Typecast

Occasionally on Twitter I am asked to retweet something; a competition, a charitable cause, a tweet to raise awareness.  By doing so, I believe I am endorsing the information in the tweet or accompanying link - I am showing my support.  More often than not, I try to add a few words into the retweet to express my opinion.  This is easier using a third party client such as Tweetdeck as the Twitter web only allows a direct retweet with no alteration to the original text. This is where endorsement issues can arise.

Shorter version first published on The Huffington Post on Thursday 25th August 2011 Has anyone else noticed the Facebook " On this day in... " notifications to the right hand side of the screen (web version)?  Have a glance at the picture on the left and you can see what mine looked like a couple of days ago. Strangely related and sort of interesting so I almost put as my Facebook status, " Well, on this day in 2009 I was submitting an OU assignment " because we do that, don't we?  We update our social networks with random observations but why repeat something from a couple of years ago?  Who else is going to be interested AGAIN? Also, I saw that there is a Twitter account that is retweeting every single tweet from Twitter, in chronological order, from the beginning of "twime" (sorry...).  At the time of publication  @wetreet  was up to July 2006 and it's a whole different world.   It really was micro-blogging back then with hardly a...

Have you fallen foul of the auto-correct facility when using predictive text on your phone? Seeing a tweet of the Top 15 "Damn You, Auto Correct" entries reminded me of the time it happened to me. I had arranged to meet Ruth ( GeekMummy ) at Euston Station to taxi-share to the Cybermummy conference.  Our trains were due in at similar times so I sent a quick text to let her know we were 15 minutes away: Have you had any auto-correct mishaps?

If you could just choose five songs to live your life by, what would they be? Christine asked me this a while back and it's taken a lot of thinking but I think I've got it down to a final five now.  I'm a very lyrical person in all senses of the word and have ended up choosing these songs mainly for the lyrics, but as many of you know, I love music anyway and videos just enhance the whole experience. So, in no particular order:

I'm taking part in the " What's In Your Handbag? " Tumblr project from BritMums for three reasons: I want to show off my new handbag again. I cannot believe how much my new handbag needed tidying out after just twenty days of use  I'm a nosy sod and think that if I'm having a look in other people's bags then they should be able to see in mine I did a similar blog post  about 18 months ago and nothing much changes really.  But do you know what the weirdest thing is?  The fact that I've streamlined the contents but increased the size of bag.  I need a smaller handbag really but I'm too much in love with the MiaTui to downsize at the moment.

Well, I'm still the  When I Was A Kid resident blogger!  You will find me over there a couple of times a month. Click the logo to visit the blog! Today I am talking about Bedtime Stories .  Look out for the secret page link with a special offer only for readers of the blog and don't forget to nip back here and let me know what you think.

I may... just may have solved my "I can chip chip-proof nail varnish whilst I'm asleep" dilemma.  Do you remember my blog post entitled " Tough as Nails "?  Here's an excerpt: I'm 36 hours into a new application of nail varnish. [..]    This pot of nail varnish promises up to five days of perfect nails and is supposedly chip-resistant.   I went to bed, slept for 6 hours, woke up and saw a slight chip in the corner of my ring finger    [..] I have a day in front of a computer - mainly typing, answering the phone, writing, washing the odd cup after a brew, buttering a piece of toast... the usual office-type activities.  It's not exactly manual labour.  I head for home noticing another couple of chips on two separate nails on my left hand.  I think to myself that I'll have to sort that our later.   I go home, eat my tea (I don't prepare it - my husband has already done that). dry the pots after son #1 has washed...

I grew up in the Fylde - St Annes on Sea to be exact.  Blackpool was but a short car journey away and we very possibly took the entertainment capital of the North for granted.  When we went on holiday people marveled at the fact we lived a stones throw away from this amazing town and presumed that we went up the Tower every week.  In fact, as a child, I only visited Blackpool Tower twice.

So, I conducted a Sunday brunch survey on Twitter and Facebook: White or brown bread for bacon butties - and why? The general consensus appears to be that white bread is the way forward. White bread supports the bacon and holds the sauce in place properly. Brown is only to be used if you are on a diet. Barm cakes were mentioned but that's too much bread for me. But it does also open two other debates: Red or brown sauce – and why? BLT – lots of wrongness or just the best thing in the world?

I am guest editor on the Tots100 "Ten at Ten" today.   Grab a brew and a treat of choice then click the logo to see my ten recommendations from the greatest collection of Parent Blogs.

We have a site caretaker deliver our post at work.  The postman leaves it at the Gatehouse, the staff there sort it out and deliver it around the business park.  Today, the usual knock on the office door was heard and this was handed to me: "No post today, love.  Just this from the site manager.  I dunno... maybe he thinks walls need brightening up" What was it?  

Sometimes you get a PR offer in your email that you just can't refuse: *Hi, we're from Dirt Devil .  Would you and Jake like to come to The Lowry to watch Mr Stink by David Walliams?  We've got a bit of information about our latest cleaning range too and a great workshop for the kids to attend whilst you're listening to the boring stuff. *or words to that effect It took about 2 seconds between the email landing and me replying to accept the offer.  And what a fabulous idea - a cleaning company and a scratch-and-sniff experience at the theatre (more about that in a minute).

I am the new When I Was A Kid resident blogger!  You will find me over there a couple of times a month. Click the logo to visit the blog! This month we are talking about Outdoor Play .  Look out for the secret page link with a special offer only for readers of the blog and don't forget to nip back here and let me know what you think.

I have written a calmer, more balanced article about my Mumsnet experience which has been published in the "Shit Happens" section of   In The Powder Room . There is also a response from Justine Roberts , co-founder of Mumsnet.  Head on over there to have a read. (all links will open in a new browser window)

Don't the months just fly by?  It's already time for another sneak peek of the Wikio Parent Blog Rankings.  There is the usual movement up and down, a few noticeable absenses for one reason or another and a few newbies. I've always noticed that during the summer months I experience a drop in readers, comments, people sharing the posts but we all know it's only for a bit of fun, right?  In fact, even though I say I don't take much notice of my statistics, I actually have a glance at them now and again.  It's always useful to know how people are arriving on your blog, how long they stay, if they read any other posts whilst here and how/why they leave.  What do you think?  Do you scour your stats page, do you glance occasionally or do you not really care in the slightest?