The Eagle has Landed

Hey Mates! I arrived in London at 7 a.m. this morning and walked in the door of Spooner's house at 10. A long but uneventful trip. After taking a quick nap and shower, I headed into town to meet one of my Flickr mates at the Royal Academy of Arts to see "From Russia," an amazing exhibition of French and Russian masters, mostly impressionist and post-impressionist, from the Russian collections (i.e. stuff that was in private hands until the Russian Revolution when the state seized it all). Virtually none of this stuff has been out of Russia since, and Putin almost didn't let it out for the exhibition.


Afterwards, we walked up to Newman Street to see the newest Banksy. It's fab.


Then, I came back to Belsize Park and did some shopping -- soap (forgot mine, don't like Spooner's), cello tape (for wrapping prezzies), the essential HobNobs, and some cake for Spooner's birthday. Prezzies are now wrapped and he should be home any minute.

Tomorrow, Islington (weather permitting).

Pssssst. Don't tell Spooner!

I'm not taking any Zud to London on this trip. I've got other stuff for Spooner.

Zemanta

Image via WikipediaI've been trying out a new Firefox plug-in called Zemanta. It's a tool that generates suggestions of photos, links, tags(labels) and articles for your blog based on its analysis of the content. As you type, Zemanta looks for suggestions and then presents them to you after every 300 characters (or, you can click to update the suggestions whenever you want). Most of the links come from Wikipedia, with homepage links for some things. It was really buggy when I gave it a test run this past weekend, but they just pushed out an update and things are running much better now. It's in alpha, so bugs and fixes can be expected. I must say that their support people are very responsive, answering questions incredibly quickly even on the weekend.

So, let's give it a whirl and see what suggestions it finds from this list:

Northampton, Massachusetts
Tower of London
Emma Goldman
Rolling Stones

Not bad -- Zemanta found links for all of these, giving me a choice of Wikipedia article or homepage for several. It found five pix of Northampton or Hampshire County, the Firefox logo, and a photo of Charlie Watts. I've added a couple of the suggested articles below; these give more info about how Zemanta works (geekspeak about algorithms and such) and have some screen shots and videos (I like the demo video).

If you're using Blogger, Typepad or WordPress for your blog, and Firefox for your browser, I suggest you try Zemanta and see what you think. Don't be surprised if you have to reload your dashboard page [Ctrl-F5] when you first open a new post, or if you have to turn off ad blocking -- such as AdblockPlus -- for that page in order to make it work. Be patient as they work out the bugs -- it's a great concept, and should improve with age.

Related articles

• Zementa Brings a Semantic Layer to Your Blog [via Zemanta]
• Zemanta, Get Suggestions While Writing Articles [via Zemanta]

Almost Set to Jet

Cheyne Walk c. 1800Plans are falling into place for London. I've got Spooner's birthday prezzies all ready to pack, including a few from his ex. The weather over there has been like a yoyo -- in the low 60s on Friday, then 30s and snow today -- so I can't figure out what clothes to pack. Here are some highlights of what I'll be doing over there:

• From Russia at the Royal Academy of Arts.
• Walk around Islington, with stops at the S&M (Sausage and Mash) Cafe and the Estorick Collection.
  
• London Welsh choirs at Cadogan Hall.
• Walk around Chelsea, including the Royal Hospital grounds and Cheyne Walk.
  
• Daytrip to Whitstable or Canterbury.
• Something in Southwark -- either the Tate Modern or Imperial War Museum.
• Exploring other bits around Waterloo, particularly Lower Marsh Street.

Rosenbeans has requested that I look for floaty pens, Earl Grey tea and Donna Leon books for her, so I'll check my favorite souvenir stand next to St Martin-in-the-Fields and a bookstore in Belsize Park called Daunt. ScribeGirl wants more soap from Covent Garden Market. Anyone else with requests should let me know. Stay tuned for further developments.

Searching for Signs of Spring: A Peep Adventure

Like a Peep on a wire. The Peeps return to New England.


Mountains of dirty snow begin to melt. On nice days, the Peeps can motor with the top down as they look for signs of spring.


Enormous potholes open up in the roads. The Peeps nearly drove into this one. Thank goodness they always brake for dinos.


The fields flood, and mud is everywhere. That's why we call it Mud Season. The Peeps decided it's better to travel by boat than by car.


At last, the Peeps and their friend Mr. Fez find a cheery sign of spring. When the crocuses emerge, spring can't be far away!