ocifant’s Neighborhood

Merry Chirstmas fellow Voxers! My meal was wonderful and hpoefully yours was also:)))

Chirstmas Eve meal.jpg

Well, it's Christmas at last, and from the sound of you all on Twitter your cards are sent, and your presents wrapped. It's been great hearing all your cries of delight recently, as your poor postmen and women have struggled with packages through the snowy weather! Hope those of you who have time off over the festive season get everything you wish for, and those who are working have more fun than you might be expecting. We've published the dates we're working over the holidays, so if you find yourself in the office, you might well have company here in the UK, or over with the MOO Crew in the US. We've had a great few weeks spotting unique gifts and ideas created with MOO, here's a few of our favourites: A tetrabox advent calendar, by Bcome Also by Bcome, this lovely looking memory game, complete with a great pattern on the back: This super-cute Mosaic Frame, created by thisiswoly. Filled with 20 Minicards, it features the beautiful baby Sarah. These wonderful looking alphabet game cards, by taraghb, which look like they were as fun to make as they will be to use! And last but not least, look at this! another entry into our MiniCard Gift Box competition! Created by emusing-emma, it's really bought an extra flutter of Christmas cheer into MOO Towers. We love his little sledge! Fancy joining in the fun? Closing date for entries to our competition is midnight PST 28th December 2009. Why not grab some festive paper, and see what you can do! More competition details can be found right here. And now all that remains for me to say is a Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from everyone at MOO!

Went to check out Ben's home wall last week. He's still got a few mods to make but it currently has a pretty sick roof section. Slightly risky with a lack of mattresses/pads and spinning holds, but good fun nonetheless. Managed to get some footage of Graeme and Ben working on some of the problems (some of which were created by moi).

In all the hussle and bustle of crazy last minute Christmas shopping. This made me stop to take a picture.

IMG00038-20091223-1341

A very happy Winter Solstice to all my friends on Vox!!

I'm looking forward to a year filled with new books and travel. I'm also looking forward to unexpected things. I think this year will bring something new. Maybe fruits from some faraway place. Maybe I'll make an art film or study some unusual mammal with an umber and scarlet coat.

I hope you all discover novel things too, and have a great Holiday with your loved ones! May our planet be blessed as well.

Cheers!

If you've been using social networking (and/or microblogging) service Twitter for more than a day you'll have no doubt been bombarded with followers that don't seem quite on the up-and-up.  You are right to be suspicious, and I'll tell you why...

Some Twitter users are, in actual fact, emotionless killing machines sent back in time from the year 2012 (when the catastrophe that is London hosting the Olympics triggers a series of unfortunate events foretold by Jim Carrey in a film 8 years previously).  Until that time they are relatively harmless but they do pose a great annoyance.

So, here's a simple five-step way to tell:

1. The person has a number at the end of their name
2. The username and name-name seem kinda at odds (this is a bad example, sorry!)
3. Their web link is a TinyURL (or some other URL shortening thingy-ma-bob)
4. They're following over a 100x more people than they have following back
5. They've tweeted a big fat ZERO (or thereabouts)
6. Oh yes, here's number six of my '5 Signs Your Follower Isn't Human'... They can't be arsed to upload an avatar
   

Friend or Foe - Five simple signs...

Could these Garmin ads be any more bizarre? Campers watch out for that Yeti.....

If you're in the UK and have either opened a paper or watched the TV news today (December 22nd) you'll have seen a shedload snowload of reports about my hometown.  See, we were - apparently - the worst hit by the wintry weather yesterday and through the night.

The worst hit places were the town centre, the ring road and the major roads feeding it.  I wasn't in any of those places but I did happen to stumble upon a car that had crashed after it had (obviously) lost control on a downhill bend.  The driver managed to take out a signpost, a few tree branches and a family friend's hedge.

Of course, whenever I see anything even remotely interesting, I whip out a camera phone - in this case my Samsung i8910.  Despite it being able to record in high definition, it's not much use in the dark - as you can see...

And here's some pictures (again, taken with the i8910)

The Hills Have Ice

Signs of Struggle

Park and Hide

FC00-4274

It is totally flipping cold and dry here. It's kind of neat to see icicles hanging off the banisters and windows, but sheesh, running is brutal. The bricks and sculptures I used for my garden are frozen into the ground. Anything left outdoors cracks and breaks. I'm finally over my sinus problems, though. 

A few days ago we finally broke down and bought some holiday lights. The house was completely dark every year while other houses have a shiny blue and white glow or colorful lights around their trees.  I was browsing some bookstores and ran across some literature about Yule. I was struck by how important warm, glowing lights are this time of year. Fires, candles. Strings of lights and happy snowmen glowing against the bitter ice and snow.

I was looking for winter book suggestions, and wouldn't you know it, the goddess of Ecology was listening. As I wandered the nature aisle I found the most wonderful treasure: the Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals. I've never seen a book as incredible as this. 934 pages of all-out beauty. Stunning, cutting-edge data on over 5,000 mammal species.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals

Some highlights:

Group living of european rabbits in the chalk and dune land warrens

Nonstop motherhood of honey possums

Form and function of the carnivore body plan

Mammals of the middle Eocene

I am in love with this book. I think our lights and this reading will keep me warm all winter. I so recommend this book if you have any interest in mammals. I recommend a latte or a spiced hot chocolate in your local bookstore-cafe while you browse the nature section. On Saturday our bookseller had hired a violin-cello quartet to play holiday music while people browsed and drank coffee. A lovely evening!

Well we had our Secret Santa thingy at work last Friday. There were noms and gifts:

Office Xmas 002

2 comments

Office Xmas 036

All in all, a very civilised event. :)