I used to be indecisive...

snoopy monopoly

Elaine — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:00:06 +0000

I have just stumbled across the perfect game for me! Sadly it is out of print.

photographs © usaopoly.com

I’m a fan of board games, and Monopoly was always one of my favourites (in fact I still have my original set, given to me for Christmas when I was about 10 or 11) so to team it up with my favourite character seems like great fun. The ‘properties’ are favourite Snoopy moments, or his valued possesions e.g.typewriter, sunglasses, Sherlock’s cloak. Instead of the railway stations there are the four seasons. The playing tokens include his dog bowl, Red Baron Snoopy and a dancing Snoopy.

If anyone comes across one for sale on Ebay, give me a shout!

Tagged: postaday, Snoopy, snoopy monopoly

hidden benefits of newspapers

Elaine — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:00:07 +0000

Guest Blogger Mother-on-a-Mission writes about newspapers. I have included it in my ‘post a day challenge’ - does that mean I have cheated??

Mother-on-a-Mission lives in the country. Her mission is to perfect the art of being in two or more places at once.

The closure of the paper shop in our local town means we can no longer have papers delivered. It wasn’t that a paperboy or girl ever pushed them through the letterbox or even threw them in the approximate direction of the front door, US-style. Rather, the entire order for the area was delivered to a box on the wall by the village hall and each customer simply picked through the bundle and extracted their own publication. It may not sound very convenient but it saved a 14 or 15 mile round trip, which probably cost more in fuel than the price of the newspaper.

Sadly, it means I read fewer newspapers now than I used to. I’m sure I’m not alone. You might be lucky enough to have to don only your dressing gown and slippers to pick up your daily paper from the mat behind your front door, rather than dress in waterproofs from head to foot and trudge out in all weathers to retrieve a usually-slightly-soggy paper from a rickety wooden box. But, either way, the news you read over your toast and coffee is already out of date by the time you scan your first headline. When online versions are only a mouse-click away (or a mouse-click and a bit of a wait, in the case of our steam-powered, rural-community broadband) what benefit could printed newspapers possibly offer?

In today’s wired, online, instant society, newspapers are a tough sell. Who is going to bother stumping up for an inconvenient paper publication with an alarming tendency to slither about all over the place when you turn the page, and leave ink on your hands to boot? It’s much more convenient to read the news on your laptop, iPad or phone. That news is immediate, telling you what’s happening now rather than what happened yesterday, and unless the children have been playing on your keyboard at the same time as eating marmite toast soldiers, you can usually keep your hands clean. Then of course, there are the 24-hour news channels bringing us the news as it happens from all over the world although curiously, there often isn’t any news on these when I switch on…but that’s another blog post entirely.

Most of us expect information on the web to be free so charging for access to online newspaper content has generated plenty of comment. I’m in favour of charging, although I do like the approach some papers have taken of allowing free access to a limited number of articles over a certain period of time. The principle of newspapers making enough money to train and employ journalists of a high enough calibre to research and write accurate stories and so hold politicians and public figures to account and uncover the less savoury side of our society has to be an important part of a well-functioning democracy. Maybe that would possible by raising revenue online through advertising alone, maybe not. I don’t know.

What I do know, however, is what someone (your host, I used to be indecisive… actually) pointed out the other day. If the dog leaves a puddle on the floor, or the roof leaks, or you spill a carton of milk, you can’t exactly spread your laptop out to mop it up. The alternative would be printing out the sports pages, the business pages, the TV section, or whichever bit of the paper you usually consign to the recycling pile first and spread those out on the floor instead. However, experience tells me that printer paper is not as absorbent as newsprint and spreading out A4 sheets is rather fiddly.

Many newspapers are a good, thoughtful read and offer a welcome break from reading on a screen. For all the recent debate about charging or not charging for online content and whether print newspapers have a future at all in a 24-hour a day society, it comes down to this. I will continue to buy print newspapers because after I’ve enjoyed reading them, they are so useful for other things. I can’t imagine the world without them.

Tagged: mother-on-a-mission, newspapers, online newspaper, postaday

maths jokes

Elaine — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:30:20 +0000

I was looking for something for a lesson I’m teaching next week and got myself sidetracked with some jokes…

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?

Pumpkin Pi!

Did you hear about the explosion in the pie factory?

3.141592 people were injured.

There are 10 kinds of mathematicians. Those who can think binarily and those who can’t…

What did the zero say to the number eight?

Nice belt!

Tagged: math jokes, maths jokes, pi, postaday

pancakes for tea?

Elaine — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:19 +0000

Today is Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake Day) so who’s having pancakes and what are you having with them?

I will most likely be having French style crepes with butter and sugar and perhaps a little squeeze of lemon juice on some of them.

How do you like yours?

photograph © guardian.co.uk

Tagged: pancake day, pancakes, postaday, Shrove Tuesday

weekly photo challenge: down

Elaine — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:00:15 +0000

I haven’t taken these photos this week in response to the theme, but think they fit it very well.

They were taken when I was in Venice a few years ago – looking down from the Campanile in Piazza San Marco. I couldn’t decide on just one photo to post, so here’s a few – the Piazza San Marco and views to the Grand Canal.

Piazza San Marco photograph © iusedtobeindecisive

Grand Canal photograph © iusedtobeindecisive

Piazzetta San Marco photograph © iusedtobeindecisive

This post is for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.

Tagged: down, Grand Canal Venice, Piazza San Marco, postaday, Venice, weekly photo challenge

succinctly yours – revolution

Elaine — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 07:40:14 +0000

Ever the Beatles faithful fan, our gnarled protagonist still wanted to change the world and could stir up a revolution at the drop of a cup.

This is my latest entry for Succinctly Yours hosted by Grandma at Grandma’s Goulash . Each week she posts a picture and word and invites bloggers to create a micro story of 140 characters, or 140 words. If you can incorporate the word of the week, even better

This week I’ve used exactly 140 characters , including spaces and punctuation. This week’s word was revolution.

Tagged: Beatles, postaday, revolution, succinclty yours

six word saturday – here and there

Elaine — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:30:30 +0000

BEEN HERE AND THERE THIS WEEK

I started the week at home, went to stay with my mum for a few days, then finished up back at home again. My mum’s been having some decorating done, so my task was to help to get all the ‘stuff’ that had been taken out of the rooms put back in its rightful place, and to help with buying some new curtains.

Mission accomplished.

For more Six Word Saturday participants have a look at Cate’s blog, Show My Face.

Tagged: decorating, postaday, saturday

chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate

Elaine — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:30:47 +0000

Looking at my Stats, the search term ‘chocolate’ is consistently high on the list of search terms that have brought people to my blog. So… the secret of getting traffic to your blog is clearly to blog about chocolate, or use the word ‘chocolate’ a lot.

I created this picture using Wordle.

Tagged: chocolate, more chocolate, postaday

camels

Elaine — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:00:38 +0000

Black camel shapes on a sandy background?

Look again, look closely…

It is actually a herd of camels photographed, from directly above, at sunset. The photographer George Steinmetz took this fantastic picture as the camels were crossing Arabia’s Empty Quarter on their way to graze near Wadi Mitan, Oman.

Brilliant.

Tagged: camels, empty quarter, george steinmetz, oman, postaday, wadi mitan

spring watch

Elaine — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:00:04 +0000

Spring was beginning to creep into our garden about two weeks ago as a result of the relatively warm winter we had been having up to that point; buds were beginning to appear on shrubs, the daffodils started growing in the pots and flower beds and the snowdrops were well into their stride. Then a week or so ago we had the very cold weather and snow and I’ m wondering what effect that’s going to have. The snowdrops and daffodils will be fine, but I expect the shrubs will have been badly hit.

Here are the signs of spring so far in my garden:

Tagged: buds, daffodils, postaday, snowdrops, spring