And now, the cartwheeling verger...

I almost sure everybody has already seen this, but the video tickles me. My first impression was "How cool! But he's probably not really a verger." I suspected an actor or someone just dressed as a verger. However, The Daily Mail ran a story about the verger and the Abbey's reaction, so I guess he must be the real deal.

[Update: I've just been chastised by my mom: "Why do you think this isn't real? It is a 'thing' for clergy to do cartwheels. The pastor that married Jeff and Erin did cartwheels on Easter at Each service." So there you have it! ;-) ]

The funny thing is, I came across this picture on Flickr, and it's captioned "One day when the time is right, i will cartwheel in the abbey"

By tezzer57

I love the look on his face, and it certainly looks like the same guy :)

And here are the cakes! #royalwedding

Gorgeous!

While the one above looks too good to eat, this one basically just makes me me go "Yum!"
Oh, and it does look nice, too.

Priorities... #royalwedding

By katplum

Overdoing it? #royalwedding

TV, social media on one laptop, livestream on the other,
wedding programme on the ipad

Sick of the royal wedding? Perhaps you're looking for this:

By London Permaculture

3:00 AM! Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? #royalwedding #rw2011

Not quite Westminster Abbey, but the Houses of Parliament "next door"
(These seem to be the only pics I can find that I took in the vicinity)

Anybody else getting up in the wee hours to watch the royal wedding tomorrow? LilGirl claims she's getting up with me, but I'll believe it when I see it. Still, I have a tradition to uphold of staying/getting up to watch the wedding then falling asleep before the ceremony itself starts, and she wants to join in. We'll both be going to bed soon after dinner tonight. At least that's the plan.

When we (I) get up to watch, I'm leaving network TV as my last resort. I'm not fond of tons of inane commentary, so I've got a couple ways I'm going to try watching the wedding on our Roku box, either on YouTube Live or another livestreaming app - unfortunately, I can't be sure they'll work in the morning. At worst, I'll watch the networks on the TV and whatever I can on the computer. I'm trying to stay emotionally flexible on this and not have a meltdown like Frankie Heck did on The Middle last week (I tried to find a clip of that particular scene, but no luck).

via ABC

If you're interested in watching the wedding online and/or following all the social media chatter, Mashable has a good guide of some ways to do both.

Historic royal wedding dresses [Video]

So I'm not a big fan of weddings in general, but I am a HUGE history nerd and an even bigger British history nerd, so I just can't help myself when it comes to historic events like royal weddings (I am sooo going to annoy you all the rest of the week). I came across this video on my friend Cheri La Claire's blog and had to share. These dresses are just gorgeous. I'm very impressed that Princess Charlotte's dress from 1816 not only still exists, but seems to be in such good shape. Enjoy:



Video link

Ninja = a gazelle attacked by a lion?

A supposed ninja has been terrorizing Pitsburgh. I dunno, from the description I don't think this guy is really a ninja. Just sayin'...

"He was like a gazelle that just got attacked by a lion...He got up and fell, and got up and fell. Then he jumped off a cliff." [The witness] reported that he "did not move with the grace typically associated with a ninja" and that he therefore "will not live in fear of the ninja's return."

WTAE news, quoting neighbor Chelsey Cunningham, said the ninja also left behind "like, a fifth of liquor."

via Boing Boing

Hmmm....I just don't....aaargh, ninja attack!...oh, wait, no, nevermind.

When it comes to your writing time, "be ruthless"

photo by Lucia..

I came across this quote at AdviceToWriters over the weekend. When I'm down about having to fight for my writing time (which I don't do very well yet), it makes me feel a little better to know that J.K. Rowling still has to fight for her time, too:

"Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg." - J.K. ROWLING

I Will Read Forever

Yes, it's another video that turns out to be an ad, but I just love the message:



I love the mix of paper books and e-readers in the video. It's how my (and I think a lot of people's) reading happens right now: This one paper, this one electronic, another paper...and so on.

I love ebooks. I love that I don't have to haul a long book with me (War and Peace weighs the same as Winnie The Pooh on my tablet or phone) and the covers don't get torn up in my bag (no matter what I do, that happens). I love that I can make notes and highlight passages and those will be searchable on my device or on the computer next time I need the reference.

But until issues like DRM and the ten bazillion formats we have right now get ironed out, I haven't turned my back on paper completely. But I'm definitely moving steadily in the direction of "all ebooks, all the time": I donated 11 grocery bags of books to my library's book sale this month and then moved the largest bookshelf in the house into my daughter's room because she has more print books than I do now.

These days, if I can only get a book in print, I do my darnedest to get it from the library. All the bookshelves in the house are still full, despite that purge, and I'm not buying any more to accommodate the few stacks that still make up part of that never-ending mess in the basement - more have to go, and no more are coming in until they do. But ebooks get a pass because they only take up virtual space. The virtal-ness of ebooks might be my favorite thing about them. (Don't worry, I still have an entire bookcase of antique books I can open up and inhale the "book smell" from - I think I'll always need that)

How are you doing your reading these days? All paper? All electronic? Or, like me, a mix of both?

Video link

Emily Blunt totally looks like Felicia Day

We watched Gulliver's Travels last night and this hit me midway through the movie:

Via bonika at cheezburger.com

I'm a big Felicia Day fan, but the only other thing I've seen Emily Blunt in was Young Victoria. It wasn't until Princess Mary (played by Blunt) lets her hair down (in many ways) in Guliver's Travels that I noticed the resemblance.

I swear I've known people who name their files this way

It still may be better than "Doc1.doc" "Doc2.doc" "Doc3.doc" I once replaced someone who named her files that way. I spent the first week at that job just opening files to see what they were so I could rename them. I should have realized it was a sign. Turned out to be the worst. job. ever.

I think it's time for Spring Break to be over...

...and so does Quinn :)

I never thought Dork Tower would make me cry... (darn you, @muskrat_john!)

DORK TOWER, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 | Dork Tower (Click through for the larger image)

In case you missed it, my own thoughts on Elisabeth Sladen passing

We'll miss you, Sarah Jane Smith. RIP Elisabeth Sladen #doctorwho

When I was a kid, I wanted to BE Sarah Jane...actually, I still do.

io9 has a great article about Elisabeth's work as Sarah Jane, where they point out "Her death is a huge loss to Doctor Who fans, and to fans of strong female adventure heroes everywhere."

I never consciously thought about Sarah Jane as a "strong female adventure hero," but she was. She probably helped shape me as much as any other woman I watched on TV as a kid. Apparently, Elisabeth was an active influence on how Sarah Jane was written. Without Elisabeth, Sarah Jane would not have been who she was, and I wouldn't be who I am without Sarah Jane. I don't remember watching any other show for hours upon hours like I did with Doctor Who (maybe Scooby Doo? Well, Daphne & Velma are no shrinking violets, either).

One of my favorite episodes from the new Doctor Who series is "School Reunion" where Sarah Jane returned, meeting up with the 10th Doctor, David Tennant:

The universe was lucky to have Sarah Jane Smith; 

the world was lucky to have Lis. 

- Russell T Davies

Maybe Will & Kate should come down the aisle THIS way...

Remember Jill and Kevin's Wedding Entrance Dance? T-mobile reimagined it for Prince William & Kate Middleton's upcoming nuptials, with look-alikes and all. Very cute and clever.


YouTube - The T-Mobile Royal Wedding

via Mashable

Dr. Who + Snoopy = Awesome!

Loving Snoopy as a Dalek :)



By Ape Lad
via @bonniegrrl

Titanic sank 99 years ago today

I dug through Flickr a bit and came up with these:

WooHoo! More Red Dwarf coming!

Exciting news from Robert Llewellyn's blog:

The LlewBlog - Red Dwarf - Smegtastic: "In November this year we start to record a new series of 6 episodes, presently titled Red Dwarf X. I’m not sure of the Broadcast dates but we finish recording them in early February 2012. I don't know if this is going to be a prequel to the three specials we made in 2009, or the follow on, or if Kryten will have a new turbo boost for his groinal attachment, or if it takes place on the ship, or Starbug, or if the Skutters will have speaking parts or even indeed, if Rimmer will be any less of a smeghead. All this is to come."

Can't wait to watch!

The babies are hatching!

Check out the Eagle Cam in Decorah, IA - one chick hatched this morning, with two more to go.

Decorah Eagles, Ustream.TV

Thanks to my friend and coworker Teri, The Cheeky Librarian, for the heads up!

Best April Fools suggestion ever

"Voice search to locate nearby kittens will also work on Android devices, and iOS devices with the Google Search App, so try meowing into your phone to find the kittens near you."

Meow Me Now - Official Google Mobile Blog

Imagining people meowing into their phones makes me smile.

Lightsaber Popsicles! Or, "Yesss, delicious Jabba"

Forget the popsicles, I want that jingle as a ringtone!

Oh, wait...ThinkGeek read my mind!

OMG! This is so exciting!

For all my fellow font nerds:

Comic Sans Pro Typeface Family Makes its Debut | Business Wire: "Featuring elements such as speech bubbles and cartoon dingbats, Comic Sans Pro extends the versatility of the original Comic Sans, designed by Vincent Connare for Microsoft in 1994. “Hats off to Monotype Imaging for enlivening Comic Sans and getting it back to its roots as a comic book lettering face. Now everyone can write with more panache – and look even more like a pro using swashes, small caps and other typographic embellishments,” said Connare." [Emphasis mine]

via Boing Boing

P.S. If you didn't click through to Boing Boing...April Fools!