superheroes, PHS and getting active

Current work: admin and thinking about next books
Listening to: Kathryn Williams
Reading: various research stuff

I'm over at the Pink Heart Society today talking about a really wonderful drama series. If you enjoyed North & South, I'd love to hear your views!

Julie Cohen has a lot to answer for. Not just because I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of her new book, Girl From Mars (yay, nerdy heroine alert), but she (via Jan Jones, who is also a Very Bad Influence) has introduced me to the concept of becoming a comicbook heroine.

Sadly, the accessories don’t include a magic wand (there is a Jedi light sabre, but it isn’t the same thing), but this is will do nicely. This is me: the Amazing Thoughtful Philanthropist.




Note, this is the thin version of me. And I don’t really have butterfly wings. I do, however, like sending surprise things to friends to cheer them up. Hence the shopping bag. Never underestimate the power of a package from Hotel Chocolate or Lush. :o)

Want one yourself? Nip over here. It takes three minutes and it’s huge fun. (And even if you don’t think you like comics, go and read Dinosaur Comics and you may change your mind. Ryan North is seriously talented and I appreciate his sense of humour.)

Meanwhile, I’m preparing for a chat with my ed about the next few books. And recovering from a session on the Wii Active thingy, which arrived yesterday. It’s certainly interesting – major plus point is that the workout is all in one piece and I don’t have to keep flicking between menus or waiting for the Wii to finish giving me instructions (after the first time, the default is to skip the instructions but you can access them if you need to, which is a very sensible way of arranging things), so a 30-minute workout really does take 30 minutes and not nearer 50. I can see how many calories I’m burning, as I burn them; and it’s helpful and encouraging without repeating itself. Oh yes – and you can choose your music. I can live with the guitar/alternative rock one. (Custom... hmm.)

Cons: measurements are all in metric, and if you’re accidentally holding the Wii bar/Nunchuck the wrong way round it doesn’t pick that up, just tells you you’re doing the exercise wrong or tells you that you’re slowing down when you’re not (and you shout at the TV a few times before it occurs to you why the sensors aren’t picking up). Oh, and why doesn’t the food diary count fruit portions as well as vegetables? I might only eat four or five portions of veg a day, but I’ll also eat two or three portions of fruit. Or maybe I should read “vegetables” as “fruit and”.

But on the whole I like it, and I’m hoping it’s going to interest me enough to make me stick with it for six weeks, until the exercise habit is ingrained.