Apologies for the recent lack of blogging. It’s not like me to be this quiet! Life and technology has stood in my way the past few weeks.
It seemed quite a few of you enjoyed my BT blog and as I was rather angry (understatement) about the whole situation, I am pleased to say we got there in the end and it has been resolved. However I dare say this is the power of social networking. For those of you that aren’t aware, BT has a Twitter account @BTcare and it …

Next on my list of ‘Five…‘ this one is pretty self-explanatory. I follow a few comics using Google Reader and others I have just come across as the year has gone on.
1. xkcd – Static
I discovered xkcd a few years ago and I have been known to spend hours hitting random and browsing through this wonderful land of geeky goodness. For me the xkcd strip of the year goes to… ‘Static‘.

2. Dilbert – 4th October 2009
When everything seems a little bit insane and off the wall at work you know …

I’m getting back on track with NaNoWriMo, the word drought has ended and my neglected characters are being revived. The thing that is constantly amazing me about this process is the way my characters surprise me. They ask questions and go on tangents. They behave in ways I wouldn’t have even considered a couple of weeks ago. They are coming to life. The words may be crude and in desperate need of thesaurus, but the story is taking shape and the characters are becoming beings I enjoy working with. Sat …

My blog has existed in various guises since 6th February 2007 but took a whacking fourteen month break before recommencing in October 2008 to make me determined that this time my blog was here to stay.  My 100th blog comes only days after the six month anniversary of it finding a permanent residence at helenthornber.com. In those six months I’ve entertained almost 2000 unique visitors from 55 countries. Not including anyone who reads this via Facebook. That is something I am very proud of.

On the 1st October it will be …

I’m not going to get into the debate about whether social networking is a good or bad thing. As an active member of Facebook and Twitter of course I’d say yes. But other people are just as much within their right to hate the things. Whether you use them, which sites you use, and how you use those sites, is completely down to you.  Isn’t that the beauty of it all?
I have rejected Bebo. I am a member of MySpace and Linked In, but they don’t get used much. I …

If you could do anything in the world for a job what would it be?
Writing.
If you were given £10 million tomorrow would you still want to do it?
Yes.
I started writing because it was a release. I have kept diaries on and off throughout the years. Until fairly recently, when I started seriously thinking of moving into a career in writing, the writing came easiest when I was anxious or depressed.
I think too much. I am well known for over thinking and anyone who’s made the mistake of asking me ‘why’ …

I’m really enjoying Torchwood this week. Watching it along with thousands of fellow viewers whilst commenting on Twitter has been an interesting and rather different viewing experience. But what about spoilers? Thanks to the level of tweets about the Torchwood storyline last night #torchwood was joined by #Ianto in the trending topics. Anyone who is yet to see the five night special only has to log in to Twitter to find out what they are missing.

I am very adverse to spoilers. I caught the Harry Potter bug in between book …

Last night Twitter exploded at the sad news of Michael Jackson’s death. It is impossible to deny, whatever your opinion on him as a person, that he was a musical legend. As we saw with Diana’s death (which it is being compared to) human nature is such that the reaction by the public and media is going to be huge and will last for quite some time. As I saw the tweets fly by I noticed one that mentioned Michael Jackson was all but one of the current trending topics …

I joined Twitter on the 4th February 2009. In the 131 days since I’ve found that Twitter has the marmite effect – people love it or hate it. It has provoked debate, discussion and almost argument both on Twitter and in real life. Work related Twitter (@DROdurham) has really caused a stir and split of opinions at work.
From a personal point of view I don’t understand why people feel the need to tell me I’m wasting my time or telling people too much about my life. Why do people care …

Having volunteered to help out with a work thing on Saturday I decided that my evening would be spent relaxing and recovering with a movie. But what to watch? I love movies. I’m a sucker for the 3 for £10 and other cheap DVD deals, at least once a month stocking up on classics as well as must see movies. On top of that I regularly check film listings on TV. My PVR box is almost full of films just waiting for me to get through them all. Yet with …

I now have proof that London isn’t the centre of the universe and that many exciting things happen elsewhere.
For this example I will pick the city of Durham at 9am on Tuesday 3rd March 2009. That would be when I met Bill Bryson.
For the promotion of the Bill Bryson Bag, Bill himself popped in to the uni library to do a few publicity shots. It was his first glimpse of the bag and he likes it. He is a wonderful lovely man (to quote one friend “the man has the …