Archive for the ‘News’ Category

There are some excellent tools out there if you want to learn French or German. There are plenty of tools out there if you want to learn Spanish, or Italian, or Polish. Finnish, not so much. There are a few resources out there, but nothing that really rocks.

So we are developing our own. Learn Finnish will be launching this summer. It will be a premium subscription service. Sign up for beta testing opportunities and advanced offers.

I am currently working on a printed version of the Leeds Restaurant Guide. It has been a long time coming. Three years ago, when we launched the guide, I always wanted to do a print version. However, the logistics of doing so have been complicated. Multiple attempts have been made. This time though, I think we have the setup correct.

This proofs represent the first attempt. They have gone back with changes, so it depends on how that goes. However, it’s a good first step towards the end goal.

Back in November I took part in NaNoWriMo and successfully completed my first novel. I sent it off to the printers just before Christmas and was pleasantly surprised a few days ago when the proofs dropped through my door. I created the book via CreateSpace and it was a bargain for the proofs at less than $3 per copy. I did spend more than that on shipping though!

Apparently, the done thing when they first arrive is to take a load of pictures of yourself posing with your book. Let it never be said I do not sometimes join in. Here is a bunch of pictures of my book in various locations.

I have already spotted one mistake. It was on the back cover of all places. Though I did not give the cover a proper proofread, so there is some hope that my proofreading was successful. Unlikely though. When we published the Leeds Restaurant Guide, I proofread it, Elina proofread it several times, and three of my friends proofread it too – and we’re still finding mistakes.

Here is a spread of the books.

Here are the books stacked up on a table.

Here is the book on my bookcase.

Finally, here is the book sat next to the Leeds Restaurant Guide.

We’re only a week into 2016 and there is already reason to celebrate. Earlier this week the world junior championship of ice hockey took place in Helsinki. The winners? Finland! Triumphing 4-3 over Russia in the final. To top all of that off, Sweden lost to the US in the play-off game as well.

Unfortunately ice hockey is not well covered in the UK. BBC Sport do have a section, but only if you go to All Sports, then A to Z, and then find Ice Hockey. Sky Sports require you to go to More Sports, then Filter, then Ice Hockey. Neither even mentioned the junior world champions when I checked. Similarly, to watch the adult world championships we had to buy Premier Sports for a month.

Finland’s victory in the juniors suggests they will continue to field a good team in the coming decade, and hopefully many more world championships to come.

Still looking for that perfect gift for someone? I’ve come to your rescue, as yesterday saw the launch of the 5th edition of the Leeds Restaurant Guide! It should now be available on Kindle Store. This edition has 20 new restaurants and 4 updated reviews.

Added

• 2 Oxford Place
• Archie’s
• Bilbao
• Bill’s
• Brotherhood of Pursuits & Pastimes
• Five Guys
• Gusto
• La Rambla
• Manahatta
• My Thai
• Pie Minister
• Pintura
• Revolucion de Cuba
• Smoke Barbecue
• Soba
• Stockdales
• The Headrow
• The Liquorist
• The Phoenix
• Zaap Thai

Updated

• Akbar’s
• Elysium
• Stonegate Pubs
• Thai A Roy Dee

Check out the website for the Finland Restaurant Guide. It’s super. It contains all the reviews that can be found in the guide. It is not quite as good as the real thing as it does not have the introduction, information on ratings, or high-quality images, but will still give you an option, or maybe even two, if you are looking for somewhere to dine.

I am pleased to unveil my new book, Finland Restaurant Guide.

It is a very short book. I have not visited every restaurant in Finland. Believe it or not, we are not even close. However we have reviewed twelve of the restaurants we visited while in Finland and will be expanding the guide over time.

It is available on Amazon now. I had intended to give it away for free. However, the Kindle Store does not support giving away free books, so I have set it at the minimum price possible – 99p.

Now that I will soon be marrying into a large estate, I’m pleased to announce my new business venture, FinnStore Self Storage.

Why pay Leeds city centre prices for self storage? We will beat their quotes and provide an even better experience. Self storage solutions for all sizes available at our site in Laitila.

Top features:

• Unlimited room – the sky is the limit when there is no roof!
• 24-7 access – simply fly to Finland, take the three hour drive to Laitila and access your stuff anytime
• Theft-proof – nobody is going to make the 18 hour round trip to steal your worthless possessions
• During the winter your items will be protected by a thick covering of ice and snow
• Tough security – the area is regularly patrolled by bears and wolverines
• Minimal chance of your documents being eaten by an elk thanks to our newly installed “no elk” signs

Contact us now to get a 80% introductory discount on your first 6 hours of storage!

Last month I launched a new responsive version of Lyrics Burger. However, the updates have not stopped there! It now has a tabs section, too. This includes entries for guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. It is a rather small collection currently, but who doesn’t want to play Phantom Planet over and over again?

I’m pleased to announce the Worfolk Online network is now responsive. The sites now look great across desktop, tablet and mobile – and we’re even supporting IE8 as well!

I’ve previously blogged about Lyrics Burger and Star Trek: Random Sector, but we’ve also updated:

Check out our updated sites:

• Branch Planet
• Greg’s Movie Reviews
• TV Forge
• Hardware Tutorials
• Celeb Linkage
• Authority Forums
• Jimmy Turtlehouse
• Maze Finance
• Song Meanings