Ich Spiele das Plinky-Plonk

So I've taken up piano. I say 'piano', we don't actually own a piano, so I'm settling for a keyboard. It's not quite the same, the main difference being a lack of an extra 17 keys, but I'll just have to make do.

Oh, and bear with me if this post is a little short, I've challenged myself to type an entry before my laptop runs out of battery entirely, which is usually between three and ten minutes.

Anyway, back to my point, yes, I can now proudly say I can play the piano, albeit to a rather limited degree. It's a rather unusual instrument in the sense that the notes are so defined and unique that you can work out how to play pretty much any piece of music just by hitting the keys until they 'spell out' the song.

My laptop seems to think it has two hours and ten minutes left before it conks out. Or is that two minutes and ten seconds...?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this update-

ARAGH! IT'S GOING INTO HIBERNATE* MODE!

Ok, so I failed at my own miniature challenge, but haven't we all learned something from this? If you don't think you have, think about it a bit more carefully. Answers in the comment box below, on the Facebook page or to the usual email address. If you don't know what that is by now, you're either a new reader or you've just been making a very long cup of tea.

Tarrah for now. Next week, I'll be posting the results of the ten minute challenge! But which one will it be? You'll have to wait and see...


*In honour of its maiden hibernation, I'm renaming my computer 'Hedgehog'

If These Were Little Chickens...

The worst Del Boy puns are always the best. The more observant of you may have realised that there is a new addition to the blog. Twitter has now been fully and successfully integrated, allowing for those of you with more time than sense to check up on the latest that is happening in my world. This 'microblogging' will be a more personal insight into my life, allowing stalkers to track my every move and sorrowful mishap. Bear in mind that I am restricted on how many characters are in each tweet, so don't expect a flood of detail if something terrible happens. I'm not one for bad news, and if it's good news I'll probably post a full entry on here.

Anyway, have a look if you're even mildly interested. Or don't, but you'll make me cry. Maybe that's what you want*. You can find a little tab to the left of the page saying 'Follow Me'. Click that and it'll take you straight to my Twitter page. Not only that, but if you look at the top of the page, you'll see a short little snippet that is in fact my latest tweet. Shiny, eh?

That's all really, keep telling your little chummies about me, and if you happen to be of the chartable type, search 'surface of the sun' in Google, go on to the second page and click the entry that will link to this blog. If you do this, it will improve the standing of the blog and push it further up on the list. Not to mention I'll love you forever.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to wait ten hours in the Treasury on Fable III in order to accumulate enough cash from my real estate to keep the citizens of Albion alive.

In the words of Reaver:
Tatty-bye.


*Marmite

Well Hot Damn...

I was surprised the other day. After waking up and lying in bed for the best part of an hour doing little more than scratching my face with something that felt like a dead badger's tit, I decided it was probably time to rise and breakfast myself. Upon arriving in my kitchen, I opened one of the many fridges to be greeted* by two medallions of charmingly cheap bacon, and single egg, some beans and two slices of bread. Perhaps they weren't all in there and perhaps there were more than I said, but it's far more original to describe your whole meal inside a fridge door than simply listing them as a table of contents. Anyway, I collected said ingredients and made my way over to the frying pan.

Long story short, I cooked the foodstuffs and sat down to eat my meal. It was only when I looked up at the clock and saw the time that I really surprised myself. It had taken me ten minutes to prepare a 'full' English breakfast. Now many of you will be thinking that this isn't a particularly impressive feat, and if I was pushed I could probably reduce the time by a good few minutes. The thing that made this all so strange was that I usually take a very long time to cook. It's not because I'm rubbish, I just like to take my time over things, cooking's a relaxing activity for me.

This got me thinking... What other things could you do in just ten minutes?

Now here's a shocker, I'm NOT going to list a load of obscure and ridiculous activities involving woodland creatures. Crumbs no, I'm going o get you to do that for me, and as a special treat, I'll attempt to perform the one I consider the most intriguing, challenging or indeed outrageous idea.

So, post your ideas underneath in the comments section, post them on the Facebook page, or email me.


*Food should never actually speak to you. If this happens to you, you might need a cold bath and a slap

Is There Life on Mars?

As you may have noticed, The Surface Of Then Sun is having some changes applied to it. Most notable of which is shiny, new dedicated url for the blog, namely 'surfaceofthesun.co.uk'. Catchy, eh? Not only that, but the name of the blog has also been ever so slightly altered, from 'The Surface Of The Sun' to 'Surface of the Sun'*. This may seem a very small change, but it's a change nonetheless, although the chances of anyone truly caring are slim to nil. Sod it, it makes me happy. You will have to be a little patient, as the domain name will take a while to fully link with the blog. If you get directed to a website with "Namesco" scrawled all over it, take a deep breath, reload the page, and if that doesn't work, bludgeon your monitor with a croquet mallet.

Not only that, but now if you have any thoughts of feeling about the site, you can get in contact with my directly by emailing me on my stalker-proof email address:
alexolney@surfaceofthesun.co.uk
If that link just opened an irritating and useless email program, I am deeply sorry.

Don't think I've finished yet though, the site will also receive a shiny new design, perfectly suited to the modern man or woman. Yes, this does mean a departure from my beloved font Georgia, which will be sadly missed. Think of it as a tired old workhorse. It's served you for as you can remember and it's a dear old friend to you. But it's limping, its nose is gangrenous and you think its catheter has fallen out. The best thing to do is to take it outside, give him a blindfold and a cigarette, aim carefully and precisely with a tear in your eye, and punch it to death. It's ok, because soon you'll have a shiny new motor car with the power of THREE horses to help carry your vegetables.

Either way, it's happening, and I know it's for the best. I'll keep you all up to date every time something remotely interesting or shiny appears.


*If you noticed the re-capitalisation, well done, have a biscuit

Friends Overseas

Today, I noticed something. A small number of people who are reading this blog are not of English origin, and in fact come from all over the world, which I'm absolutely thrilled about. I'm not going to mention what countries for the sake of their privacy, but let's just say we've got people from all over the shop. Now I'm not sure how your English fares in comparison to your first language, so I'm going to ask if it would be of any benefit to any of you if I implemented a way to automatically translate the page into any language you wish? If so, please let me know below, or via the Facebook page*.

This coincides with the change that is happening to the blog, so if you have any other suggestions, please don't hesitate to post them below.


*Most prestigious TSOTS fan page in the world

Times Are A-Moving

It's been over four months now. Four months of informal, enjoyable yet informative updates for all you plucky young (or old) viewers of the blog aforementioned atop this web page.

What can I say? It's been fun, there's no denying that, even if I have lapsed every now and then with the frequency of my updates. I want to thank everyone who's supported me, but as I am currently unable to walk due to an infection in both feet, you'll probably have to pat yourselves on the back to suffice. I'm sure you'll cope.

Four long months, and many more to come I hope! And to mark the event, I've written a limerick:

-

There once was a blogger named Alex,
Who found few other rhymes than perplex,
So he followed suit
With his usually route
And made things cantankerously complex

-

It may not be Shakespeare, but it's probably better than Tony Blair's autobiography.*

Back on to the main topic, expansion expansion expansion. I want to know from all of you what I can do to expand my blog further, not just to reach out to new people, but to make it better for everyone. What do you suggest? Perhaps a mailing list so that you can be informed every time I update by email? A new layout and design? More pictures of Boris Johnson?

It really is up to you, how do you want to see The Surface Of The Sun improve?

Leave comments below this post, or the more adventurous of you may wish to leave a note on the Facebook page associated with here.

Your feedback means an awful lot.


*Outsold by Aleksandr Orlov's autobiography: A Simples Life