Urbanz - Say goodbye to Skullcandy

So you are looking for the perfect headphones to make you iPod leap.  I have tried just about all headphones almost and have settled on 2 different brands: The Sony MDR-V150 at about a tenner from Asda and the Urbanz from Amazon, eBay and the like for about £8.58 plus p&p...it really isn't what you pay....for under a tenner this Christmas you can really have a good pair of headphones, if like me you dont like those dreadful earplugs.

Best reading light ever

If like me you are always looking for the perfect reading light then you have found the best blog ever!!!  I've continually bought bedside lamps, little clip on book lights that were booksmarks, those little lamps to clip on from the pound shops like Poundland and Poundworld...but I have officially purchased the best light for reading ever....The Mighty Bright MiniFlex LED - perfect. May be £10.99 plus postage but it is FANTASTIC!!!!  I was a bit cautious spending that much when you can easily get one for £1....there is NOOOOO comparison...  The Mighty Bright has 2 LEDS both to the power of 3 and you can have both lights on or just one....This is the perfect gift for readers everywhere and if like me you love to read in bed....you can't go wrong with this...amazing!!

Help the elephants at Care2 Petition Site

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/955/008/235/?z00m=19917869

Click the link above to petition against the ivory trade.

The U.S. Is one of the world's largest consumers of ivory. Illegal ivory is brought in via souvenirs, smuggling operations and the internet. That makes the U.S. one of the major drivers of elephant poaching in Africa.

Protections under the Endangered Species Act are riddled with loopholes, allowing the ivory trade to flourish in America and threatening Asian and African elephants in the wild.

Care2.com, Inc.
275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 300
Redwood City, CA 94065http://www.care2.com

Top 25 new music acts this year

I review music and pride myself on some of the most fantastic musical finds from scouring MySpace and from the CDs I have mailed to me free from PR companies.  My favourite bands/artists this year (and I recommend checking them out because they are awesome):

In no particular order (I'm sounding like Dermot O'Leary)

1. John D'Arcy
2. The Whatmans
3. Strait Laces
4. Jamie Lawson
5. Justin Corr and the Quicksand Band
6. The Good Fight
7. The Lowly Knights
8. Naoimh O'Hagan
9. Niamh Cavlan
10. The Breaking News
12. Brendan Monaghan
13. Kate Walsh
14. John Shelly and the Creatures
15. Eleanor McAvoy
16. Sons of Encouragement
17. Ed Harcourt
18. Mugger Dave
19. Simon Fagan
20. Jason Clarke
21. EleventyFour
22. Colenso Parade
23. Kitty and the Can Openers
24. Eilidh Patterson
25. Miss Paula Flynn

Nanowrimo

I won NanoWriMo this year...when I say that I won...everyone who reaches 50,000 words between 1 November and the 30 is considered a winner...I'd never even heard of the competition until I heard Kristina Horner on italktosnakes on YouTube mention it....I definitely recommend it to everyone...Script Frenzy in in April where you write a script in 30 days....don't think I'll do it but the novel was such a challenge...harder than my uni dissertation that's for sure...

Anyway....here's a little bite from my novel...tell me what you think.  It's called The Fly in the Jar and will be available on Amazon  soon.

Clement Taggart, like his father before him I am told, is very tall and muscular with steely eyes that are always moving when he talks.  He’s a man’s man with a strong handshake and no time for small talk.  Clement married Penelope some twenty-three years ago, she goes by the name Loppy which I think sounds like a rabbit’s name but wealthy people always seem to adopt daft names like Trinny and Boo so Loppy is just another in a long list of upper middle class badges of honour. 

Let me know what you think <3

PG Tips and Liptons

I'm a member of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) and I am continually saddened by the treatment animals receive for meat and fashion.  I'd of thought tea was pretty safe but turns out mice and rats are being experimented on for this also....we tend to think of rats and mice as vermin...I did too until maybe 3 weeks ago...I was outside and out cat had a little mouse tortured and half dead....I actually saw the little creatures face wrinked in pain and its mouth in a screeching type grimmace....its a sight I can't get out of my head....Anyway, below is an email I received from PETA....please boycott PG Tips and Liptons if you, like me care for animal welfare.  Good on PETA!!!

PG tips and Lipton teas will leave a bad taste in your mouth once you know about the pain and suffering that mice, rats and other animals endured in deadly tests by the company behind them.

We learned that terrible and shocking procedures were conducted on helpless animals so that pointless health claims could be made about tea by the maker of PG tips and Liptons. The tests that were conducted include the following:

• Experimenters punctured the abdomens of live rats, creating an "artificial anus" permanently attached a tube to a vein in the abdomen vein and then force-fed the animals tea ingredients. Afterwards, the rats were bled to death, their carcasses were crushed and effects on their tissues were measured were observed.
• Experimenters used mutant mice with inflammation of the bowel in order to determine whether tea ingredients would affect the animals' symptoms. The mice who didn't die during the experiment had their necks broken or were suffocated with carbon dioxide.
• After isolating rats and feeding them tea ingredients, experimenters forced probes into the animals and pushed catheters so far up the animals' leg arteries that the devices reached their abdomens. The animals' blood pressure was then measured to observe the effects of the tea.
• Experimenters deliberately brain-damaged rats before feeding them green-tea extracts.

Sickening, isn't it? Each one of those rats and mice was a living, feeling individual with a life that was just as precious to him or her as your life is to you.

Last year, over 3.5 million animals were killed in vivisection laboratories in the UK alone – animals just like those who were abused in the terrible tests by the company behind PG tips and Lipton teas.

The numerous victories we achieve are only possible through the support of our members. Please help today by doing the following two simple things:

1. Make an online donation to save animals around the world from abuse. 2. Boycott products tested on animals, including PG tips and Lipton teas.

Research shows that the results of tests on rats don't apply to mice, and vice versa – so tests on animals are completely irrelevant to human beings. What's more, there are plenty of effective, cruelty-free testing methods available..

If we don't stand up for vulnerable mice, rats, rabbits, pigs and other animals suffering in laboratories, they will continue to suffer and die in cruel vivisection experiments. But with you behind us, PETA and our international affiliates are saving lives. Among our many achievements are the following:

• We supported cruelty-free non-animal methods which have now replaced painful skin tests on rabbits.
• We persuaded a key European Union agency to issue new guidelines on animal use in chemical tests that could save more than 4 million animals.
• PETA affiliates have persuaded more than 1,000 companies around the world to ban testing on animals.

With your help, we can continue to expose animal abusers, lobby decision-makers to abandon animal testing, educate the public and publicise the issues through the media and eye-catching demonstrations.

If you – like me – are angry and distressed at the terrible treatment of mice, rats and other animals in laboratories, please act. Animals are depending on us.

Very truly yours,

 

Ingrid E Newkirk
Founder

PS Every three seconds, an animal in a European laboratory dies. Every minute counts in the fight against vivisection, so please make a donation today to support PETA's work for all animals.

My New Kindle Wi-Fi 3

Okay, so Santa hasn't officially been yet has he?  He may not have arrived for you yet but he has visited me early for being such a good girl all year, oh yes...he said "Sam...before the rush gets started, I'm coming with Rudolf to personally hand you your new Amazon Kindle because I don't want to risk Dancer, Blitzen or any of the others breaking your device en route....they are such careless reindeers."  So...here I am with a new Kindle and itching to get my hands on it and it's features.  Firstly, I must say that I'm extra impressed...it IS worth £109...I really see no reason to pay £149 just to have it wi-fi AND 3G...I mean most homes have wi-fi now and if not sure you can always go into Starbucks, Costa or whatever other coffee shops allow you access.  Anyway...I really recommend them but not he £25 quid insurance Amazon want you to pay shortly after buying one....sure the item is covered in the first year by the Sale of Goods etc, so why pay for insurance...I'm not a fan of insurance hence my iPod Touch isn't insured despite the fact I've insured every iPod I've owned up to this point (about 5).

For those wondering whether or not to take the plunge I say DO....there's NO glare...it's basically like reading a newspaper....that's how matt it is....amazing, honestly.  So far I've downloaded The Holy Bible, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Northanger Abbey, (yes, I love the classics) and Chris Graham's book Free Books for Kindle.  The Kindle comes preloaded with the Oxford dictionary and something I love is that when you are reading and you are unsure of the meaning of a word, you can just take the cursor up and a brief explanation of the word comes up). There are also varying font sizes making it perfect for those with poor vision, plus you can have the book actually read to you....how cool is that (all the books I have looked at in the Kindle store thus far have been voice enabled so ....)

So, yes .... be very jealous that Santa loves me best of all .... and if you love to read I recommend the Kindle 100% ...thank you Santa!!