I have been putting off writing this blog entry for a long time because, well, basically because it means admitting that I watch Dawson’s Creek. Before you laugh at me, I’m going to tell you a little story. I used to watch it when it was on originally, I saw the first few series, then it moved to Five. At the time, I couldn’t get Five, it was a snowstorm …

Brigitte’s Archives » Blog Archive If you haven't seen Brigitte's videos before, you MUST watch. I love them. Even a ten minute shout out show is good fun. *** Music - News - U2 sign 12-year deal with Live Nation - Digital Spy Surely the state of media/entertainment industries right now means you would want to steer clear of a 12 year deal?

WordPress Gets Major Overhaul We've done it over on Sidepodcast. It's... interesting. *** Adobe AIR Desktop App For FriendFeed Coming Not sure about FriendFeed yet, but the picture looks good. *** Reporting from the slopes - The Best of YouTube (Link retired) My god, people spend hours trying to perfect moves like that.

TV Scoop: TV Review - Sleeping with my Sister, Channel 4, Thursday, March 27, 9pm (Link retired) I didn't watch it, and to be honest, it creeps me out a bit. *** Eastenders: HILARIOUS!!! Bianca’s Jackson Five Spoof Video - Unreality Primetime (Link retired) Clearly the singing leaves something to be desired, but now the song is stuck in my head. *** 10 Millionth Article Written on Wikipedia I don't …

I don't actually watch Eastenders, but I have had a look at the YouTube clips associated with this story. So, Eastenders featured a buried alive storyline. Max Branning (who?) apparently cheated on Tania Branning (who?) and she got her revenge by burying him alive. This was something he was particularly afraid of. She and her new boyfriend dug a grave, put him in a coffin in the hole and left …

I've just been looking at the official Franck Montagny site, and it's a bit odd. The news is in French, and I don't speak the language, which makes things a little bit tricky. What I am confused about is the beginning and the end. Beginning of news article: Hot wheels,hell yea !!!! Pas beaucoup de news ces derniers temps hein ?? End of news article: Voilà vous en savez tout …

Soaps - News - 'EastEnders' burial prompts 100 complaints - Digital Spy I don't watch Eastenders, but I know that some things are just not necessary.

In a recent interview with Ed Gorman at The Times Online, BBC 5live pit reporter Holly Samos talks about her scariest moment in the heart of the action. The pits are a dangerous place so you have to have your wits about you. One of my scariest moments was when I was about midway down the pitlane talking with a photographer. Franck Montagny, who was driving for Super Aguri at …

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Leaping stingray kills US woman "It's just as freakish an accident as I have heard." *** Battle Of The Podcasting Geek Chicks I watch three or more of these - how about you? *** The Next Chapter : LOL: The Life of Leo Ambitious - I like it.

WALL•E trailer The newest film from Disney Pixar... to be honest, it doesn't grab me as much as I'd hoped. *** Showbiz - News - Beckhams preferred to Brown in Downing St - Digital Spy I pray that this isn't true.

WordPress and Del.icio.us 101 (link retired) A great place to start, wouldn't you say? *** Bienvenidos al nuevo canal de Tecnología En Espanol, por favor. *** The Sims 3 If only there were 72 hours in a day...

Official details of The Sims 3 have been released. Whilst I'm flipping out with excitement, I'm also desperately sad, because I just don't have time to play anymore. Maybe I will by the time 2009 rolls round... ha.

Toyota driver Timo Glock suffered a big accident at the season opener in Australia last weekend, and whilst he walked away mostly uninjured, there were a few days of doubt whether he would be able to race in Malaysia. It's now been announced that he will. And all I can say is phew. If Toyota had to fall back on their reserve driver, the second race after Montagny is no …

I was going to write a post about the ITV player, and how it's new and improved and could start rivalling the iPlayer. But then Channel 4 released some shows onto iTunes and I forgot about everything else. The most important thing to note is that I have now given up buying a TV Guide, and I'm relying on TV blogs to tell me what to watch, and I'm relying …

I saw this on The Buzz Report and wanted one straight away. It’s too cute. Originally, I was impressed by the gadgety goodness, the functionality, the ability to read your emails or your RSS feeds, or listen to the radio. My favourite feature was the ability to plug in your iPod, but then I was told: “You know, you have been able to do that for a long time, it’s …

As pointed out by Steven Roy in the comments, Forsythe Racing have announced they won't be competing in whatever championship the Champ Car/IRL merger turns out to be. I don't know about Franck, but I was kinda pinning my hopes on him getting that drive. Now we have simply the Le Mans thing to look out for. However, the good news is that in looking at that news story, I …

The BBC have finally released their updated homepage, after months of Beta. It's very Web 2.0 with curvy edges, pastel colours and viewer customisation. When I first saw it, I wasn't impressed. I couldn't really put my finger on what it was exactly, but the colours weren't right and it just didn't do it for me. The only bit I felt was of any use was the clock in the …

Another tech dilemma: I want to make more Sidepodcast Diary episodes. They are designed to be quick and easy to produce with minimal effects. The very essence of the Diary is that it’s just an upload to YouTube and that’s it. No RSS feed, no fuss, it’s a snapshot of life behind the scenes at Sidepodcast. I have been using a little camera, now I’ve been using my mobile and …

Twitter appeals to the short-form writer in me. I used to run a site called 101 Words, which essentially a short post every day about random stuff, but that was crucially 101 words long. Exactly. It became quite an art to fit all your thoughts for the day into 101 words. Twitter is the same kind of thing. There’s something about having a short space to get your message across …

So, there he is, with his Peugeot Le Mans team buddies. Is it just me or is the goatee not necessarily the best look he's ever had? He also looks a bit manic, what with the sticky up hair and the slightly menacing glare. Nevertheless, he's in the team and that's all that matters.

Peugeot are running three cars at this year's Le Mans race, meaning a hoarde of drivers signing up to sit behind the wheel. Christian Klien and Alex Wurz are other Formula 1 drivers getting involved, but of course the most important is Franck Montagny. The Peugeot 908 is a diesel powered car with the maximum size engine allowed. Last year, two of them ran, one of which qualified ahead of …

First the iPlayer, and now iTunes. Finally, the BBC have allowed their programmes to be on the iTunes store. It’s only a select few at the moment, and only one that I’m particularly interested in, but this is a revolutionary moment. I understand that there are limitations and conflicts with the BBC’s charter – they can’t charge us for content when we pay our licence fee, can they? But I …

Well, that may be an exaggeration, but the former Formula 1 driver has been saying some nice things about our favourite Frenchman. It also looks like there’s no shortage of talented drivers staying in and coming into Champ Car. The Sebring test demonstrated something I’ve known for a long time – that Franck Montagny is every bit as quick as his test times suggest. He deserves a competitive ride this …

The news doing the rounds at the moment is that IRL and Champ Car are getting back together. I can’t pretend to understand this fully, because I’m a newbie, but I get the idea. The two used to be part of the same series but split apart a while back. Going their separate ways obviously hasn’t done them any favours, I imagine the division of fans, audience, and sponsors, isn’t …

Is it just me or does the official Champ Car website leave a lot to be desired? Half of it is out of date - the driver bios only go up to 2005. Which is now three years ago. At least the event schedule and the news is up to date. But there should be more video and pictures available. Although, compared to the official F1 site, it's a dream. …

On the first day of testing for Forsythe Pettit/Racing, Mr Montagny topped the timesheets. I'm told this is not his first time in a Champ Car, but that's still pretty impressive. The top five of Day 1: | Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Speed | |---------|---------|---------|---------|---------| | 1 | Franck Montagny | Forsythe Pettit/Racing | 50.788 seconds | 118.304 mph | | 2 | Oriol Servia | …

Hello everyone, welcome to the I <3 Franck blog. The mean old man over at Sidepodcast won’t let me talk about Champ Car (even though they have sidepods too!), so I’ve created this blog to worship at the feet of my new favourite CC driver: Franck Montagny. I say my new favourite CC driver as if I had one before, but quite honestly, I know absolutely nothing about Champ Car. …

Ever since I saw Live Writer, I knew that Microsoft had it in them to be good. They know what they’re doing when it comes to marketing to the masses but for us geeky individuals, they leave a lot to be desired. Live Writer has the essence of greatness, in that everything you need to blog to many different platforms is all in one place and it is unbelievably easy …

I posted recently about the brilliance of the iPlayer and how it had revolutionised my television viewing experience. Well. I take it back. After booting up my laptop today, I opened the iPlayer Download Manager only to find a message suggesting I did not have anything to watch. Except that is a blatant lie, because I have been quite happily downloading things for the past few weeks. I've been storing …

The thing is, I didn't set up my Facebook account, it started out as a promotional tool for Sidepodcast. It still is that, but now I have started to take more of an interest in the whole social networking thing. I logged in and today, of all days, it wished me a Happy Birthday. Because as it wasn't specifically about me when it was set up, the account's birthday was …

Sidepodcast has a brand new Wordpress theme, introduced for the New Year, and I wrote it. I can't claim 100% of the credit, but a lot of the fundamental CSS work was mine. There were just a few twiddly, fiddly bits that I needed a hand with. I couldn't find a theme that suited me so I decided to write my own. You have to start by picking a layout …

Picture the scene: You enter a bustling Apple store, full of giggling teenage girls snapping pictures of themselves and uploading them to Bebo. Everyone is there buying gadgets with their Christmas money and planning what they'll get in the January sales. You are buying some software, which you have had to ask an assistant to fetch from the back of the store. You are waiting by the Genius Bar. A …

In the good old days, I used to enjoy television at Christmas. Actually, let's rephrase that, I used to enjoy television full stop. My dad has always been one for guessing plot lines before they happen, working out the twists, the jokes, even the next words out of an actor's mouth. It was quite annoying, but I guess if you can see these things, you want to share them. Since …

My inaugural post as a somewhat techie blogger must be about the BBC iPlayer. I have been using it for about a week now and I've formed some initial impressions. Firstly, confusion reigned supreme. Back when the iPlayer was announced, I quite obviously checked it out. Having TV accessible via the Internet is something I am keeping a close eye on, and I have strong views about the BBC as …

I am back. But things will not be like they were before. Forget about all that personal stuff. It works for some people but it no longer works for me. I loved it while it lasted, but times change, and some things are more important than blogging your entire life history on the web. Here, I would imagine, there will be comments on life as a whole, society as I …

With the new look design, I wanted to give the About Me section a bit of a new flavour to it as well. I've spotted a lot of people writing 100 Things About Me sections. Doesn't seem all that difficult, does it? My first job was to write down the list of numbers 1 to 100, which actually took ages. Then, I started at the beginning, with the basics. Born …

Woke Up This Morning is no more. Sorry for the abrupt disappearance and for anyone who is going to miss my ramblings. This is the consequence of a choice I had to make and whilst it's hard for me to see it go, ultimately it was an easy decision. Some things are more important than blogging. I'm still around over at Sidepodcast and look for me commenting on a website …

The thing I hate about being an adult is having to be responsible about money. At the moment, I’m busy trying to save for something rather important, and it’s really, really not working. My outgoings are equalling my income and there’s nothing left over. It’s rubbish. If I didn’t have the thing to save for, I would be treading water quite nicely, but it’s just a weight on my shoulders. …

Since I went crazy and started downloading every podcast that I can find, the space on my hard drive has diminished somewhat scarily. It hadn’t occurred to me, until Mr C said to make sure that I hadn’t filled the drive up completely. When I checked, I was quite shocked by the small number I was faced with. The problem is, I’m a bit obsessive about the podcasting thing. If …

I looked in the mirror yesterday and I suddenly realised that I look older. Not old, hopefully. I'm not worrying about wrinkles just yet. Definitely older than the last time I checked, though. How old I feel usually depends on whether I am asked for ID in the supermarket when I'm trying to buy beer. Or if that polite young salesman in the shop calls me “Madam”. It's little things …

The weather has taken a turn for the worse. Even though we occasionally get a sunny day and it's lovely, you can tell that it is no longer summer. At some point this week, I was woken up by my alarm and it was still dull and pretty dark outside. How depressing. When it does get lighter, it’s not that bright and glorious summer sunshine, it’s a grey morning turning …

Hello. My name's Christine and I'm a chocoholic. Well, a recovering chocoholic, anyway. I've been on the wagon for a whole week now, and it seems like forever. I didn't know I was a chocoholic, I didn't know I had a problem until I tried to quit. It happened because I was hungry and ate a Twix for lunch. Then I looked at the nutritional information (or un-nutritional information for …

A few years ago, my friend and I would spend a lot of time watching University Challenge. We would shout out all kinds of crazy answers, the first things that came into our heads, and very occasionally, we’d get the answer right. We would count up our scores and be chuffed if we got five between us out of a half hour programme of questions. You see, the thing with …

I've always wanted to go to Brownsea Island. Islands fascinate me. The idea of being totally cut off from the rest of the world, surrounded by water and completely peaceful. Brownsea Island is owned by the National Trust and is basically a nature walk that spans the length of the island - about one and a half miles. It's famous for being home to red squirrels, a species that is …

As I was driving to work this morning, I drove over an object in the road. As it slipped under the car and out of view, I noticed that it was a saw. You know, like a carpenter would use. Thankfully, it was in the middle of the road, between the wheels and couldn't do any damage. But how did it get there? Has someone got to their destination, unpacked …

We've managed to come into possession of a Nintendo DS Lite, and we cannot stop playing it. Or maybe that should read "I" cannot stop playing it. We fight over it like people fight custody battles. "I want to take it to work today." "You won't have time to play it." "Lunchtime." "I want it. Give it to me." "It's half mine." "It's half mine." There's no easy answer and …

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I sent a script off to the BBC. BBC Writersroom encourages unsolicited scripts, and they'll get read and examined for scriptwriting talent. I got my script back yesterday, just over two months since I sent it in, and obviously, they didn't like it. Big shock. It's only the second story I've ever finished, and the first script I've ever written, so I'm …

I got home last night and an enormous silver ball came flying out of the main room into the hallway. Thankfully, I had moved out of the way from my usual "removing shoes" position, and the ball missed me. For a second, I thought I was unknowingly in a remake of The Prisoner. Turns out it was just a gym ball. Has anyone tried to use one of these? I …

My list of unheard podcasts gets smaller and smaller until I find some brand new exciting ones that I want to listen to in their entirety. The time I spend at my laptop means I am being more productive and crossing things off my To-Do list as well. But it means other things are stacking up. I have still barely made a dent on my stack of books from the …

Hello. Are you all still there? I'm back. But only just. Last night, I was pulling a plug out of a 4-way socket and the whole thing exploded, sending me cowering to the other side of the room. On closer investigation, it turns out the 4-way had actually broken inside, in such a way that the experienced electrical type guy that I live with had never seen before. Could have …