Lou-quacious Yarns
Can’t deny it, this is cute. Pretty good problem solving skills showing there, too. If a bit of a tendency towards overkill…
Watch This Dog’s Adorable Apology After He Steals A Baby Girl’s Toy – The Meta Picture.
In other news, I may be back to blogging again. Maybe possibly hopefully!
Today, I shall be pimping my friends, Holly and Larry. Or more specifically, their new project / website / business / educational game app: Rufus Robot.
(Not, as my Mum thought I said, “Ruthless Robot”. That would be a different game altogether, although Larry, you’re welcome to take that idea and run with it. You’re welcome ;-) )
The mission statement on their website says:
Our goal is to provide fun, useful, and affordable tablet-based applications to the growing number of children who need them. Many of our applications focus on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but it is our belief that these same tools will be fun and educational for early achievers too!
– Dr Holly Gastgeb
So, if you have or know kids that might enjoy and benefit from the app, go check it out. You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter and Google+
Pimp accomplished. Ta-daa!
So, what with not having posted properly for ages again, I haven’t mentioned that there are two new additions to the family! One actual brand new person, and one fuzzy feline dictator.
First of all (not chronologically, but never mind that), my Favourite Niece, who is also my first and only niece or nephew, arrived in the big wide world last summer. Here she is aged 2 months:
And this is a more recent photo, aged nearly 6 months:
Isn’t she adorable? *proud auntie face*
And secondly we have Mr Merlin McPurrlin, my new feline overlord. He is about 2 years old, loves his play tunnel and yellow-mouse, prefers to drink from the bath tap… and yeah, has me very well trained! He came to live with me back in the late spring, after having been left in a box outside the vet’s because he’d been spraying in his previous owner’s home. The vet gave him the snip, and surprise – no more spraying since then. He’s a lovely boy, and I’m very glad that I happened to pop into the vet at just the right time!
An excellent post on what not to say to people with manic depression / bipolar:
On: Manic Depression « squeegee182.
I think I can count myself pretty lucky that it’s been a long time since I’ve had any of these things said to me. It makes me realise how awesome my friends and family are, and how much their (your!) efforts to understand really help me. Thank you all! ♥♥♥
Bipolar UK is the new name for what used to be called MDF: The Manic Depression Fellowship. I think the new version is more succinct, don’t you? They’re launching a campaign which will hopefully become an annual event:
A public education campaign, Bipolar Awareness Day will be launched on Wednesday 27 June 2012 by Bipolar UK, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Bipolar Scotland.
– Quote from Bipolar UK
Approximately 1% of people in the UK have bipolar – that’s 1 in every 100 people, remember. So even if you don’t have a close friend or family member who’s affected, it’s very likely that someone you’re acquainted with – a work colleague, or someone you went to school with – is living with bipolar.
Bipolar UK are planning to focus on one aspect of the condition every year. This year it’s the fact that most people take around 10 years to receive the correct diagnosis. That was certainly the case with me.
Anyway, go and check out their shiny new site if you’re interested, and find out some more information about the campaign there.
I’ve made a pledge on the Time to Change website:
“I pledge to help end mental health prejudice. I will talk about my own experiences with bipolar disorder and anxiety to help break down stigma.”
The project is not only for people with a mental health condition – it’s for friends, family, professionals, and anyone interested in the issues, really. So check it out!
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to wrangle my brain to write a proper post of my own on this subject, but I urge everyone to go and read through the posts and links at One Month Before Heartbreak.
Just to give you a bit more info, it’s a “blogswarm” event, where many bloggers post on the theme of disabilities and the UK disability-related benefits system between 14th and 16th January ’11. Those dates have been chosen because the current consultation on DLA reform ends on 14th February this year, and frankly, it’s not looking cheerful.
As yet, I haven’t looked in detail into how any reforms might impact on me, and I’m trying not to be too pessimistic about it before I know for certain. It’s not easy though, and I’m definitely nervous. Deep breaths!
Two things I’ve come across on the wide old interwebs have positively warmed my heart recently:
Man builds cat-sized village for homeless cats. There’s a bloke who went from not really being a cat person, to clearly understanding who’s really in charge. Like him, I welcome our inevitable feline overlords.
and
Knit-bombed Boris Bikes. As the original poster comments, maybe not much protection against saddle soreness, but with autumn approaching, a saddle cosy might be just the thing to ward off the misery of a chilly posterior early in the morning!
Can I just say that I rather love the Boris Bikes. At the moment you still have to apply online for a key card thingy, but even though I hardly ever go up to London I’m quite tempted to do so. However, by the time I’m up next they might have rolled out the ‘casual use’ scheme, which I think will mean you can do it all directly at the bike stations. Loads of people seemed to be using them when I was up to see the Proms. Marvellous!
I’ve decided to sign up for July’s NaBloPoMo again, because why not? I won’t do the alphabet thingy again, even though it really helped me going, because I’ll have the Tour de Fleece to post about for a good part of the month. I’ll find other things to keep me going for the rest of the time.
The summer spring-cleaning is continuing on here in my flat. I’m on a roll! I’m also going to be doing some tidying of the computer. I haven’t done that for waaay too long. There’s a whole load of pointless old files that need deleting. Plus, I’m going to change my broadband provider to a better tariff.
I’m also ridiculously excited because I just found out that Question Time is going to be on in Bexhill in a couple of weeks. I’m so applying for the audience. I must find out if anyone else wants to go too, though. I’m not sure if anyone I know locally would be up for it, but I’ll check.
I can’t remember if I blogged about this already, but there’s a Pirate Day as part of Old Town Carnival Week at the beginning of August, where they’re trying to get as many people dressed as pirates gathered together as possible, with the goal of breaking the world record. I intend to to along and join in – should be fun! There’s going to be other piratical stuff going on as well. Food, and music, and so on. And of course a Treasure Hunt, though I suspect that’s for kids!
Of course, I’ve got to find something appropriate to wear. I understand there are certain dress code rules that you have to follow to be considered one of the official pirate crew, though I don’t know what that is yet. I must have some basics that I can wear, though. I’ll have to have a rummage through my things. I need to have a clothes sort-out anyway, and send some stuff off to the charity shop. I should call my Mum and find out if she’ll be free to come and give me a lift over there so I can take all my donations at once.
While I’m eating my dinner, can I just point you in the direction of an excellent post that Cia made about ‘normality’. I’ve been asked a question about this by Ptyx, and I’ll give a bit of my own take shortly. But I think that Cia says it so much better than I can – you should definitley have a read of “Are you normal?“
I’m trying to contain myself from jumping up and down and running around the room in excitement. (Well, alright, maybe there was a little jumping up and down) I’ve just had an email newsletter from Concorde2 in Brighton, and Skunk Anansie (now reformed) are playing there in October! Eeeee!! I’m over the moon, because I was always gutted that I never got to see them before they split. I did see Skin play there a couple of years ago, and it was fantastic. I have got to get a ticket!
(And now I’ll go back to working on a bipolar topic post!)
Just a quick one this half-hour to say hi to some people doing the ‘thon – you should go and visit:
Recently, I’ve been spinning as much as knitting. Jo has lent me her spare spinning wheel which is an Ashford Kiwi and I’ve been having lots of fun with it. I still need lots of practice, and so far I’m using some of the fibre that came with my drop spindle. There’s no fear of me running out of stuff to spin, though: even before Jo lent me her wheel, I had some of the yummy fibre from her Etsy shop. I now have six 100g-ish braids of hers, and I’ll post some pics here soon. Not right now though, because I’m about to upgrade my photo gallery as a prelude to the whole site upgrade – which should be quite soon now! I’ve got some really gorgeous colours in BFL and Merino, and the Merino/Tencel is even more delicious, but you’ll just have to take my word for it until the upgrade is all done and dusted.
In other Etsy news, my friend Rae has opened her Etsy shop, Angel Rae Arts. She’s selling some very cool (and cute) fridge magnets. I love the buried treasure one (which is from a photo taken when she was visiting me a few years ago!), and also the caffeinated cat one (painted) which really reminds me of the Xandermog. *g* The original one’s been sold already, but she’s done some more that aren’t identical, but very similar. Yay!
In case it’s not obvious, I’ve decided to go Pink for October. Ta-daaa!
Well, pink and pinky-purple. And blue. I didn’t have time to do a full redesign. Maybe next month – I’ve been meaning to change this one anyway.