. Mostly, it seems that the beauty pageant concept is much bigger outside of the UK. In the US, it appears to open certain movie roles, and modelling work. In other countries the titles are held in high regard and offer celebrity status for no real reason.

This week is a crafty edition of the Baby Panda Thursday, as I’ve noticed a lot of photos of people being quite clever and making panda related fun stuff. Firstly, a bizarre origami panda. There are a couple of other views to show you how weird but also cute the panda is. I had a quick search on Etsy for panda and there is a veritable feast of gifts and crafts on there. Here are just a few of my favourites.

Ah, I do like Groundhogs. This makes me chuckle even though it is intensely annoying. When I get a groundhog, I’m calling it Alan.

It occurred to me recently that there are a few TV programmes I would like to go back and watch as if new. There are plenty of shows that I need to catch up on, but that’s a different matter. These are episodes I have watched, but would do anything to wipe my mind clean so I can enjoy them all over again. Jonathan Creek. I had the biggest crush on the lovable magician’s assistant when he first appeared on our screens, and I watched the first few series several times over. The problem is that a whodunit with a twist isn’t particularly engaging once you already know how it’s going to end. There were only a couple of episodes where I guessed what was going on, and I’d like to rewatch now and see if I am any smarter. (I am not.) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My overriding memory of this show is my friend telling me to watch a late night repeat of an episode I had missed - the one where Buffy’s mother dies. I watched and didn’t cry and that’s when I realised that I have a heart of stone. Therefore, now I have come to terms with that, I would like to go back and watch, and enjoy the series without feeling guilty that it doesn’t make me sad. Hornblower. Ahh, I am partial to watching a little bit of Ioan Gruffudd on screen, even if he is dressed up to the nine’s in dodgy 18th century sailor outfits. I remember being particularly dismayed when Mr Hornblower had his first on-screen kiss. Not allowed. Anyway, the stiff-upper-lipped-ness of the show appealed, but makes it hard to enjoy over and again. I’d love to go back and watch as new, though. Doctor Who. I hold my hands up and say I am one of those annoying people who has only watched the new series with the ninth and tenth doctor and still considers herself a fan. The problem is that the show is repeated endlessly on the iPlayer, and I get annoyed at seeing it. With only four new episodes this year, I’d love to go back and have the prospect of an entire brand new series to enjoy. Thunderbirds. Although any episode of Thunderbirds is easy to watch repeatedly (you know that the crisis will be averted in the end), my introduction to the puppets came when I lived with my parents. They were debuting on BBC2 for the first time in a long time. I was older than the target demographic, but watched them with my dad, and those were good times. As an aside, the film I would want to watch as new is Back to the Future 3. I may have mentioned previously how I saw the first and third films before the second one, so it made no sense. Having the benefit of watching the second film many, many times now, it would be good to go back and fix that.

A while ago, I pointed out one of the few online flash games that grabbed my attention, which was no doubt due to it’s bright colours and crazy ideas. I’ve found another one, and this redeems me as it is much more sensible: You have to control the flow of traffic. It sounds kinda dull, but it’s really quite fun - the game is called I Love Traffic, after all. The cars zoom past and you’re in control of one or more traffic lights. The only goal is to get the required number of cars through the traffic light checkpoint without causing an accident.

Following his appearance on TF1 for the Bahrain GP, Franck has been invited on the Eurosport channel to discuss all the action from Spain. A translate from his official site says: For this new issue, it will be with other guests on the Grand Prix of Spain, which will take place this weekend in Barcelona and signal the return of Formula 1 in Europe… Note in your diaries… Eurosport on Monday 11 May at 22:30.

Okay, now technically we’re taking a break from the norm here and looking at regular size pandas as well, but they are still cute, I promise. There are quite a few webcams situated in zoos across the world, and that means you can often catch a glimpse of a panda or two. They tend not to do very much. I once watched a panda chewing on bamboo for ten minutes, went away for an hour, and came back to find it in exactly the same place.

But now I’m not quite sure. When lunchtime rolled around today, I couldn’t decide whether to go out and get something to eat, or just stay in and hibernate in the office. It’s always a tough decision, you know, but usually if I’m hungry enough, the answer is obvious. Today I just couldn’t come to a conclusion, so I submitted my will to the interweb. I searched for a few, free, easy to use, decision making tools, and this is what I came up with.

I am coming out the other side of a very brief cold, which I am grateful for because I know it could have been a lot worse. However, there are so many things that annoy me about having a cold, and these are things that a doctor wouldn’t be able to help with. Sore nose. Forget the sniffing, coughing, and aching. The sore nose, developed from constant application of tissues, is the real killer. Last night I suddenly discovered I could breathe through my nose again, which makes a real difference when trying to sleep. Only I couldn’t, because it hurt too much. **Abundance of tissues. **Naturally, you go through a lot of tissues. Tissues are expensive. And they fill up the bins. And then you have to empty the bins, and go outside. And while you’re outside you might as well buy more tissues. **Boredom. **I couldn’t sleep, but I couldn’t really function to do anything either. I left work halfway through the day, and retired to bed, and all I can say is thank god for the iPod. Repeated questions. One of my few Tweets yesterday read: _“Yes I have a cold and no I didn’t go to Mexico over the weekend. It wasn’t funny the first time…” _Today I am programming: “Much better, thank you,” into my system. Lack of podcasting. Most of my hobbies involve speaking out loud in one form or another. This is not possible when you pronounce it: “Bormula One…d” I know I am not alone in disliking illness - I mean, who does? But I think some people do take better to just relaxing in bed and allowing themselves to get better, whilst I am banging my head against a brick wall and cursing the waste of time.

I came across a site recently that is perfect for planning meetups. Naturally, it’s called meetup.com. It’s basically another one of those sites that allows you to set up your own mini social network, and in this instance is the perfect place to plan each meeting of your online social circle. We recently planned a Sidepodcast meet and we managed perfectly well on the wiki, but it may be that this site could have made things a lot easier. You can quickly post information and updates about the meet itself, you can RSVP if you’re planning to attend, and there’s a whole host of video and messaging options.

I have just read up about Jason Calacanis’s new podcast called “This Week in Startups” or perhaps TWiSt for short. From the original blog post about the new show, Jason says: I’ve spoken with my good friend Leo Laporte about using the name “This Week in Startups” (or “TWiSt” as he called it) and he was so magnaemous [sic] about: telling me he doesn’t own the “This Week…” brand and that he would support me in any way.

I was looking around for some cute panda gifts - cuddly toys and the like, and found a veritable treasure trove on Cuddly Kingdom. I am particularly interested in the magnets, and the keyring. Anyway, onto the good stuff. Pandas rolling in the snow Credit: chickostix89/Flickr Panda cub follows mother Credit: Alan/Flickr

First, I have to preface this entire blog post with the fact that writing for BellaOnline was an honour. I am grateful that they selected me to write for the site, and I learnt a lot from the experience. I was signed up at the very end of January 2007, and have written for them for just over two years. Just a few days ago, I resigned from my site, and am no longer writing for them. My articles are still available on the Formula One section of BellaOnline but only until they are overwritten by the next editor. (I haven’t decided what to do with them yet.)

When we met up with some like-minded F1 fans at the Science Museum in London, the conversation spilled over into the pub and into the evening hours. One of the topics that really got me thinking was how we define sport. I don’t remember how we got onto the subject, but I imagine it had something to do with our suggestion that if F1 goes down a particular route with the regulations, we’d probably prefer to watch darts instead. That leads to: Is darts a sport?

Some days I wish I lived in France. It turns out that Montagny might have had a bit of a spot on French TV Channel TF1 during their Bahrain GP coverage. I only read about this afterwards, and there’s not much I could have done about it anyway, but yay for Franck!

Over Easter, I took a well-deserved break and disappeared into the depths of the country for a narrowboating mini-break. My parents invited me to join them, as we journeyed a short distance along the Wey river, starting at Guildford. Now, my mother could tell you all kinds of fascinating facts about where we were, and what we saw, but I mostly basked in the serenity of no cars, very few people, and… I want to say sunshine, but in fact, it rained. A lot.