nocto

the national blood service has a really nifty website that can show you blood donation sessions near you. you plug in your postcode and available dates and times and it’s tells you where to go. i’m impressed.

i haven’t given blood for ages and would like to do so again. since i have a habit of fainting afterwards i like to give in the evening at a location within walking distance of home so i don’t have to drive anywhere afterwards. you can probably get the same information from 0845 7 711 711 but the website’s really well done, it’s easy to use and seems up to date.

i got 5 out of 8 on the guardian’s spelling quiz. all the answers in this quiz would be answerable by spell checker (though i rarely use one myself).

the spelling errors that drive me nuts are the misused words ones that spell checkers don’t pick up. mixing up loose and lose always seems to be particularly prevalent on the net. i think it must be because the one with the longer vowel sound actually has less vowels in it. [found via sore eyes]

it looks as if the government is at least prepared to try out new methods of voting. next year’s local elections will include experiments in electronic, internet and phone voting.

there are many things that i find a pain in the arse to do in person but voting is one which i don’t mind at all. you need to vote so irregularly that i don’t find that having to screw up my schedule to do it to be much of a problem. i hope the pilot schemes are successful all the same.