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 some of the baby pandas at the base. Here they are! (I don’t think much of the keyword laden titles.)

I have tried to read this book several times before, but now that it makes an appearance on my list of books to read (along with many Terry Pratchett ones - argh!), I thought I would give it a real proper attempt. Actually, on this reading, it was nowhere near as bad as I had thought. Some of the satirical moments are amusing, and I particularly like the conversations between Rincewind and Twoflower - I can almost picture them in my head, and the relationship between the two is excellent.

I was determined to read this one, as the follow-up to the first book that I reviewed here previously. I got this book for free at the same time as the first, but it looks like the price has now gone up to a very reasonable £1.99. I’d say that comparatively speaking, the prices are very reflective of the source material. This second book was a lot less depressing than the first, and whilst still giving a lot of in insight to how idiotic both humankind, and the NHS bureaucracy, can be, it was a tiny bit more uplifting.

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 ways, he could make a killing in the museum business. I can’t imagine the stuff he’s got hidden away in that TARDIS.

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 the dogs. It’s easy to look at Kids TV these days and think it must be twisting the next generation’s mind. Look at the Teletubbies!

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 - When the Sun Goes Down

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 much cute in one place hasn’t caused a temporal disturbance.

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 race).

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 was fantastic fun, and only took me the rest of the weekend to recover.

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, it was around the time of a Harry Potter movie, and the cinema said they reserved the right to use night vision goggles and essentially spy on you. I was appalled at the idea, decided to spend my evening elsewhere, and never returned.

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 particular chap who I had a bit of a connection with, mostly because everyone else thought I was a bit odd but he had the same sense of humour as me. We used to write post-it notes to each other about nothing in particular, and then it would always end up in doodling. We used to have doodle competitions to see who was better and he always won.

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 Factbox. Firstly, because I am officially addicted to doing it. Secondly, because we need to keep on testing bits and pieces behind the scenes. Finally, because it is useful to see how easy and/or difficult it is to adapt the FBFB to other formats.

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

Oh dear oh dear. I felt like this could have been a good film. They had a great idea, albeit a little bit Mr and Mrs Smith. They had a pretty good cast, with the exception of Ms Heigl who was far too screamy and just a tad too annoying. There were moments of humour. None of it was enough though. I can’t really put my finger on what was wrong with it. For the entire time, I was sitting, eager to see what happened next, but ultimately disappointed with what was offered up. Very strange. Ashton was kinda cute though, so bonus points for that.

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 using particular logic, but perhaps I did!

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 break out across Europe today. I haven’t even been keeping a close watch on the hype surrounding but I already know that I want one.

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 is a significant spam commenting problem. Every day I am having to check that spam comments have not found their way on to the site, and at least 70% of the time, there is something published that I would rather not be 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 Team Joest – Audi R15 TDI – 1:30.041 2 Team Peugeot Total – Peugeot 908 HDi FAP – 1:31.093 (FRANCK!) In the second session, the weather was worse, and you can see from the times that it was a slow lap.

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. In the second session, they improved and finished first, with Bourdais’ car in second place - a 1-2 finish for Peugeot. If the race could go like that too, I’d be happy.

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 he can’t convince the people in charge that the Prime Minister is an alien. I imagine he has had this conversation many times before, and no one ever believes him. The only other option is to run!

Not much to report this week, as Thursday appears to be behaving itself so far. However, via ZooBorns, I learnt that the one and only baby panda cub born in the US in 2010 has made it’s appearance at Zoo Atlanta. Not sure referencing the size of a cell phone is particularly helpful when they vary so much! I don’t really like the scrawny panda cubs, they normally get cuter when they’re a bit older. It’s only a few weeks until we have another fluffy bundle to ogle though. Long live the baby panda!

Before today, I had brought my iPad to work with me three times, ready to read some books over lunch. I’ve been reading the Kindle App on my phone which is great, but it suddenly occurred to me that to other people, it probably looked as though I was staring at my phone for an hour every day. I was torn between being the type of person who stares at their phone for an hour, or the type of person who brings in their gadgety gadgets to show off.

It is well written, and paints a great picture of life in a London ambulance - as it turns out, that life is pretty grim. I’m no idiot, and know that people make life hard for the emergency services when they really should grow a brain and move out of the way for those saving our lives. I felt like the book could maybe have done with a few more positive stories though, just to balance out the ranting.

What a month! Goodness me. The weeks and weeks of setup we have been listening to are finally starting to pay off. Where do I start? Kathy and Jamie I had kinda thought, and hoped, that with Kenton out of the picture, we would hear a bit less of Kathy. Wrong! Jamie has turned into a horror teenager, I won’t argue that, although there are quite some depths he has to sink to yet… if this was Eastenders, anyway.

I wasn’t really expecting great things from this book, and that’s good, because it certainly didn’t deliver. Think of every single cliche you can from stories like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code, and then pack them all into one book. Then add in a character who really should have been retired at his peak, who actually plays very little part in the story rather than running around blindly clutching at a bag.

This past weekend, I went for a little trip to Longleat with my very good friend. I was driving through the safari park, which means it’s a little bit tricky to take pictures and steer at the same time, but I did get a couple of good shots. I did enjoy the house, despite my normal dislike of anywhere you are not allowed to take pictures. There is so much artwork on the walls, big curtains, enormous rugs, and lots to look at. Great fun.

After seeing the original film, and then the sequel, I knew I was going to have to read the book. I was quite glad that it was a short-ish novel, because it was so heavy with philosophy that otherwise it would have taken me months to read it. The story is there, and Wikipedia calls it a work of gothic horror. I’m not sure it is quite of horror status, but it certainly makes you think!

That’s easy for you to say. I recently added a new item to my Life List in the form of No. 63 - Solve a Rubik’s Cube. When I was quite a lot younger, I had a Rubik’s Cube and I couldn’t do it at all. My mum found The Book for solving it, and even with the answer in front of me, I still couldn’t do it. So now, with winter drawing in, I thought it would be fun to get started on what is likely to be a very long term list item. The cube can sit on my desk, and I can just pick it up when I have a few minutes. I’m not confident I will ever manage to figure this out, even if I do give in and buy the book at some point in the future.

With a new month, comes a new batch of headers, and with a new site, we have a new start. Instead of the Smarter Than Your Average banner of old, I’ve changed to the new site name, and that gives a bit more space. For this header, the first inspiration came from the colours - I wanted to mix a deep red/purple with a nice cream. Et voilà!

It has been a couple of years since I sat some exams, and I have been very happy spending my time in more creative pursuits. I have got out of the house a bit more, examined the world of podcast and community creation to a greater extent, and spent a lot of time with my family and friends. Now, though, I am getting the craving to learn again. I am always learning, obviously, given what a clean slate I have to begin with, and what a poor memory I have for retaining information. When I watch films, I learn. When we talk in the comments, I learn. When I read books, I learn. We all do.

A quick look at Etsy this week. Sliding Invitation Cards It looks like the panda is actually crushing the text, but in fact, it slides around a bit. I’m not quite sure why, but it’s fun, and I particularly like a purple panda. Etsy Link: simplypearlee Silly Fuzzy Pandas Aww, these are so cute. The wool is definitely fuzzy, so I wonder if it might be a bit itchy and therefore not huggable, but even so cute little square shaped pandas.

For a little while, I was a bit concerned about the excess swearing, because I always feel there’s no need for language every three words. However, the longer the film went on, the more it seemed to fit, and I could just go with it. I loved just how unconventional the entire thing was, from the very simple premise, to the twists and turns, to the controversial aspects. The title is the only thing that bugs me, but the sequel is going to be worse!

I spotted this a while ago, but keep on coming back to it - the Adipose Stress Toy. The Adipose made their debut at the same time as Donna Noble, and although technically they are quite gross (born from the fat and yuck of humans), they are also enormously cute. Far from having to squish and squeeze the stress away, simply looking at the Adipose’s toothy grin makes me feel happy.

That’s wicked in a bad sense. A while back, we had some issues with our Sidepodcast wiki. It was hosted on Wetpaint, and… well, it basically didn’t work for a lot of people. There were intrusive ads that could be removed for a reasonable (!) $20 a month, and there were a lot of virus warnings floating around as well. It was time to move, and Wikia seemed like the best bet. A very popular wiki-host, with a look and feel that was very much like what you would expect from a wiki. There were some limitations, but equally plenty of benefits, and I decided to take the plunge, and put in a lot of hours moving everything across.

Franck’s next assignment takes place at the beginning of November, when the LMP1 class of cars turn up at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The 7th November will see Franck partnered with Stephane Sarrazin, whilst a second Peugeot car will be fielded by Bourdais and Pagenaud. That’s still a couple of weeks away, of course, so while we’re waiting, here’s a photo gallery (on Facebook) of Franck at Petit Le Mans. Yum.

A note from my dad: Congratulations to Christine for completing the 5k run. Only a few months ago she couldn’t even run to the end of her garden. She was showing me the picture of her crossing the finishing line and I thought that at last she has managed to grasp the idea of a race. I was remembering a certain playschool sports day in 1987 or 1988. I have attached a couple of pictures I took. In the first picture Christine is lined up with her classmates waiting for the starting whistle. In the second, as you can see, they have all gone and she is stood there on the starting line all on her own. The expression on her face said “Where have they gone?”

The main problem with this film is that it had two very, very funny moments and therefore everything else paled in comparison a little. However, I laughed out loud quite a lot, and Bruce was fabulous as always. Even the story was good, despite starting out in a cops get taken off the job cliche. I wonder if they’ll make a sequel.

I’ve become a little bit obsessed with a new game on the iPod/iPad, and it’s called Train Conductor. The premise is quite simple - trains appear on the tracks and you have to direct them to the correct destination. Sounds like a million other Flight Control/Traffic Control style games. There are lots of extras, though. There are two kinds of levels - the daytime shift has you steering trains to avoid each other, whilst the nighttime shift has ghost trains that can pass through each other, but require other attention. The developers made a video to better show off the game.

The votes have been pouring in, thanks to everyone, and we have our winning header design. The winning design is the rather whimsical Gretna Green signpost. Excellent stuff! That will be the header for the next few weeks, whilst I gather inspiration for the next batch of designs.

The first two-part Doctor Who episode of the New Who era, and we are back to London to find out that Rose has been missing. I was slightly confused by the entire introduction to this story. Whilst it was quite revealing to see the impact of Rose’s departure on her family and the friends she has left behind, isn’t the TARDIS a time machine? Once they realised they’d returned a year later, couldn’t they hop back in and hit reverse for 12 months? Problem solved.

There are no arguments that this is the weakest of the three movies by a long way, but the little inside jokes and repetitions from so much time travelling are really good. There are lots of little things that you need to be aware of and will make you chuckle if you’re paying attention. It’s just a shame the DeLorean was smashed to smithereens at the end.

I recently stumbled across the site Kickstarter. It’s an interesting way to raise money for a creative endeavour you want to do, for instance, make a film. You set a time limit and a goal, and encourage people to donate to the cause. If you reach your goal, excellent, you can go on and make your film. If you don’t reach the target, though, no one pays anything, all donations are cancelled, and you’ll have to go back to the drawing board.

If I was faced with all three movies and was only allowed to pick one, this would be my favourite choice. I like that it has both the future and the past in it, and all the coincidences and repeat sequences from the first are brilliant. I can also say a lot of the lines along with it, which is annoying for anyone watching with me, but great fun for me!

We have reached the end of another batch of headers, and as is the custom, we’re going to have a vote. All you need to do is pick out which is your favourite of the ten headers featured over the last few weeks. I’ll keep the vote up for a few days, and then the winning design will be up there for the rest of October. That gives me a chance to sit back, take stock, scout around for inspiration and get designing.

Today I can cross another item off my Life List, as I only went and completed that pesky 5K race. It feels like I’ve done nothing but talk about running forever, but in actual fact, I only picked up the Couch 2 5K app in June. Since then, I’ve built up my stamina, and my patience, and certainly improved a lot, but I can tell you one thing for certain: I was not built for speed.

I am ridiculously nervous. You might even call it “freaking out.” It’s not so much the running, although it is a little bit the running. The last few attempts haven’t been as good as I might have hoped. They do say that a bad dress rehearsal signals a good opening night, though, so I’m pinning my optimism on that. So, yes, it’s not so much the running, as the running in front of other people. The only mid-exercise interaction I have had with others is when people walking their dogs take a wide berth as they pass me by.