Bouncing Hedgehog

Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

I run a small web based business and one of the items I sell is an eBook. Once paid for a download link valid for 24 hours is provided by e-mail. I’ve sold several hundred of these eBooks and nobody has had a problem. Except Yahoo users.

It really pisses me off when I start to get snotty e-mails from a customer. The latest saga… Read the rest of this entry »

I was in a conversation the other day and a section of a book by Sven Hassel came to mind. I can’t remember which book but for those of you who don’t know Sven Hassel writes books on WWII from the German perspective. Anyway, to cut a long story short one of the characters was in trouble with the racial purities commission. Apparently he had become his own grandfather on paper and they just couldn’t figure out how that could possibly be legal. Read the rest of this entry »

Nationalism has a lot to answer for. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage (even if others don’t see it as something to be proud of) or with being proud of who you are. It’s when that nationalistic pride starts to equate to “I’m better than you because I’m American” (or English or whatever nationality you happen to be) that I have issues with it. Read the rest of this entry »

I was talking with my wife the other day about successful authors and a vague memory surfaced. I remember many years ago (1980’s maybe) the Daily Mirror (pretty sure it was them – though I guess it might have been the Sunday Mirror) running an article on a very successful author (whose name completely escapes me) whose works of fiction worked out at about $100 per written word or some such figure like that. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost Superbowl time again which prompted a thought regarding the infamous (at least in American eyes – the rest of the world couldn’t give a damn) wardrobe malfunction whereby a naked nipple was missed – sorry - I mean seen by almost everyone. The resultant uproar was laughable. I dare say most people would have ignored it but were they allowed to? Read the rest of this entry »