It was a spreadsheet in my case!

At one point during this week's Vaughan Williams rehearsal, we were told that we needed to think of whatever had made us happiest so far that day, so that our singing would sound livelier. (Note to any non-singers reading this: this may sound ridiculous, but it does actually seem to work.) I was amused to realise that my happiest moment of the day was caused by a spreadsheet I'd created. It was the conditional formatting that did it, I love that :-)

Not much to say other than that, and I'm on my way out of the house, so let's see if I can quickly share a few links.

I'm very, very amused by The Choral Conductor's Flowchart (courtesy of ChoralBlog). Some of the language might be NSFW - be warned.

From the Guardian, a great article about why Guitar Hero is such fun. If you've never tried the game, and/or never heard of it, and/or think you would never enjoy a video game - read this.

Also from the Guardian, a great interview with Acker Bilk.

Tomorrow is Burns Night, and it's a special one this year, kicking off the Year of Homecoming. And here's a great article by the wonderful Jackie Kay about Burns.

If you've ever read the fabulous children's book Coraline (by Neil Gaiman), you will be delighted to know that an animated film of it is released next month. and here's a trailer featuring Neil himself talking about it. (This is one of the best books EVER to read aloud to kids; I did so for several classes when I was at Rydings Special School, and it went down very well.) (Also, after reading Coraline you will never think of buttons in the same way again.)

And finally, the Vendee Globe race is almost over - the leaders are in the North Atlantic, and Michel Desjoyeaux is still a long way ahead of the rest - but in the meantime the Big Picture has some great photos of recent sailing events.