S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 241

Winner

You guys have definitely stocked up my shopping list with your recs; I'll be taking them along with me this weekend as I make the rounds of the stores. In the meantime, we cranked up the magic hat, and the winner of the Books for the Holidays giveaway is:

bamabelle, who recommends Need by Carrie Jones.

Bamabelle, when you have a chance please send your BookWish along with your full name and ship-to info to LynnViehl@aol.com so I can make some magic and get these books out to you. My thanks to...

Gen Ten

Ten Things Generated by Online Generators

Chronology of Industrial Zoology ~ Cultural Zoology ~ Industrial Engineering ~ Industrial Studies ~ National Remedial Engineering ~ Popular Experimental Politics ~ Practical Arts ~ Scientific Mathematics ~ Theoretical Chemistry ~ Theoretical Cultural Academics (Seventh Sanctum's
HyperFive Sound Effects ~ Siebencordings Operators ~ EnerCinco Interactive ~ 5strax ~ Pitchcordings Corp. ~ HuitAcht Recordings ~ 2record Factory ~ Uno...

Books for the Holidays

I've been catching up on my TBR this past week, and have a stack of books I wanted to rec as great reads for the holidays:

Mary Balogh headlines The Heart of Christmas anthology, which has three very decent stories (and you don't see that too often in an antho.) I especially enjoyed the common-man story by Courtney Milan, an author I haven't read before, and I'll now be looking for her single titles. This would also make a great gift for someone who enjoys holiday historical romance.

If yo...

Readability

How readable is your text? This online tool will generate a series of scores, along with a sentence count, word count, syllable count and an average of how many words you used per sentence.

If you want to make a quick check of how some text sounds when read out loud, stop over at AT&T Labs Natural Voices® Text-to-Speech Demo page, cut and paste your test into the box, and click on speak. There is a 300 character limit, but there are a variety of voices, and it's a decent online tool to test ...

Holiday Brakes

Time seems to move too fast these days, doesn't it? I swear, the kids just went back to school; I blinked and suddenly it was Halloween. Thanksgiving -- a day that for me has always been a nonstop celebration of food and family and fun -- was a flash this year. If I hadn't cooked all day I would have sworn we microwaved Thanksgiving.

Now the Christmas holidays are coming at me, and while I know I still have 24 days to finish my preparations, I suspect it's going to be more like 24 minutes...

Today Only

The Discovery Channel's online store is offering a page of deals including Planet Earth Collectior's Edition series on DVD for $19.99 or Blu-Ray for $24.99.

From now until December 9th, use code B3U9U7U when checking out at B&N.com and save 15% on one eligible item (fine print here.)

Target.com's Cyber Monday deals include free shipping if you spend $50.00 or more.

For info on 600+ more deals, stop by CyberMonday.com.

Freebie Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Nothing

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

Ardoise (French for slate) is a note/reminder program that installs a virtual blackboard on which you can write, draw or erase your reminders. "At launch (and at start of Windows) is displayed a transparent small version of your blackboard status "Hide mode" and in "Draw mode" you may use your blackboard like a real one, usin...

For Those Who Wait

This is a story for anyone who has a hard time waiting for what they want.

I have long been a fan of Gütermann threads.When you sew as much as I do, you go through hundreds of spools of thread every year. Quilters are especially fussy, and when we find a brand that works for us we become very loyal to it. I've tried just about every other brand, and found that everything Gütermann makes, from silk to glace-hand quilting threads, are the best on the market.

Gütermann's threads can also be quite ...

The Last NaNoPost

One day a Japanese art student became bored during his university exams and decided to fool around with some paper. Four years later he finished constructing this incredible model city, made entirely out of two things: paper and craft glue.

The construct, named "Castle on the Ocean" by the artist, is roughly 8' X 6' and stands about 3' tall. It features a castle based loosely on El Temple de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain (the same church that I discovered has doors made of words) a...

Best Viewed with Curiosity

I'm off to read, bake cookies, have friends over and otherwise not step one foot out of the house (my guy is in retail, so I expect him to drag himself home sometime around 1 am.) I hope your holidays are going well.

So that your visit here was not entirely wasted, here are:

Ten Links from Leogeo.com
(caution: most of these links come with music or sound effects, so turn off your speakers if you're at work)

Day and Night

E-Site Study

Encircling Circles

Green

Harlequin (one that won't piss you off)

O...