Taking on Twitter. And Nigella

It's easy to get sucked into arguments on Twitter. I do try to avoid them.

Celebrities who've never so much as jostled bottoms past each other on the red carpet have an opinion on each others extra-marital activities, on their clothing, on their partners of choice.
But generally it's left there.

On hearing culinary goddess Nigella Lawson being called a 'tubby old trout', however, I had to draw the line. I did what I know, as an online editor, one must never, ever do - feed the troll.


A few back and forth’ings with a tweeter using a pseudonym and fake avatar I realised what I already knew. It wasn't worth it.

Posting as a fictional 78 year old grouchy man the tweeter was indeed just in existence to stir trouble and bitch at other users.

All my tweets served to do was lather them in more fame than even their retweet by Nigella herself had done (and Nigella said she was taking 'immense pleasure' from his insult).

The torrent of reply to this twitter troll, however, is testament to how far the online community has come.

No longer do we, as visitors to an online public space, turn and blush when someone is getting an unprovoked lashing from someone not even courageous enough to post as himself.
Oh no.

We use 160 characters to shout them down. Power to the people. Twitter troll himself admitted 'Well my dear, you certainly stirred a bees nest up with your RT.' And for that alone, I think I'm grateful I did it.

I wonder how much time someone must have on their hands to be bothered with such a pass-time, but who am I to judge?

I think we all just ended up feeling a bit sorry for the person who took on Nigella on twitter. And lost.

The digital revolution from a generation above

I got a Kindle for Christmas, yes I did.

Smuggins here downloaded 10 weightless volumes to take on a fortnight holiday. Man, I was pleased with myself when I was 4 kg under baggage weight. Four whole kilos.

My little device connected directly to Amazon the moment I switched the little blighter on. I spent a small fortune buying e-books from the site, which I will read once and will then be consigned to the archive forever more.

Hey presto, I was e-reading to my heart's content.

Enter stage left mother.

This women devours books. Three a week as well as a full-time job and that's a bad week.

One of those mysterious people who consumes fiction quicker than you or I eat crackers.

In the same team as my old boss who once read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in a weekend.

This is *inexplicable* reading power.

And as we know, with great power comes great responsibility.

And so it began - mother decides it's time for an e-reader.

She's not one of those who just consumes with the crowd. Yes, Amazon are good, she says, but are they the best?

Hours of configuring, reconfiguring, changing font and line spacing on my Kindle later, she is not convinced. ('I need something in the middle').

She starts surfing forums. Actual web research is taking place.

I remember when I used to do such a thing and feel slightly ashamed I no longer bother - I simply assume Amazon will deliver to me The Best

It is learned that Amazon doesn't offer book rental.

Now, Mum has actually read the entire contents of Battle library in three years, so this poses a significant problem - she doesn't want to pay a fiver every time she wants to put her super-power to use.

She wants to rent off Google (when she explains this to me my brain actually explodes - how can she know more about this than me?).

She investigates the Sony e-book but is soon turned off by online reviews, eventually settling for a KoBo which she sets up independently of me and downloads the first of her rented books to.

One of these days, I realise, she's going to stop needing me.

How to make a Christmas advent calendar

A few pics of the Christmas advent calendar I made for my niece:












Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How to make a Christmas stocking

A few pics of the stocking I just made for my niece:









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How to make beeswax candles

Here's how to make some lovely beeswax candles:
What you'll need:
Shallow beeswax foundation (unwired) (I got mine from Cornwall Honey)
Wick
Wick holders


Cut your wax and wick to size - knot the wick one end and thread the wick holder:



Using the edge of a table, gently and slowly roll the wax around the wix, trying to leave as little air between the rolls as possible.



Squeeze the edge of the last roll down to keep the candle together:

Et voila!

Make a couple and tie some ribbon around them to make a gorgeous Christmas pressie for your loved ones:

Marketing in a social environment

With the arrival of frictionless apps from Facebook it seems the line between private, social and professional life has finally and irreparably been blurred.

Facebook used to live under strict rules akin to Google+ - no business need apply. In fact, if they found out you were a business with a profile page they'd suspend your account.

Then came targeted ads - remember those? It would announce what you just bought on amazon and target similar products to your friends. Well, we rebelled and Facebook tucked its tail between its legs and scampered off to think again.

Finally pages arrived and we all jumped right on board. Newfeeds became an amalgamation of what colour your mate’s bra was followed by what special offer dominos had on that night, followed by what the current situation in the West Bank was...

And it worked.



In choosing to allow which organisation can sneak into our life on Facebook we accept that marketing and information dissemination from news agencies, corporate conglomerates and PR agencies might actually occasionally be of interest, nay of use to us.

With frictionless apps we can take it to the next level and not even have to leave the blue and white platform to take in every aspect of online existence. Scary? Or clever? Or both?

I fear until Google+ catches up it might simply limp along behind Zuckerberg’s online ‘social’ giant.

Clegg answers 'two people'

Back in the South East I bumped into a very unfortunate interview with our Deputy Dawg, Cleggery.

Reading back to last year's Leaders' Debate I was impressed by a first charismatic performance by this man.

Such that in considering the Blue/Yellow swing in my humble part of Cornwall I took a deep breath and laid my hopes firmly at his feet.

Service cut after service cut after education cut later I have to say I'm a little pissed. To say the least.

Cleggery was shown two short clips of South Easterners saying they felt their Lib Dem vote had been in vain, for nothing, worthless, and that they would never vote for him again.

Cleggery's response? 'Well, that's just two people.'

Wake up Nick, and smell the disenchantment.