Found on digg:
“I’ve selected the best 50 life hacks of the year, based on their popularity and contents in different categories. Invest your time - read them. Bookmark this page and mark reading them as one of your new year resolutions.”
I’m addicted to Second Life.
If you haven’t heard of it, Second Life is a virtual world. It is *not* a game. If anything, it is closer to being a cross between 3 dimension chat and 3 dimensional web. It is a place where you can build a virtual home, invite your virtual friends round, and have a virtual party with them.
The great thing is, Second Life is a blank canvas. You can build want you want in it, and program those objects using the Second Life scripting language to give them behavior. This makes it the perfect virtual environment, allowing me to express my creativity in my down time.
It is also fascinating how some real life companies have begun to leverage Second Life, and you are now beginning to see a cross over between Second Life and Real Life businesses.
If you visit, send an IM (instant message) to my avatar, “Electro Spark”.
Tonki is home again! He was found trapped between two internal walls on the second floor of a new house being built across the road from us.
The builders had heard/seen him on Friday (the third day of him being missing), but thought he would leave of his own accord. But he was trapped. One of the neighbours to the house became aware of this, and let Janet know. As soon as Janet called for him inside the house, he started wowling from between the walls. From outside, you just couldn’t hear him. Too well sound proofed… this being the reason why we hadnt already found him.
After a little effort, the builders managed to find a gap where they could get to him, and he is now happily sitting on the back of the sofa in the sun, a little skinnier, but basically in good health. 
If you live in the Saltdean or surrounding areas and see a cat matching Tonki’s description, please leave a message here.
When the weather is fair I have started cycling into work. Its 5.5 miles each way along the sea front, so it is a very pleasant way to start the day.
However, I was finding my backpack a pain, which caries a change of clothes along with the various nick-nacks that I carry around for work, pump, water, camera, etc, etc.
So, I popped into Freedom Bikes today. The chap was very helpful, and pointed me in the direction of a nice rack to fit my bike.
I fitted it before heading home, attaching my backpack with a pair of bungees. It works a treat!
Thanks Freedom Bikes!
We’re home again.
I’m just in the process of going through and sorting out my photos, and uploading them to “flickr”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/leewalton/.
My MacBook’s power adaptor has just decided to go up in smoke, so I’m using the old PowerBook at the moment. Apple have promised to send out a new adaptor on Monday.
I’ll edit up some of the previous blog posts made while we were away, and add in a few pictures where relevant.
Back to work tomorrow…
Today is a sea day, our last full day on board before arriving back at Dover tomorrow morning. The weather has decided to revert to the usual BSW (British Summertime Weather)… cold, grey, and trying to be wet.
We spent the day dozing, walking around the decks in an attempt to walk some off some of the excess pounds we have gained over the holiday, and packing.
The ship seems quite quiet too. In the North Sea, the ship seems to roll a bit more, and no doubt that has encouraged some of those who are not packing to stay tucked up in a corner somewhere.
Whilst I am looking forward to heading home, I will really miss the Baltic, and the wonderful crew of the Constellation.
Having arrived in Oslo previously in the middle of the night, we were quite excited today, as we were scheduled to arrive in Oslo at around midday. Coming into Oslo along the Oslo Fjord must be one of the most picturesque vistas that can be experienced on a cruise ship. The weather decided to behave, so we enjoyed a lovely couple of hours as we made our way along the fjord. We moored up right near the center of town, just outside Akershus Castle.
On arriving in Oslo, given that we had already explored oslo on our previous visit, we decided to spend the day on the ship, swimming, relaxing in the jacuzi, and sunbathing. By the end of the day, we were thoroughly roasted & relaxed.
We had a lovely evening, saying good bye to our waiter Stan, his assistant Alejandro, and the assistant maitre’d, Krzysztof, just in case we dont make it down tomorrow. They really made our holiday. Of course, I should also mention our wonderful someliers, Adrian & Rolando.
Copenhagen is as lovely as we remember. The ship moored up about 10 minutes away from the sculpture of The Little Mermaid, so we walked in to the city passing the statue on our way. It was funny to see groups arriving from our ship by coach! It probably took them longer to get there, and would have cost them considerably more. After walking past the palace, and wandering up and down the Nyhavn, we stopped in one of the restaurants on the Nyhavn water-front advertising the “best salad in town”. We had seen them on our previous visit to Copenhagen, and decided to have one… wow! Massive, delicious, and yes, probably the best salad in town! Mind you, two salads and four beers came to a 59 Euros. Not cheap. Mind you, it was worth it.
After our dinner, we relaxed by taking one of the scenic tours of the river and canals. It was lovely, but the weather, which had started gloriously, clouded over and we were very glad to have brought our jumpers with us.
In a very happy state of mind, we made our way back to the ship. The salad we had at lunch time was so substantial that we decided not to bother with dinner, and just had a snack, and a doze until it was time to watch the ship set sail at midnight.