Every now and then, I get a bit bored of the name of my website. I’ve been through several iterations, bought lots of domains and moved things around a lot. Not any longer. Smarter Than… is a perfectly acceptable name, if a little long. I have solved this problem, and the one in which I crave new URLs, by purchasing a shortcut for you: mrschristine.com. If you can’t be bothered to type out all 22 letters plus a dot com for STYA, then you can use the super snazzy mrschristine.com instead.

A Q&A with the man himself. On not anticipating any problems: We were not really pushing, we were very focused on the targets, not on qualifying. We just focused on one point, which was the win. We were just so relaxed and peaceful working together. I could sleep very easily this week, and during the race too. I was just checking the lap times and everything we’d said before was done, no problem at all. It was just great.

It wasn’t my intent but looking at the finished product this week, I’ve realised how very Doctor Who it is. I must have been subconsciously influenced by this because I certainly wasn’t aiming for a Doctor Who header. My favourite part was the blur filter to create the light effect. So simple! Anyway, here are the details: Made with: Pixelmator Tutorial: Hexagons Bokeh Font: Gloucester MT Extra Condensed (rasterised and widened)

The race isn’t over yet, but our dreams for a Montagny win really are. The #2 car was leading but… well, Autosport tell it best: Franck Montagny was on his out-lap from a scheduled fuel-stop when flames and smoke started pouring from the right side exhaust of his 908 at Tertre Rouge. He tried to get the car back to the pits, but was forced to park it up at the side of the Mulsanne straight. He has remained by the side of car, still hoping to find a way to get it back to the pits, but the failure looks terminal.

But our driver is not at the top. Sadly, I didn’t get to see any of qualifying either - who decided to put Le Mans on when I am just crazy busy? Still, according to the Autosport report on things: Stephane Sarrazin, who had taken the last three consecutive 24 Hours poles, was denied the opportunity to extend his streak when the final stint in the #2 car was given to Nicolas Minassian.

I’m afraid I’m going to be one of those rather annoying people who only pays attention to football when the World Cup is on. Come on England and all that. Thankfully, I wouldn’t dream of being one of those annoying people that puts flags on their cars, so I think the two balance each other out quite nicely. I know very little about football. Really, really little. I used to “support” Manchester United when I was too young to know any better. I have never lived anywhere near Manchester, so I must have only picked them because they were doing quite well. When I say support, of course, it really means caring enough to know who Ryan Giggs was, and maybe collect stickers because stickers were fun.

I don’t suppose these are baby pandas really, but I wanted to point out the newest panda related goodies I have been coveting on Etsy. Nerdy Panda! I also think the happy bread is quite cute but that is not for this post.

It’s always exciting when I find a Montagny mention on Autosport, as I usually go there in search of F1 news - and he is pretty hard to find in that section! However, they’re making a special Le Mans effort, and we have word from the great man himself. The word is: mega! During the transition between practice and qualifying, FKM speculated: I had 35 laps on the tyres, it’s not as good as a new set of tyres, and when there’s soft tyres and no fuel, it’s going to be mega.

Ah, it is that time of year again, the race we have all been waiting for. None of that silly Superleague stuff, we’re talking 24 Heures du Mans. We are hoping to live comment lots of the action over on Sidepodcast, and there will be threads popping up throughout the next few days so that we can keep an eye on everybody’s favourite Frenchman. (And probably a few other people as well.)

I popped outside and when I returned I found a spider had decided to join me. It perched on my shoulder, so I swiped it off, but unbeknownst to me, it had webbing attached. It clung to my leg and remained there until someone else spotted it and did the swiping for me. The spider was returned to whence it came. I don’t mind spiders. I can’t say I am partial to having one crawl all over me but I was not as freaked out as my colleague was, and as I know many people would be.

May saw a lot more going on than in the previous few months, as some of the slow-burning storylines begin to come to fruition. Starting with, of course, Lillian, Paul and Matt. The love triangle. Can I just officially say - Lillian and Paul = bleurgh! He was so disgustingly soppy, and she was right there with him. Eventually, she chose Matt but I would gladly have those two minutes of my life back, please.

I started working on a cloud text tutorial but got a little bit frustrated, so I scrapped that. Instead, I swung my tutorials net a bit wider and found a grass and glass video on YouTube. It was really quite easy, and such a striking look! Made with: Pixelmator Tutorial: Glass Font: Impact Background Image: Grass Pack I

This was the epitome of one of those Love It or Hate It episodes. It was all about the people and less about the monsters, but written by Richard Curtis, you could hardly expect anything else. I thought it was okay. It was nice to have a slower episode after some of the fraught stories we’ve seen recently. Things are bound to be ramping up towards the end of the series as well, so a moment of peace is probably a good thing.

On Friday of last week, the Cutest Food blog posted a panda cake. It just missed out last week, so I saved it up for this week. It is cute, although the bottom one looks a bit like a pair of binoculars.

There’s a new feature from Wordpress called reblogging, and it was introduced via this blog post: We All Like to Reblog. First up, thanks for telling me what I like. Now, I have been really impressed with the sudden surge in development at Wordpress. New themes are appearing all the time, and it seems as though they are really investing in making the platform more interesting. That, in itself, could be of mild concern because we all know when new features start tumbling in, things usually start to go wrong. (Mentioning no names, drop.io.)

It was a beautiful, hot day in May when I decided to head towards Cheddar Gorge - the third stop on my alphabet tour. As it turns out, I arrived at Cheddar from the Gorge end, meaning I drove through it to get to the car parks and tourist stops. It was really quite scary, like driving into the centre of the earth. The cliffs either side started getting higher and higher, until eventually they blocked out the sun. Spooky.

On my way home from work, I pass by one of those old computer shops. You know the kind I mean, where they have stacks of dusty old PCs and monitors, they take them apart and put them back together again, and hope for some business. The shop looks pretty dated, and I’ve never seen a customer go in there. In fact, I had barely noticed it at all until recently. Thanks to the beautiful roadworks that bring an abrupt halt to my journey, I found myself stopped outside the shop, eyeing it up to pass the time.

I am ever so slightly obsessed with this new smoothie from Innocent Drinks. The problem is… It’s green. Really, really green. It doesn’t look appetising at all. Mr C turns his nose up every time I pour a glass. It’s very good for you. Two of your five a day. Apples, grapes, kiwi fruit. There’s even some spinach in there. In fact, here are the full ingredients:

For the first time in this series, I spotted an image during the week and saved it to a folder called: Inspiration. Get me! So, It’s not a carbon copy but it’s similar and I love it. I made it pretty hard for myself though. For a start, I was sitting outside in the sunshine, so the colours weren’t exactly as I thought. Thankfully, they didn’t clash terribly once I’d adjusted to the gloom of inside again. Secondly, as I was sitting outside, I was using the trackpad, rather than a mouse. Not easy. Lastly, I had no idea what I was doing, so I made great use of the “copy to new layer” feature. One layer of gray, one of pink, copy the grey bits I wanted and then hide the existing layer. I’m sure there’s an easier way, though.

As human beings, we are pretty rubbish at negotiating for the future of the human race, aren’t we? The second part of this story didn’t really seem to capitalise on the first episode. There was an awful lot of setup and although I have nothing against the wrap up - it was all a bit formulaic. The humans failed, big style. Some people made some sacrifices and the Doctor managed to save as many people as he could.

Only read this if you a) care and b) have seen the LOST finale. Let’s begin with something positive. The two things that made the finale worth watching: Miles: “I don’t believe in many things, but I believe in duct tape.” The scene with Hurley asking Ben for help. Love Ben. Now, I’m afraid, the rest of the post will be entirely negative, because… let’s face it. It sucked.

I am the proud owner of a new HTC Desire and it is fabulous! My G1 finally came to the end of it’s useful life. That or my contract came up for renewal so I went for the upgrade. To be fair to the G1, I was a seriously early adopter, I got a lot of use out of it, and it only occasionally let me down. By the end, though, it was a bit creaky. The battery was all but useless, and it’s ability to pick up signals could only be jump-started by switching it on and off again.

This one is just so very Sex & the City, isn’t it? I started out with a straight line of text, then played about with size, bold and italics, plus made good use of the ruler to move it above and below the regular line. Great fun. The background came afterwards, a simple cloud filter and purple colour (which adds to the Sex & the City vibe, I feel).

With a reverse grid for the second race, Franck lined up 8th. An incident on the first lap allowed Franck up to sixth, and then he overtook another car to move up to 5th - a pretty good first couple of minutes. It was all for nothing, though, as Bourdais went and crashed into him in the corner, knocking out three Frenchmen from the French race. Good work Le Seb.

Once again, none of us had any idea this was to be a two-part episode because the powers that be behind Doctor Who don’t seem keen on making it obvious. It’s only when it gets to the end and you realise they are still in as much danger as ever that it can’t possibly be solved in the next five minutes. Anyway, what of the Hungry Earth then?

Franck qualified for the first race in 13th place, which isn’t that impressive. If you take into account his topsy-turvy season so far though, plus the fact that he’s driving with injuries, it’s a little bit more acceptable. Autosport labelled Franck as a “surprise dropout” so at least they have noticed he is rather good. Made up a couple of places on the start, up to 11th. After the pit stop, he came out in 10th and stayed there until the finish. In the last minute or so, there was a worrying moment when the Beijing car tried to overtake, but Montagny wasn’t having any of it.

Blenheim Palace is just above Oxford and claims to be: Britain’s Greatest Palace. I don’t know whether there’s an award that goes along with such a thing, but so says the pamphlet. I bought the ticket without access to the palace itself, because photography is not allowed inside and I don’t want to support that kind of restriction. I accidentally went past the main parking area and ended up just outside the pleasure gardens. There wasn’t much going on there, it’s mostly an area to entertain the kids. There was a butterfly garden, which I went into but didn’t really like. I only saw one butterfly and as is the way with climates that support such winged creatures, it was much too humid to take the camera out.

We have done the community film watch thing over on Sidepodcast, all gathered together to live comment a movie - ensuring we all hit start at the same time. I’ve seen many people tweeting their way through TV shows and movies. It seems as though sharing the experience with someone else is becoming ever more popular - even if you are on opposite sides of the globe. So here is a website I would like, if I had the millions to pay off the movie industry, and hire engineers to build it: filmwatchlive.com.

This is a must watch video, if only because Franck is very cute when he gatecrashes other people’s interviews. Also, I appear to have missed out on the news that FKM has four broken ribs. How did that happen?

Sorry this final part has taken so long to appear. Perhaps sub-consciously I just did not want to say goodbye to our characters. Either that or I was really quite busy. However, we must say goodbye, and here is how we’re going to do it - the results of our final vote. Melissa’s future caused quite a bit of discussion but we have a definitive answer: Mitch sat in the garage, helmet in hand, his eyebrows furrowed. Mason crossed the garage, pulling his race suit up around his shoulders. “What’s up with you?” he asked Mitch.

I was following a tutorial up to a point and then decided I liked how it looked in black and white without adding any of the colours. A lot of the tutorials I’ve looked at seem to like multi-coloured colour burns. I’m not so keen on them, but tutorials are there to be expanded on, aren’t they? Made with: Pixelmator Tutorial: Colorful Bokeh Effect Font: Impact Mr C and I had a bit of a discussion about Impact vs Haettenschweiler. The one time he actually got to impart some of his new-found typography knowledge onto me.

I sacrificed watching some of the Monaco GP to tune in to Franck for the second race at Assen. When I switched over, he was being interviewed on the grid, and didn’t sound too optimistic about what they could do. Franck started fourth, though, which was the only bonus of retiring from the first race. At the first corner, he moved up to third with some great work. He held station there, but closed up to the leaders as they were scrabbling for position.

I hadn’t planned to watch the racing this weekend, but I woke up with two minutes to spare, so I grabbed the laptop and watched. Franck started the first race in second, lining up on the first row. During the outlap, he backed the pack up a little, and when the pace car disappeared, he had a great first bid to try and overtake for P1. He didn’t make it stick and settled for second.

I have mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand, it was a good romp through an unusual situation with an interesting outcome. On the other hand, it wasn’t even slightly what I thought it was going to be. Firstly, I know that it’s my fault for building it up into something it wasn’t. I’m a big fan of the time travel/flash forward/mixed up universes kind of story, ones where there are all kinds of coincidences and you have to stick with it to figure it out.

If you remember back to the first brand new food I tried as part of my New Year Resolutions, it was a fruit that did not go down very well. Slippery slimy thing that lives on in my memory. For the second two new foods I tried, I went for something I had at least heard of and understood what to expect when it came to the eating. Goat’s Cheese

Well now, that was a really fun experiment! For a long time Mitch was leading the vote, but Bruno snuck up from behind and took glory. Only Mason was chosen twice out of the various Other suggestions. I am intensely curious where the idea of Damon Hill came from. Anyway, on with the story. “Bruno,” Melissa sighed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “What are you doing?” “I just wanted to see you,” he said. “I didn’t think you would come if I asked.”

A rather damp looking Franck, presumably after getting out the car: Photo Credit: chkltcow

This weekend, Franck will return to action for Girondins de Bordeaux at the second round of the Superleague Formula series. This time they are at Assen, and the official SF website describes it as thus: Better known as the cathedral of motorcycling, the 2.830 mile circuit located in north eastern Holland should prove a real challenge for the championship’s V12-powered 750bhp single seaters thanks to it being specifically designed with motorbikes in mind.

During the Free Practice commentary for the Monaco weekend by 5Live, David Croft and Anthony Davidson discussed a certain driver that we all know and love (even more so because of this!) Transcript Croftie: Sir Stirling Moss… very much enjoying the interactive tweeting that’s going on this morning and he sent us another tweet as well - thank you for this! He says in 1960, us drivers did 100 laps and we drove three and a half hours which required supreme concentration. Can you imagine, three and a half hours, around Monaco? Your eyes would be affected for weeks afterwards.

I am very impressed with how good and honest you all are: Let’s see how she takes it! Also for today’s poll, I thought we’d try out the “fill in your own” option. Much fun! “Come with me,” Mitch said, taking her by the arm and leading her through the crowd. They slipped out into the corridor and Melissa followed Mitch as he rounded the corner and walked ahead. He slowed outside a door, knocked lightly, peeked inside, and gestured for Melissa to follow him in. As she passed through the door, she saw they were entering an empty Conference Room B.

I’ve found a couple of great videos from this weekend’s racing in Spa. The first is a build up to the event and features lots of drivers - but keep watching because not only does Franck make a couple of appearances, but in one of them he is hugging Bibendum. My two favourite people! The second video is footage from the podium, in which Franck is standing to the far left. It gets a bit shaky in the middle when the camera operator tries a zoom, but if you stick with it you get some great footage of Franck leaning against the wall, and sticking his hands in his pockets. As if coming second in a six hour race is an every day occurrence.

I needed a few days for this one to come to fruition, but we’re getting there. Now we are on part seven and beyond, I know where I’m going with each outcome. We have some end goals in sight, people. Here are the results for the last vote: I thought it might be closer than that, but interesting voting, nonetheless. Now for part 7: “I’m not going to race you, Bruno,” Mitch said, and his voice had a definite edge that couldn’t be ignored.

Somehow, although I was vaguely aware of Franck taking part in the LMS race this weekend, I didn’t see or hear anything about it until after the event. I have managed to gather together the pertinent facts, though. Firstly, Franck and Sarrazin were left in the lurch when Nicolas Minassian pulled out due to some sprained ribs. He sustained the injury during some training earlier in the week, which is eerily similar to Franck’s broken leg last year - also picked up in training. Perhaps these intense training catchups are not such a good idea?

I found the brushes whilst browsing on BrushEezy and knew I wanted to use them up for something. I’m not happy with the way the one in the top right doesn’t end properly, whereas the one in the bottom left does. The idea of big brushes in the background to temper the dark foreground ones is fascinating. I played around with the text a lot and couldn’t really get anything I was happy with so I ended up going with a simple filter.

The first thing to do, I suppose, is to take a step back from my big ol’ sulk of last week. I still stand by the fact that Doctor Who, for me, is not about the romance. But I got over it. The one thing I would say is that if there’s something I’m unhappy with, usually watching Confidential makes me see it in a different light. It did not help this week. Particularly when they were all “smoochy smoochy time.” Bleurgh.

The 1st May - a Saturday - and my challenge has begun. I had a couple of options to go with for the first letter of the alphabet but I thought I would start with something simple. Aberdulais Falls is a National Trust location, just off the M4 in South Wales. The blurb reads: Set in a steep gorge, this property demonstrates the power of water and its impact on industry… Today the waters of the River Dulais are used to make Aberdulais Falls self-sufficient in environmentally friendly energy, with its waterwheel – the largest in Europe generating electricity.

Whilst investigating potential places to visit for the A-Z Adventure, I came across this interesting event: the Dorset Knob Throwing festival. Now, I do try and be an adult most of the time, but sometimes there are things that you just can’t ignore. A section from the rules. Dorset Knob measured at final resting place. If Dorset Knob breaks upon landing it will be the umpire’s decision of final resting place. Indeed.

Gosh, it’s been quite a busy month in Ambridge, hasn’t it? And it’s been all about the girls in April. Pip has at least gone quiet now, after her ill-fated trip to Cornwall to check up on her boyfriend. Then he tried to kill her by recklessly driving around on a quad bike and now David has banned him from the farm. Phew. I thought it was all over, but I was disappointed. Ruth is now constantly moaning that she doesn’t see Pip anymore, as the girl is spending all her time at Jude’s. Is anyone else a bit confused that Pip isn’t allowed to come home after 11pm without getting an earful, is read the riot act for daring to drink a bit of alcohol, has managed to get her boyfriend banned from the property, but it’s perfectly acceptable that she spends all weekend over at his place?

Way back at the beginning of the year, when I made those five silly little resolutions, one of them was to go outside more. This is not a very achievable goal, as there is no attainable target, no specific timeframe and no real sense of achievement. (My resolution next year will be to stop over-thinking things!) Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I have given this outside business some consideration and come up with this: The Amazing A-Z Adventure.

We’re entering into the second half of our story now, and things are hotting up. Old rivalries come to the fore, and new relationships are tested. There, that ought to look good on the back of the book. Here are the results of the vote: That Mitch, he does like handling things himself. “Don’t make any calls, Mason. You sound like you’re in the mafia.” “You never know,” Mason chuckled.