bitful

Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account over the past seven days:

How to make a stop-mo movie - Telegraph
'At Aardman (the Oscar-winning British animation studio behind Wallace & Gromit and Creature Comforts), we expect each animator to create one and a half seconds of footage a day.'
Outlook Export Tool
'free tool for [...]

If you let iTunes manage your music library, adding 'Disc Number' information will add the disc number at the beginning of the file names, so that they can be ordered sequentially by disc in the directory.
The Hawaiian alphabet only has twelve letters and a glottal stop.
Georgian has got its own alphabet called Mkhedruli
Each Cremosa ChupaChups [...]

I still have not got a clue why my RSS feed stopped updating when I upgraded to WordPress 2.5.
However, while investigating I found that the URL for the feed somehow had changed, so I added a couple of lines to the .htaccess file to redirect it.
I also noticed that there was a new version of [...]

I recently saw an ad somewhere that said:
"Tesco prices. Waitrose quality. Ocado delivery."
After staying last weekend in Manchester with friends who spend a little more than I do on food - and tasting the difference it makes, I thought I'd give it a go.
Tonight Ocado delivered - groceries and promises.

Ocado matches Tesco prices on 3,500 [...]

Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account over the past seven days:

Introducing Woopra. You're Gonna Want It.
'Woopra provides exciting, LIVE data about your visitors as they explore your site. [...] data streams to the interface in the form of lush looking maps, charts, graphics and text.'
Finally, Sync Any Calendar to Any [...]

Sono a casa con il raffreddore
I am at home with a cold
Literally: '(I) am at home with the cold'.

And that is all I can say today. You can click on the audio files and hear my croaky voice (it was worse this morning though).
Ho anche la tosse
I have also got a cough
Literally: '(I) have also [...]

As usual, when I speak of sports and nutrition, I feel I should point out that these things work for me but possibly not for you.
And obviously, do not start any sort of intense physical activity without the OK of your doctor. Don't be silly.

Get your gym bag ready well in advance.
If you are late [...]

I recently abandoned my old NHS dentist (near my old address, therefore impractical) for a private practice (in the next building from my office, therefore just perfect).

Old dentist:

Tatty lino floor
Unexpected step at the front door. Mind the step sign should also say 'Mind your head if over 5ft 11in tall' - the most idiotic front [...]

"If you saw a man drowning and you could either save his life or photograph the event… how would you tag it in Flickr?"
Kathy Sierra at SXSW Interactive, via Christine.net.

Just one of those things that friends email me at regular intervals and never cease to amaze me.
Please read these aloud and see if you can get them right the first time:

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We [...]

Six years ago to the day, I published my first post via Blogger. Bitful was but a twinkle in my eye, and this had a different title, a lurid muted green and maroon colour scheme (I called it 'Gucci'), way too many personal details and pictures. It was also kept an absolute secret from everyone [...]

I have not read it myself, but according to an article in the Guardian on The Truth About Diamonds, Nicole Richie's novel is the story of

'a fashion-obsessed young girl, Chloe, adopted by a pop star who was big in the 1980s, who grows up in LA with a fast group of friends, develops a heroin [...]

For a few days now I have been thinking of a gay establishment of yore, and I can't remember what it was called for the life of me.
It used to be in St Martin's Lane in London, a few doors down from Brief Encounter (which by the way is still there, but seems to be [...]

A long time ago, on a long winter night with nothing on the telly, Dr B. and I engaged in a moderately heated argument about why one says: "the United States is" and not "the United States are.
I insisted that grammatically it should take the plural, but the singular is used only because they can [...]

Ever since I moved back to the UK in May 2002 to settle down for good, it was my strong intention to apply for naturalisation. Ever since then, I have a filled naturalisation application form from the Home Office ready in a folder, waiting for the day when I can finally apply.
However, between then and [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
So now it has been two weeks since I vowed to break my life-long habit of eating during the night.
In two weeks, only once did I eat something between the times of 11pm and 7am, and that was an apple, and that night I could [...]

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through the Clinique counter at John Lewis, knowing very well that I could not really afford anything. But you see, the thing is that since I turned forty, I started feeling I should take care of myself a little more.
Bubbly American Julissa sensed it and approached me [...]

Lakisha Jones, American Idol finalist;
Laquisha Jonz, 'queen of the chavs'.

As I coughed the best part of my small intestines up through mucopurulent lungs this afternoon at work, I spared a not-so-compassionate thought for smokers who have a cold.
That's when it hit me: I stopped smoking four years and four days ago, and the anniversary of one of the best decisions in my life went [...]

For years I have been eating mainly after the sun went down. There is a feeling of peace and relief, an atmosphere of anything is possible, with no consequences, to be had when everybody else has gone to bed. I relax. Therefore I eat.
As I draw some partial conclusions after seven days of reversing the [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
Last night we went to Body and Soul, the new jazz night that debuted on 6 February at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
Jonathan Paul Hellyer (the man inside the D.E. Experience) was performing a double set and we were very curious to see him perform sans [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
Ah, last night.
Last night we had our first meal sitting at a table at home since we met. The table we liked but was originally not in stock was delivered to us on Saturday and on Sunday we went to buy chairs (only found [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
It was all going so well, so I thought I'd conduct a trickier experiment, and in the interest of science I downed three cans of Stella at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern yesterday afternoon, then left straight after the D.E. Show and went home via the [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
So I said I was going to crank things up a notch and I did: last night we went out for yet another round of birthday drinks (many friends of mine have their birthdays in February, which makes May pretty much a shagfest among our [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
Last night we went out to a pub (The Rose in Vauxhall, a surprise view over the Thames and in particular Tate Britain from the first floor room that was reserved to us).
I was worried that on the way home I was going to give [...]

I have given up eating between 11pm and 7am for Lent.
Night 2 of going cold turkey then. I made it through once again quite well. I got up at 1am to go to the loo and afterwards managed to take the first door on the right (back to the bedroom) instead of the second (into [...]

I have just realised that I cannot remember the last time I purposelessly switched on the TV just to have something playing in the background.
I usually only ever turn it on to set the PVR for a specific programme I want to record, knowing fully well that nine times out of ten it will be [...]

Yesterday I was thinking about what I could give up for Lent.
I considered an option, then talked about a Plan B in case the first option was not feasible, and I might have been particularly unclear about what I was going to do.
I fear it might have been my subconscious trying to sabotage my attempt. [...]

I really, really hate having to say this, but when I learnt a couple of weeks ago that the fragile coalition in power in Italy had finally agreed on a draft law giving unmarried couples some rights (they have none now), not for one split second did I believe that it would stand a chance [...]

Italy is a country of hypocrites.
I lived there for over twenty years, was close to most of the local clergy (my brother is a priest), people around me got baptised, confirmed, married in a church, buried with a funeral, and not once have I met anyone who was giving something up for Lent.
It was only [...]