Pixabella

Been away in Germany

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:31:38 -0700

We've been away for the last week and a half, we drove to Germany for a short break and caught up with family and friends. The weather wasn't very welcoming though, we arrived in hard driving rain and had to navigate our way through the D?sseldorf ring road system barely able to see more than a few meters in front of the car.

Fortunately we arrived safely and were able to get ourselves settled into a hotel without too much bother. The city hadn't changed much since we left, contrast that with Spain where there is just so much going on that in six months a lot can change.

While I was in Germany I bought a new Wacom tablet for my laptop which I'm keen to try out with Inkscape, my drawing abilities with a touchpad are OK, but I really want something better and the tablet should make a difference.

We also sold our car, and plan to buy electric bicycles in Spain to use as our main source of transport, well, other than buses and trains for longer trips. I plan to write a bit about how great battery powered bikes are.

An ant, farming aphids

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:21:07 -0700

Ant Shephard

The other day we went for a walk in the countryside and while I was standing next to a rock looking at some flowers, I saw to my amazement an ant on the stem, and it was guiding the aphids, basically farming them like a shephard with its flock.

A quick read of Wikipedia tells me that the ants protect the aphids and milk them using their feelers, and when the aphids reproduce, the ants will take their eggs back to the ant hive and look after them, then carry the young aphids back to the plants to start the process again.

Track your favorite celebs and movies

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:09:49 -0700

The Internet is so huge these days that staying upto date on your favorite things just becomes too difficult, I mean, pick a recent box office hit, or chart topping band and Google them and see how many results come up, then try figure out the latest news or gossip about them.

It isn't easy, and wading through hundreds of pages is just too time consumimng for me. There is a new social network that got my attention, it's called pop bandit and they promise to find the latest info for you, but the site is more like a social network because when you start tracking a topic or vote on topics they automatically introduce you to other members who have the same interests.

I joined up and I've started a new topic about Berlin so I can get the latest about my favorite city, but I'll need to login to my pop bandit account in a couple of days to see if its been approved, but I'm also tracking Madonna and Tyra Banks.

Movie Recommendations though are what I most want to use Pop Bandit for. I don't get to see movie previews on TV here, and often I don't even know a movie has been released, so being able to see recommendations based on my voting will keep my upto date, then I can just buy the DVD online. Cool!

Interesting perspective on the Puente Nuevo, Ronda

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:39:42 -0700

Puente Nuevo, Ronda

The other day we decided to take a drive down one of the little side streets that leads out of Ronda, just to see where it would take us.

You can imagine our joy when it actually took us down to the bottom of the gorge and a bit further away than you normally get from the Puente Nuevo so that we could get this photo of the cliffs from some really weird angles.

It just goes to show how deceptive flat ground isn't. When you walk around the old town of Ronda you don't really notice the slope, but standing down at the bottom of the gorge looking up it is so noticeable.

Designing 125x125 banners

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:29:38 -0700

Free themes

How often do you come across a site with 125x125 banners on them, or maybe you see them on every site because drop Entrecards, and a lot of the time they look really terrible.

I know some people don't have the expertise to produce a good looking banner, but why on earth would yo settle for something that does nothing for you. Let's put aside the quality of the banner and only look at them from a marketing point of view.

125 pixels isn't very big so it's important to make sure you make good use of it to get traffic. If you look at a lot of banners, many don't have any text whatsoever, perhaps just a photo of the author or some icon. How many of these relate to their website at all? Well, who can say? If the image on a 125x125 banner doesn't include either text ora visual representation of your main keyword, it won't be as effective.

These days with Entrecard having a real value I think it's important to maximise the number of clicks you get so even if you can't design a button, at least use a background color or image and put your main keyword on the banner. I guarantee you'll get more traffic because of it.

Web Hosting Guide

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:39:02 -0700

If you need web hosting for any template you download, or perhaps you're just wanting to change to another provider, make sure you compare more than two or three, perhaps even as many as the top ten or more.

I say this because often what you think you need, and what you end up with can be two different things and in webhosting you often don't know what you need until you've looked around and seen what's on offer. Quite a few webhosts provide free domain names with their plans, while others have lower monthly fees if you pay in advance. Make sure you email them or test their live chat first to make sure they respond in a timely manner.

With that in mind, be sure to read the "Learn more about Web Hosting" articles that give a great roundup of what to expect, such as the web hosting guide.

What's for dinner?

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:04:00 -0700

Sourced from FunDraw.Com

If I was given a Euro for every time my man asked me what's for dinner I'd be rich. I guess that idea wouldn't ring true considering his money is my money. Hmm for a minute there I was getting excited about hiring someone to cook for me.

A girl can dream, but for now I am stuck cooking the meals, unless he can smarten up his skills or we can make friends real fast with a cooking whiz. Wouldn't it be nice to be spoilt, trying out new meals, and the friend might even teach the man how to cook.

At the moment his cooking expertise stretches as far as the freezer. He can take out a frozen pizza base, jazz it up and 20 minutes later it's on the table piping hot. Pizza nights are great but a girl has to watch her figure!

OK, I'll be reasonable he can make a mean pizza and fry up a steak or two, but mutli-tasking in the kitchen spells DISASTER! He tends to yell out for help, with this tone of desperation that he has botched up the meal.

It's down to me to the rescue the meal and save the kitchen from filling up with smoke. He does try and I shouldn't be too hard on him but I don't want to tempt fate, so maybe it is time to buy a barbeque. At least if he burns anything it will be outside, so the kitchen and I will be smoke free.

Use your tongue to operate a computer or wheelchair

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:49:00 -0700

Science Daily reports that researchers are perfecting a method that allows severely handicapped people to use a computer or move a wheelchair simply by moving their tongue left or right.

They're so happy with the results of their tests that they actually believe it is possible for handicapped people to teach the device many commands based on where in the mouth they position their tongue, perhaps even to the extent of using a different command for each tooth that is touched.

Now I don't know about you but I think this is completely revolutionary and should be given the highest priority to make it happen. The way it works is that the tongue isn't controlled via the Spinal column, it has it's own direct connections to the brain so is very rarely damaged when spinal injury results in severe handicapping.

A small magnet is attached to the tongue, either by tape, a piercing, or even using surgery, and a small array of magnet sensors on the boom of a headset detects the position of the magnet and sends this to a small computer that converts it into a command. Isn't that awesome?

Air Conditioning in Summer

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:08:02 -0700

As the harsh heat of summer hits can I just say how grateful I am to have three Air Conditioners around the house. We've got one in the living room and one each in the two bedrooms and believe me they do make a big difference.

Ours are the split system air conditioners with the hot part outside so it's a little bit quieter inside. with temperatures over 30 degrees celsius in the shade you can understand why we love our air conditioner.

Sunday morning Pikelets

nospam@example.com (Pixabella) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0700

On Sunday I got up earlier than usual and mosied on down stairs and got this strange look from the man. It was the look of "oh you're up and oh you're going to disturb (read annoy) me".

As I am such a nice person, I sat on the couch with my coffee trying really hard not to annoy him. With the coffee drunk, and my brain and body now in sync I headed for the kitchen to make him surprise, pikelets.

The last time I made pikelets I had a little problem with the mixture, the pikelets kind of looked like rubber coasters. Two batches later they were still less than desirable so this morning I thought I would try out a recipe that I found online.

I liked the look of the recipe because it didn't call for a lot of ingredients, I had to use a minimal amount of sugar and a little butter to the pan.

With the ingredients whipped up and the pan ready to go I popped the first tablespoon in and perfecto, it looked like we were having nice thick pikelets for breakfast.

In between cooking the pikelets I was running back and forth organising the breakfast table. I got out all the conserves, lemon and sugar, honey, maple syrup and butter to turn them into heavenly delights.

With the table set, the coffee poured, and pikelets nice and hot we sat down to a long breakfast sipping coffee and enjoying the most amazing pikelets we have ever tasted.

This is recipe is fantastic and if you would like to make them yourself you can find it at taste.com.
Definitely a 5 star winner!