A while ago, Amy pointed out this fabulous stationery site - Kikki.K. They have the most gorgeous collections of pens, paper, folders, pots, anything you could want. It’s all chunky and geometrical, and I love it! Here are a couple of examples of the greatness. A penpot: Sticky notes: Meal planning: I basically want everything on the site and I bet you’ll feel the same.

I have never really heard of a stationery box before, but whilst investigating some rather posh pens, I came across this Secretaire box from Smythson. The box is made of leather, is lockable and comes with it’s own rather fancy stationery, but I’m not sure that justifies the £5,145 price tag! I’m completely in love with all the little drawers, but really, I’d rather just get a pen pot, I think.

The kind of thing I would never want to write in because it is just too precious. The Elite Writer’s Journal (link no longer available)

I found this video on the Inside TWiT TV blog, posted by Dane Golden, who is unfortunately credited as Dave in the video itself. It’s a 20 minute look inside the TWiT cottage including chats with Leo, Dane and Colleen - the engineering genius behind it all. Well worth a watch, particularly if you are crazy Leo fans like us. The video builds on something I wrote about previously - whether watching live streams is the future.

The very excellent, lovely, talented and creative Kat Hall made me a monster! After spotting Giles the monster on Kat’s blog, I half-commissioned, half-begged for a monster of my very own. At Christmas I became the proud owner of the above monster, now christened Benjamin. Ben wears a tie as he works in the city and he carries a briefcase, although he’s usually lost it somewhere. He’s very smart, and I love that you can never quite tell if he’s smiling or not.

Behold! I am back with another podcast, and in a relatively reasonable timeframe as well! I had planned to do this a few days earlier, but a sore throat kept me from my microphone. Hopefully all the stories are still relevant! I’m sure there are budgetary reasons for this as well On episode seven of Media. Future. Change. we investigate the buzz behind Google Buzz, who is living in a box, why there are cutbacks at the BBC, and how you can keep track of your dog.

Just a quick admin note, I’ve updated the About Franck page to include his 2009 antics. I’m sure I’ve missed something, so please let me know if I have forgotten anything crucial. I’ve updated the About Me page as well. It was a bit cryptic before, pointing people at Sidepodcast but saying little else. Goodness knows why, it’s not like it was a secret. Now I’m a bit more forthcoming about who I am and how I “met” Franck. Here is an excerpt:

I’ve mentioned in a couple of MFC episodes that YouTube are doing more and more to bring content into the site, moving away from the home video side of things, and dealing with broadcasters and networks. I’ve not really invested too much time in watching what’s available, although I do keep my eye on what deals they’re making. It came to my attention yesterday that our hero Leo Laporte has his TWiT videos available on YouTube now as well.

If you haven’t seen the latest music video from OK Go, then you must view it now. I know. Wow. Right? It’s taken me a while to be convinced that it is actually real but after reading a great behind the scenes piece on it, I’m gonna go with it. Some facts you need to know:

There’s been a story doing the rounds recently about the Billboard Top 40 Money Makers, with U2 topping the list. I mentioned this to Mr C, as he’s a former crazy fan who now just keeps an eye on what they’re up to. He questioned the idea, and that led to a fascinating conversation. I wanted to blog some highlights, as it raises a lot of questions. Credit: Andrew3000/Flickr

The official Franck site has updated with talk of what he’s been up to for the past few days: This week FKM took part to his first official practice session with Peugeot at Paul Ricard circuit. The weather conditions were obviously not perfect, wet track and very windy, but still Franck was way too happy to complain! Being back at the wheel was just what he had been waiting for for the past few weeks.

I requested some sticky tape and then made the mistake of taking a couple of days off. The stationery catalogue is hidden away in my filing cabinet, but someone must have found it and placed an order. When I mentioned this over on Sidepodcast, the reaction was instant and very divided. As an over-generalisation, the girls hate it and the boys think it’s funny. I’m sure you already know what I think of it.

After reading Silence of the Lambs and thoroughly enjoying it, I took on board the recommendations for this sequel. The style is very similar to the original, as you would expect, and there’s plenty of action to keep you turning the pages. As with the previous book, what struck me more than anything was the ability of Harris to turn Hannibal into a sympathetic character. The man kills and eats people, for goodness sake. Yet, most of the way through, you were rooting for him not to be caught. By the way, the plan they had for him? Totally gross.

I can’t quite believe we’ve reached the final part already, and yet, so much has happened to Mitch in just nine short chapters! This final vote was a very interesting one for me, and as ever, I was surprised at the voting. Not necessarily at the result, but at the margins and at the fact that the lead didn’t change hands once. I want to thank everyone who took the time to read and to vote (or just to vote if you are Mr C). We averaged around 35 votes per section which was more than I could ever have hoped for. Thanks for sticking with it, and I hope the end does the story justice.

It took me a while to get into this book. Jonathan Ross writes exactly as he speaks, and it wasn’t until I could hear his voice in my head as I was reading that it really started to flow. Some of the statements and sentences seemed harsh and out of place, but as soon as you’ve got Ross reading it to you in your head, then it all fits together much better.

I was looking through some of the archives of my blog (don’t you do that, I’m still in the midst of sorting it all out!), and discovered that I didn’t actually write about mine and Mr C’s wedding here on my personal blog. There are pictures and suchlike on Sidepodcast, and we even answered some questions in one of the episodes, but over here, it was all quiet. There are probably a lot of reasons, but one of them springs to mind straight away. Aside from the whole wedding aspect of it, we really didn’t have a very good time. We married on a cruise ship because we wanted something very private, plus it was a great way of having the wedding and honeymoon at the same time. Except, the honeymoon/holiday part… not great.

For a moment, I thought the Annette/Baby/Leon/Helen storyline was all done and dusted. Helen kept on shrieking until Annette left, and then Helen told anyone and everyone who came in to the shop exactly why it was that her young friend had fled. I read on the message boards someone who consumed The Archers via the email synopsis of each show, and assumed they were a couple from her scarily clingy nature. I can totally see it!

I’ve talked about Librivox on a few occasions before, and today I’m popping back to the topic to pass along a request for help. Although the time I can spare reading and recording LibriVox books varies throughout the year, it’s always been really great fun. Time spent there is supportive and friendly, and the book selection is vast and fabulous. LibriVox has been giving away free audiobooks for several years, and now it’s time to ask for help.

What I like about Deaver is the ability to cross information throughout the series without being dull, repetitive or patronising. In this one we have plenty of familiar characters, who all have history that shapes the way they work. There’s even a glimpse of one of the criminals from a previous book, and at no step of the way was I thinking ‘shh, I know this, get on with it.’ That could be to do with my bad memory though.

Once again, the voting on the last poll really surprised me. For a long while, the daredevil answer was winning - don’t listen to the team, just go for it. However, a more sensible approach seems to have won: So, Mitch is ready to do what the team wants, but on his own terms. Where will that lead? Today’s vote will be the last one, and whilst I’m sure it’s not a surprise - we’ve been heading here for a while now - it’s the big one. You get to decide how the story ends - and whether or not there will be a sequel. No pressure!

The vote for part seven was interesting because the conservative approach was winning to start with, but then all the rebels appeared and gave us the answer we now have: I had to explain the difference between the two qualifying approaches to my mother who said she can’t wait until I have a less motorsport related story going on. For now, though, we’re about to qualify in Monaco.

Everyone has been talking about this, so I guess I should too. I tried to resist but it is impossible to ignore. More information is available via Kottke. When it’s cold outside, people are using sausages on their touchscreens so they don’t have to take their gloves off. I find the whole idea kinda gross and would much rather use something like the Etip Gloves.

Peugeot Sport held a press conference this week to confirm their plans and drivers for the year ahead. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of Franck talk, but that’s probably because a lot of the focus was on new boy Anthony Davidson. The 5live commentator will be getting behind the wheel alongside Marc Gené and Alexander Wurz. Davidson gets to be in the number 1 car, whilst Franck remains in the #2, with his French companions.

There’s always been a lot of talk about Flash and how, to be polite, it’s a bit of a CPU hog. In our house, Mr C will often be found bemoaning the existence of Flash, and it’s understandable that the Apple universe of products is less than supportive of it. I never really thought about the problem too much, but that has changed. I watch the majority of my TV on the iPlayer, with the occasional dip into Channel 4OD, and iTunes comes way down the list after that. I would love to buy up all my content on there, my Wish List is ridiculous, but sadly, I have yet to win enter the lottery.

I really enjoyed the last round of voting. Instead of a moral decision, or something that defines Mitch as a character, it was simply a “what obstacle shall we throw in his path” and you got to make that decision. The voting changed drastically throughout, but there could only be one winner. It seems as though Mason has got under everyone’s skin, whether it is for good or for bad! Apologies to all who wanted it to be Melissa at the door. We will have to do a more romantic story soon. For now, on with Part 7.

I never really spent much time reading newspapers, which is apparent if you ask me about world events, but now that I spend a vast amount of time online, I do stumble across the online versions of the dead tree counterparts more often. There are two media type offerings from The Guardian that I wanted to give a bit of a shout out too. In my quest to catch up with podcasts (so much easier now I have double speed!) I’ve been listening to Media Talk. It’s a weekly, fast paced look at everything in the world of media - from newspapers, to TV, to blogging plus all that’s in between. It’s probably an acquired taste, as I can imagine the presenters aren’t easy listening for everyone, but I love it, and I find the subjects they cover fascinating.

There was more slapstick than I remember, the bit with the dog and falling overboard on the boat. There was also far more nudity than I remembered, but you couldn’t get two prettier people to do so. I watched this first time round when I was still hard-hearted, hence the mushy comment up above. In reality, now I have mellowed, it’s not mushy at all, it’s got the perfect amount of family warmth alongside romantic drama with two great leads.

And thus we begin the second half of our story, and part six is here. The voting was down a little for the last section, but I am not surprised. It’s not really a difficult choice between partying and studying, is it? Ah, it was closer than I suspected. Good stuff. However, it is party time in Monaco, and Mitch and Bruno are ready to hit the town. Please note there is added green screen in Part 6, just for Gavin. Let’s go!

Surprisingly, this was much better than I thought. It reminded my of that TV documentary about Enid Blyton. Slow and moving, emotional and telling the simple story of someone’s life and how that translated into the work they produced. Still not a fan of Renée but this was good.

I was with it until the dogs all started barking at each other in some kind of secret underground dog network. The initial story about how they got together, how the puppies came to be, and how Cruella formed her plan was much more interesting than the end payoff. It’s a bit corny, but well meaning, I guess.

We have reached Part 5 of our story, halfway through, and I still have no idea how it’s going to end. I’m starting to get a vague sense of direction though, which is always good. Fun, isn’t it? The voting picked up again for Part 4, which was lovely to see, and the winner was also quite an outright favourite from the start: It’s interesting that Mitch didn’t get to confront Mason after the first race, but now he’s had time to cool off, and actually see a chequered flag, he’s ready for the conversation.

Just a couple of things to note: I gave Chrome a try, I did, honest. I set it as my default and I used it for a couple of days. I really like the transition when you drag a tab to become a new window. Beautiful. I missed the Copy Link as Text Firefox plug-in something chronic. And when I was doing some F1 Minute stuff, Chrome was copy/pasting in a really funky way. Then it wouldn’t let me log into Gmail at all, no errors, just refreshing the page all the time. At this stage I have to say, it’s good but it’s not for me. I’m sorry. I know I have let you all down. For a long time, I’ve been scratching my head and wondering why people have their Twitter updates populate their blog. Aside from a little bit of extra content, I couldn’t figure it out. Mostly, I quite like it, it’s a good way of catching up with those conversations that Twitter doesn’t want you to see. Grr. Now I’ve figured it out, though, because it’s an excellent way of keeping your tweets for yourself. A backup of Twitter, if you like. Putting all that info out into the cloud is all very well, but if Twitter goes down (which isn’t out of the question!), it’s gone. Also, I have to hold up my hand and say I’ve been very un-MFC in the way I keep my to-do list. It’s been a scrap of paper. I tried lots of different systems, but it’s a habit you have to get into, and I couldn’t break the pen and paper thing. Thing is, then I lost the paper, and I was really mad. There is definitely something to be said for online productivity tools. I am now using a combination of Doris and Ta Da List, and I’m going to make it work this time. No more paper for me.

It’s all quiet on the FKM front at the moment, but there was an update on his official website by the man himself at the beginning of the month. He talks about when he first started getting interested in driving, and how he feels behind the wheel. He even takes a moment to thank us, the stalkers! (via Google Translate) I am happy to have people who support me, encourage me, are interested in what I realized at the wheel of my machines and I hope I can manage even a little bit, through the few lines that I write, you have to share a little piece of this magical world and, in my turn, I can share with you this moment of pure happiness …

It’s a good and fun film, although not a patch on anything Pixar. The nice thing about Wallace & Gromit style creations are that they have nice in jokes that relate to Britain, as opposed to the US Pixar. It does make them feel very homely and I feel better about the film having watched it this time.

Here we are with part four of our story, a day later than expected. Sorry about that, there was podcasting to be done. So, how did the vote go for part three? I was quite surprised with the result: I thought perhaps the voting would be more adventurous, this is fiction after all and anything can happen! It seems as though reality was more convincing though, and we all know overtaking is nigh on impossible. Instead, Mitch has been instructed to pit early.

Oh dear. If you ignore the bad acting, and the fact that Herbie is criminally underused in a film where he is supposed to be the title character, then you have a story so formulaic, you can almost predict the next line before it happens. I knew it would be bad but I wanted to give it a chance. I wish I hadn’t.

The story is complete nonsense. It starts out well, a mystery about numbers and a psychic child from 50 years ago. Then it all goes a bit… weird. The CGI totally makes up for it though. For about a week after watching this, I kept saying to Mr C - Did you see that subway scene? Unreal, and totally worth the crazy alien thing.

The first episode of 2010 has a brand new look, and covers a wide range of topics that have caught my eye over the past month. It doesn’t work like that anymore From the Apple iPad, to the Amazon Kindle and everything in between, MFC gets a fresh look for 2010. Topics in this show also include how to keep wiki sites in business, and what would happen if you printed Twitter.

Here we are with Part 3. The pattern seems to have evolved to a chapter being posted, voting for a day, and then a day-ish for writing. I hope you’re enjoying the story so far, I’ve certainly been impressed with the voting. Speaking of which: I thought love was a bit of a long shot, but with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, you never know. Anyway, rivalry it is, and here is part three:

Hi, my name’s Christine and I’m a blogaholic. My global dashboard in Wordpress is looking pretty scary right now. I started a brand new blog called Ten Step Stories [link defunct], and it’s fiction. This is quite a big deal, although I don’t know why. The basic premise is a story, told in ten separate parts, and at the end of each, you get to decide what happens next via the medium of an embedded poll. I’m two parts into the first story, which is about motorsports (they do say you should write about what you know), and already the voting has been great fun! I went to sleep on the first day with one option in the lead, and woke up to find the second choice had not only overtaken, but galloped away into the distance.

Here are a selection of photos from tostie14 on Flickr. They are cute!

Thank you to everyone for all the encouraging feedback following Ten Step Stories’ debut. I haven’t really written fiction for a couple of years so it was a bit of a push to hit the publish button. I’m glad I did though. Thank you. The voting was close. On the first day, it looked as though Mitch would be heading over to beat the living daylights out of his rival, but in the end, sense appears to have won out, and it’s a debrief for our rookie. The votes were as follows.

This was it. This was the moment John Mitchell had been waiting for. His heart was thumping, he could feel it in his temple, could hear his pulse echoing in his ears. A crackle of static interrupted the rhythm. “Don’t forget to breathe, Mitch,” came the raspy voice of his engineer. Mitch gripped the steering wheel tighter, his gloves hiding the white of his knuckles. From fourth on the grid, he had the chance to make up places at the first corner. He had the opportunity to make records. Headlines. He could do it. He could win his debut race.

I’ve always been an iPod Nano person. I had the first gen Nano, a long, blocky, black thing, with a small and grainy screen, and enormous body. I skipped the second generation in preference for the third, although I was initially wary of the squat little thing. From a taller, more elegant solution, the third gen was a bit of a handful. It’s no surprise to me that they returned to the elongated shape for version four.

Recently, I drove past one of those building sites with white boarding all the way round. It was early on in the building process, as there was no sign of any brickwork, and merely a crane or two ready to get going. On the white boarding were some advertising hoardings, preparing you for the new supermarket that will appear at some point in the future. The slogan read something like: Delicious things are worth waiting for.

One of my personal resolutions for 2010 was to try and eat five new foods. It sounds stupid, I know, but it’s harder than you might imagine. I’m not all that adventurous when it comes to food. I don’t mind trying new things, but it turns out I’m quite picky about what I eat. I either like something or I don’t, there isn’t really a middle ground, and I can be a bit precious about textures and other things.

Hi there, I am testing out the new Wordpress App for Android with a random post. To make it slightly worthwhile, here are some snippets of thought: Why is it people never ask what you did the previous evening or weekend when you actually have something worthwhile to say? What is the etiquette on retweeting someone who has their Twitter account protected? I really need to do a Media. Future. Change episode soon. I’ll be back in a moment to test out the edit function and report my findings.

Yay for Groundhog Day! I didn’t know I was particularly bothered about Groundhog Day before, but apparently it is something that makes me keep an eye on a Twitter search to see what Phil decides. I am ascribing this to the fact that over the past year or so, I discovered marmots were ridiculously cute, and of course, Groundhog Day was the first Film Watch movie I covered. So, now I want to go to Punxsutawney and see what it’s all about.

Note: I enjoyed writing my little Christmas thoughts post on the Archers, and thought I could turn this into a monthly thing. I have long been saying how I would love to keep a blog on the soap, but as I’m constantly running about a week behind, it doesn’t seem worth trying to start one. However, I do like to discuss it, and I think it would be fun to look back on, so here are my thoughts for January.

At my first proper job, I was the youngest on the team, I was crazy shy and wouldn’t go to the pub with them, plus I did double the work everyone else did. It is conceivable that they hated me. My one saving grace, though, was that being such a swot allowed my team a bit of leeway when it came to… well… messing about. As long as we got our work done and kept our numbers up, we were essentially allowed to do whatever we liked. I imagine this ethos can only come about in a company where they know the work is dull, and they have employed young people, and those who are just saving until they can go travelling again.