Day: July 26, 2008

I’ve been trying to summer-clean my e-mails this evening, deleting ones that are no longer needed, bookmarking sites referenced and archiving ones from fora that contain resources. Whilst doing so, I came across an e-mail reminding me that I’d requested an invite to Twitterfone, and sending me the necessary code to get an account.

I must admit that I like shiny new things and like to be up to date with the latest ‘thing’, and sometimes forget what I’ve requested so I had to look up Twitterfone.

Glad I did!

Whilst I am becoming a bit of techno-chick (according to colleagues!), I still have a blindspot with one regard – I cannot get my head around predictive texting! I am a fast texter but predictive textig gets me all of a flutter. As I love texting and my only access to Twitter whilst at school is via my mobile, I sometimes become frustrated by my inability to text fast enough and wonder why I can’t just dictate my message.

Now I can! Twitterfone works thus …

Having registered with my invitation code, I’ve just tried it out – and it works!! I called the number, left my message and voilà – my tweet arrived a minute or so later, complete with a link to hear my dulcet tones dictating the message – just in case it’s gobbledegook!!
As the info section points out, it isn’t perfect, as it won’t recognise @ replies or d messages which is a bit of a pain, but I guess they might sort it in time.

Want an invite? Click here!

Off to Twitterfone my blog post ;o)

PS Sadly, doesn’t seem to spell in Spanish :o(

Although I no longer regularly teach French, I still love the annual French phenomenon that is the Tour de France. I used to make a big fuss over it with an interactive map and daily updated chart – I think that was when my NQT year really seemed to reap rewards as the kids at the tough comp where I taught fought to be my ‘updaters’.

Anyhow, I’ve been Tweeting all week with @sharongs and @etalbert amongst others about Le Tour, and my house has been a hive of Tour activity as my boys have been avidly watching ITV4 each night, and Mr S has been getting overexcited as his cycling fantasy teams have been doing rather well (his Vélo games team was in 87th place yesterday!)

So the big question is…. who will win?

I don’t share the opinion of some fellow Twits who are missing Armstrong and Ullrich – I love the more open race this year. From the start, I’ve been rooting for Mark Cavendish for the sprints and Cadel Evans for GC. With Cavendish abandoning to concentrate on the Olympics – and to give other sprinters a bit of a chance too ;o) – all my supportive vibes have been channelled the Aussie’s way.

However, Carlos Sastre is in yellow going into the penultimate stage – what shall I do? He’s Spanish after all! Should I be loyal to my Spanish preferences and yell for Sastre, or to my original choice and scream for Evans to make up the deficit of just over a minute and a half? The likely outcome is a win for Evans as Sastre is not a great time trialler, but anything can happen in Le Tour!

But I really can’t see this animation coming true – sorry, Bernhard Eisel – but, just to be on the safe side, watch out for cows, Carlos and Cadel!!

Whilst blogging last night, I was reminded of a video on Youtube that I had seen 6 months ago (and commented upon, so I know it was six months ago!!) but forgotten about. A masterpiece of sock puppetry, and an advertisement for a great product! See for yourself!

Coffee Break Spanish, presented by Mark and Kara, is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn Spanish. Now nearing it’s 100th episode, you can subscribe on iTunes and find out more about CBS at www.coffeebreakspanish.com/.

And should you wish to learn other languages, check out www.radiolingua.com where more of the prodigious output of Mr Mark Pentleton are showcased – including Coffee Break French, One Minute languages including Luxembourgish and Norwegian and MyDailyPhrase eg Italian. No froggycoffee here, eh Mark ;o)