hyperwords

Hyperwords is the other browser add-on that has very quickly become part of my online life. It may be obvious or even old news to some, but I’m impressed… and hooked. The main idea is that you can highlight any word in a web page and right-click to access a pop-up menu that includes searches on Google, dictionaries, images, translating tools, and more.

The best feature I have found so far is that any online search that you use often can be incorporated into the menu. Just right click in the search box of that page and choose ‘Add to Hyperwords’ to customize your menu. That and the double enter to get your Google search result. There still seem to be a ton of other shortcuts that I’m still discovering…

Thanks Ades for the pic above.

animal’s people

Without a doubt the best book I have read so far this year. Animal is the storyteller who goes on all fours in this book about life, love and suffering in the imaginary city of Khaufpur, whose inhabitants are still suffering from the fallout of a huge chemicals factory accident some 20 years ago. But how he tells it! It’s been a long time since I read a voice that grabs you by the throat, drags you at breakneck speed through his story and doesn’t let you slip an inch until the very end.

Go here for excerpts, here for the story behind the book and here for the man who inspired crazy, hilarious, genius, beautiful Animal.

kung fu panda

On Friday, the Climbers kicked off our spate of visitors , bearing beautiful gifts such as our own copy of not just the first volume (which puzzled Mr. Snow somewhat when he came to the end) but the whole of this story. Without even reading this blog I guess my likes and dislikes are transparent to all! Mr. Snow has since gone off into the mountains with them (maybe he can be Mr. Rock for this week) and I’ll join them at the weekend for some outdoor living.

Before they left, we managed to fit in a visit to the cinema to see Kung Fu Panda. Both Little and Large Climber enjoy animation films, and this one was no exception for all of us. The story goes, a fat, lazy panda is chosen over five kung fu warriors to become the one to save the Valley of Peace from a feared enemy.

I don’t think I’ll really be spoiling any surprises (it’s a Dreamworks film after all) to say he manages in the end. The conclusion does take some suspension of belief, as far as is necessary for a cartoon panda film (Mr. Snow and I did find ourselves arguing about just how long Po the panda had in kung fu boot camp before the evil one showed up).

Worse was the disturbing take-home message about believing and being yourself allowing you to conquer all. It seems I am not the only cynic, go here for a nice alternative view. Kung Fu Panda is only a film, but if as according to Philip French, ‘(Wall-E)’s humane message and concern for ecology have been criticised in conservative quarters’, it’s a spooky world indeed, cartoon pandas or not.