Hey

Hello, it’s so nice to see you again! Cracker? (got it from Pinterest)

Aren’t you a sweet duckie! Run along now, before your mum gets flighty. Uh, yes, that little fella said it for me, I think all of us bloggers need a break every so often and I’m feeling so-so right now, I’m not quite sure exactly that means too. I’ve stopped reading or at least I’m tying to because of my exams in Oct/Nov but it’s not an easy hobby to let lie. I am about a 100 and something pages away from finishing A Game of Thrones but I’m post postponing it until a later date and even though I’m brushing back Mercy Thompson during the nights, GoT wouldn’t sit well if I’m anxious as I am as of the moment. So that puts a halt in my progress in the Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge.

I’m not even sure what to write, there are ideas but not compelling enough to make me want to write about right now, and I am telling you it took a while to be compelled to write this post. More poems perhaps, yes, that might work. Also I have missed three going on four weeks of Picture it and Write! and I’m not in the last happy about it. It’s like my creative juices are drained. It could be aliens. Or ninjas.

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I’m afraid this is a little over due, nevertheless, I’d like to shout out a big thank you to James over at James Kennedy at Monash University for honoring me with the Very Inspiring Blogger Award!

The rules of the award are as follows:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you. Check.
2. Post the award image to your page. Check.
3. Share 7 facts about yourself.
4. Nominate other blogs for the award and inform them about it.

Now … seven things about me:

1. Last year I cut my knee length brown hair to just below my shoulders. It has been a regretful choice and a lesson in itself. Enough said.
2. I’m a born Hindu but I’m open minded and I also believe in Jesus Christ so I suppose that would make me Christian as well.
3. I have not posted anything much about this, I’m into environmental conservation, not exactly a newbie but nothing remotely close to an expert in any area. I’m still learning and such posts requires good research and time, time which I don’t normally have.

The Blog of 2012 Award

Hey everyone, how’s it going? I’m sitting at my desk typing this out for you while BBC 6 Radio plays in the background, a recent habit I acquired in the past few days, one of the good habits I’m thinking about how my now – the present – and everything in it will be an old dusty thing of the past, for instance the modern music now playing and the station is even airing songs of yesteryear.

I’m thinking how years to come I’ll remember lecturing my two little sisters and brother this morning that what’s not theirs they must not touch. Ranting to their wary round faces that I don’t want them trashing our shared room and God help me I will blow it if they do it anyway. Ten years or so from now I might remember this day when I chastise my own kids.

HC&B’s first Anniversary

WordPress has recently informed yours truly that yesterday, the 22nd of November, had marked HC&B’s first year anniversary! I’d like to thank you all who have been reading from since then to those of you in the middle and to those who’ve just joined me, thank you all.

When I started blogging I wasn’t sure what to write about but I did know that there’s a lot that I need to get out. So since I loved reading and hot chocolate I named this blog after those but I was sure that it won’t be devoted to books entirely.

I don’t believe I write good reviews half of the time so I was reluctant to do it at all but I refuse to just read and not analyze. I mean I analyze what’s written but it needs to be written down and by really writing my thoughts down I find that there’s more to think about. So even though I don’t write one for each book I read I still make an attempt. Blogging has given me an opportunity to share and it has pushed me to do more.

For the past year I’ve met some really good people who’ve changed my life in even the most minute ways that changed me for the best and to you I’ll be forever grateful. Yes, yes, this might be all too melodramatic for a one year mark but what I say holds true

G’night everyone, and good morning to you on the other side

Cheers!

The Excellence Asylum - A New Breed

Reblogged from The Excellence Asylum:

THE EXCELLENCE ASYLUM  – EDITORIAL – FIRST EDITION

By Peter Howorth

A New Breed;

Does this look familiar? It should because it's the kind of thing James Mahoney would write on The Dark Globe. Just one of many of his good ideas so I thought I'd adapt it for this place too, so you can be kept in the loop as it were.

Read more… 346 more words

Hey guys, I've recently joined the Excellence Asylum. We've just started out but you can expects great things to come, so come on over and drop us a line or two ;)

Au revoir to The Dark Globe

I should have written about this earlier, maybe it was because I forgot or that I was too depressed to say it ‘out loud’ but reading a fellow ex-contributor‘s post mentioning it, I thought I should as well. Maybe you’ve known of The Dark Globe perhaps you haven’t but the fact is that around earlier this week Dark Jade, the blog’s creator, decided to stop operations on the blog.

It was a diverse little community we had there, a bit of almost everything to suit a broad range of interests of our readers. I won’t deny I was saddened by the news, but DJ has his reasons and I respect that. I don’t want to give false hope, but posting on TDG might or might not resume, if it does I will let you all know of it. Though let it be known that all of the contributors’ posts are still there for you everyone to have a look at and you can see us on the The Crew page.

In other news, I’m running late in this week’s Picture it and Write! challenge. Hopefully you’ll be seeing something from me tonight or tomorrow.

That’s it for now, have a great weekend

Site Updates

Hey there everyone I think my sidebar needs a face lift. I’ve got too much stuff there and since I’m working on de-cluttering my life I might as well do the same for my blog. I’m working on a page that will be dedicated to some of the blogs I follow that I recommend that you should check out instead of having buttons on the bar. At some point I’ll end up changing this theme which is currently Spectrum.

What do you guys think about how this blog looks right now? Are there any themes that you think I should try out?

Cheers all!

Ads on my blog + Forum deletion and other stupid WP decisions

I’ve switched to WP more than half a year ago from the claustrophobic Blogspot (in my opinion, but I don’t hate it there though) with a boat load of enthusiasm. I applauded their efforts against the SOPA bill earlier this year. I’ve enjoyed the features they’ve provided that free users like me can utilize. I’ve ‘met’ so many great people in this community, a few of them were – and still are – influential to me and I’ve got you awesome viewers!

But not because they’ve provided us with these goodies should permit them to put ads on our blogs, at least without our permission. It was earlier this morning when I checked this here site (after I pledged not to come in the first place to fight this addiction) when lo and behold Global Online Degrees offered by the University of Liverpool appears above my header and my Gravatar in the sidebar. Just like that in a second my mood took a drastic turn, call it irrational but I can’t help it.

I like things just as the were; ad-free. Ads, no matter how helpful, on my blog annoys me. It was neat and clean and, if I may say so, to some extent this blog actually looked professional. Not anymore since the ads popped up. I knew, or I thought I knew, that we had a choice weather or not we wanted to put up ads so I haven’t an inkling on what’s going on but I did tweet WordPress asking what they’re up to but I’m not likely to get a reply so later when I’m in the mindset I’ll go over to the forums* and maybe Time Thief or another helpful blogger can clue be in.

UPDATE: I am so so so feeling foolish but the reason for the ads might be due to the ad-blocker on my browser being inactive. I apologize for that. I could have deleted this first half of the post but I though it’s already there. There’s a possibility others might be experiencing this and are shaking their heads in empathy so this is a heads up.

Again, I’m grateful to WP for such a diverse and exciting platform and it isn’t my intention to come off as unappreciative but as a blogger here I think I have some rights.

Creating a Blog Button

Reblogged from Laura Catherine:

I did a post about this last year when I created my own blog button that you can see in my side bar, but over the last few weeks I've been asked by a few people how to make one. So I will give the quick and easy way to make one.

Step One:

Go to Pixlr. Here is where you create your button's image.

Read more… 173 more words

How to make a blog button in four simple steps.

The Hot Chocolate and Books button

Hi all!

I’ve finally gotten around making a button for this blog, though it nothing much and I don’t really know how to make a proper button as yet (I’ll find out eventually)

All you have to do is:

1. back click on this picture and select Copy Link Location and
2. using an Image widget, paste it into the Image URL field
3. and finally linking this blogs URL
   http://hotchocolateandbooks.wordpress.com
   (paste it into the Link URL field)

Photo credit: Maria Fernanda’s blog

Cheers!

Devina