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Typos

By Books & Authors, ThinkingNo Comments

I got an email recently about my Book Review: The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern post with the Subject: Typos. See the email below:

Name: Sally O
Email: removed

Subject: Typos

Message Body:
Hello; I found your review of The Book of Tomorrow via Google. It is an entertaining review but has a great many typos. If this doesn’t bother you then that’s fine. If it does, might I suggest a quick proofing and edit? Things to fix =

about to loose everything
LOSE

couldn’t bare facing
BEAR

Rose, in to the gatehouse.
ROSALINE, INTO

which burn’t
BURNED

angry and board.
BORED

having latte’s
LATTES

older man, who she fancies.
WHOM

begin’s to realise
BEGINS

Sally O

Reply Required: No

I’d like to thank Sally O for taking the time to email me. I know that Sally O didn’t require a reply; but I wanted to use her email as an opportunity to write about the grammatical and occasion spelling errors you may spot on my blog.

All of the “typos” or grammatical errors Sally O points out in her email about my Book Review: The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern post are most probably right. When I wrote the post that’s where my writing was at. Once I’ve hit the Publish button I don’t go back and edit it, but I do consider the errors and try to learn from them so that my writing improves. This is how my blog helps me to learn to write better and it also shows me how my writings developed over the years.

Interestingly I now spend more time editing a blog post than I do writing one. I’ll write a first draft, then read it carefully looking for grammatical errors. Usually in sentences I’ll find words that I don’t need or words that are in the wrong order. Occasionally I’ll have written a sentence that doesn’t make sense. It’s the editing that takes the time, but it’s the editing that brings out the quality to my writing.

So although it’s tempting to edit posts removing the errors I spot after they’ve been published; especially on posts that bring a considerable number of visitors to my blog like Book Review: The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern (according to the WordPress Jetpack Stats Plugin) because the process helps develop and improve the quality of my writing and editing I’ll continue to leave the grammatical and occasional spelling errors as they are.

Take Care,

Antony

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Sunday 16 December 2012

A Modern Memory Box

By Happiness & Joy, History, Technology, Thinking2 Comments

A few years ago I wrote about Memories explaining that I keep a shoe box of trinkets (birthday cards, christmas cards, valentines cards, gig ticket stubs, letters, the odd photo, etc.) for every year that passes. These Memory Boxes ended up in the attic because there was so many of them and they were taking up to much space. Up in the attic I forgot about them, until recently when I went up into the attic for something else and I saw them. I realised I don’t look at them as often because of the number of boxes and number of items in the boxes, but then I had an idea…

I bought a scanner and painstakingly scanned every item onto my iMac. Then I set up a screen saver:

In the end I scanned in over nine hundred items, but it was worth the time and energy invested. Now every time my iMac goes into screen saver mode I see the wonderful letters, cards, ticket subs, etc. and my memory is triggered transporting me into the past – usually to a time filled with happiness and joy. My iMac has become my Modern Memory Box, which I hope to add to often.

Write soon,

Antony



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Monday 3 December 2012

A Special Robe

By Friends & Family, Paganism, Thinking2 Comments

Sometime after the death of my young brother Alex (see My Darling Baby Brother), all of his siblings got a small amount of money from his estate to buy something to remember him. I thought about what to buy for months, months and months. I thought about a tattoo, he liked tattoos but it isn’t really my sort of thing. I thought about a nice ring, but then I don’t really wear jewellery.

With Samhain (see Pagan Festivals to learn more about Samhain) a few months away, I pulled out my ritual robe to air it out. Simon & Chrys created it for me in what was once a stunning white, but ritual after ritual had left it covered in oil stains and looking rather drap. So I decided to have a look and see how much it would cost to buy a new one.

The more I thought about Alex and what to do with his remembrance money, I realised that since his death I only thought of him on that hospital trolly cold and blue. That’s not who Alex was; he was a live wire – full of life. So I thought to myself: When do I feel full of energy and life?

The answer instantly popped into my head like a lightbulb being switched on, when I do ritual. There’s something about feeling the energy of the group swirling around in a vortex (before it’s released into the Universe) and feeling interconnected to everyone and everything that makes me feel energised and so alive. So I decided to use the remembrance money to buy a new ritual robe. I found The Pointy Hat a pagan woman in the US who creates stunning robes. Here’s the new robe:



Navy mid-weight cotton ritual robe, hung up.
(Click on the photo for full size image.)



A closer look: The hemming around the lined hood and clasp.
(Click on the photo for full size image.)



Me in the ritual robe, cord tucked into a hidden side seam pocket to stop the cats from thinking it’s a toy.
(Click on the photo for full size image.)

It’s beautiful, comfy and warm. Now every time that I do ritual and feel truly alive, I think of Alex my younger brother who left us far too soon.

Take care,

Antony

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Thursday 15 November 2012

The Google Nexus 7 Tablet – What I Like and Why I won’t be Buying

By Technology, ThinkingNo Comments

Google

has announced the release of their Nexus 7 Tablet. There’s loads I like about the tablet including the specs which look fantastic, the size – just right to be used anywhere and the £199 price tag makes it very affordable. Here’s a video about it:

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The Nexus 7 Tablet is available to pre-order on Google’s Play Store. There’s only one thing that stops me from buying it: the Android OS.

Buggy Software, Causing Slowdown or Shutdown
The Android OS started as software for smart phones. Many of my friends who have Android OS smart phones tell me the apps are buggy and make their phones slowdown or even shutdown. So I can only imagine this happening on the Nexus 7 Tablet. I personally just want software too work and how it’s suppose too.

Vulnerability & Lack of Software Updates
We’ve got to remember that smart phones are now tiny computers. The Android OS has recently become really big in the smart phone market. What happened when Windows became widely used in the PC market? It was targeted by viruses, trojans and hackers.

We are keeping more sensitive data on our phones (think online banking for instance) and would on the Nexus 7 Tablet too. Yet on the Nexus 7 tablet we’d expect Google to respond to vulnerabilities in the Android OS and from the experience of my friends already using Android OS they don’t. Many of my friends report never having an update for their phone, even after owning them for years. So despite software bugs and the fact that every OS has it’s vulnerabilities Google doesn’t seem to update their phone. The Likelihood is that they’d do the same for the Nexus 7 Tablet.

So if I could choose my own OS for the Nexus 7 tablet, I probably would buy it and install a different OS.

Write soon,

Antony

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Sunday 22 July 2012
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