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You got a new Echo, now what?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The Amazon Echo (also Dot) has been available in the US for only two years and it’s even newer to the UK.  Maybe you got one for Christmas and you’re wondering where to start with it – the instructions in the box are a bit sparse, it must be said. Listed below are some links and tips born of adopting a small Echo zoo when they arrived in the UK in October/November. It’s interactive, you speak to it and it responds. Mostly it does what’s expected but sometimes it doesn’t, much like your cat. You won’t go far wrong if you think … Continue reading You got a new Echo, now what?

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Green Buses: a story and an appeal

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The four year old girl crouched in the footwell has never heard of christmas and wouldn’t care if she had. She stares at her hands and wipes them on the pink anorak that used to fit but now hangs more loosely from her shoulders.   The twelve year old boy next to her is angry and feels himself uprooted and displaced. He has heard of christmas but he blames the westeners who celebrate it for where he finds himself. His eyes tell simultaneously of a child’s dark despair and the blazing hatred of the adult he will become. He is … Continue reading Green Buses: a story and an appeal

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Audio, Black Cat Stories: hard to home and just as likely to honk in your shoe as purr in your faceLeave a comment

Four Twinkly Christmas Stories

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

CHRISTMAS CHAOS Clarice puffed out her cheeks, pink with the cold, and screwed up her eyes against the chill wind. She turned her face to the sky and peered through frosty lashes at the heavy clouds lumbering in from the coast. ‘Where are you?’ she called, hot breath forming its own tiny weather front above her nose as it hit the freezing air. ‘Come on in, Clar, you’ll catch your death.’ Mother. Clarice stamped her feet, chilly in her spotted wellies despite the thick Huggy socks that hung pinkly over their tops. ‘But she promised!’ ‘I know sweetheart, but you … Continue reading Four Twinkly Christmas Stories

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Strictly Come Dancing – the Sunday deception

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I posted  about this a while ago after Claudia Winkelman’s daughter had her horrendous accident on Halloween which led to convolutions on the show and in the press as they tried not to give the game away. Claudia was ‘still’ with her daughter on Sunday so couldn’t be in the so-called live show. As the seriousness of the incident propelled that news out of the entertainment columns and into the mainstream, journalists were apparently compelled (or felt themselves so) to start using phrases such as ‘Claudia had to miss both shows’ in order to get around the truth, which is … Continue reading Strictly Come Dancing – the Sunday deception

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Linda MacDonald, Meeting LydiaLeave a comment

‘Meeting Lydia’ by Linda MacDonald now in audio

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

You might recall I reviewed this book when it first came out in paperback, well now it’s out as an audiobook and the clip suggests a deservedly professional performance. Here it is: And here’s the press release: P R E S S R E L E A S E AUDIOBOOK EDITION MEETING LYDIA GOES AUDIO Linda MacDonald’s first novel Meeting Lydia is about the powerful long term effects of school bullying and of internet relationships. First released in 2011, it has now been abridged and turned into an audiobook, narrated by talented voice actress Harriet Carmichael. When Marianne comes home … Continue reading ‘Meeting Lydia’ by Linda MacDonald now in audio

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The Recovery Letters

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The Recovery Letters are all written with the intention to try and alleviate some of the pain of depression, to make the loneliness slightly more bearable and above all to give hope that you can recover. We see recovery as self defined but can include living alongside symptoms or being symptom free, being stable on medication or medication free but most of all living a life with some meaning. [They] are written from people recovering from depression, addressed to those currently suffering. More about this on my other blog Continue reading The Recovery Letters

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The Recovery Letters

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The Recovery Letters is an online project started by James Withey who invited anyone who had experienced depression to write a letter that might help others. In his words: The Recovery Letters are all written with the intention to try and alleviate some of the pain of depression, to make the loneliness slightly more bearable and above all to give hope that you can recover. We see recovery as self defined but can include living alongside symptoms or being symptom free, being stable on medication or medication free but most of all living a life with some meaning. [They] are … Continue reading The Recovery Letters

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An exploration of the value of computer-based virtual environments in the management of visible disfigurement

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Summary We asked three participants to inhabit an avatar in Second Life, first without and then with an overlay mimicking a facial burn. We reviewed comments about the virtual world, the impact of the scar, and responses to facial disfigurement questionnaires. First published by Ether Books, October 2013.   Second Life We used Second Life (SL), a widely accessible online virtual environment (VE) (Au, 2008), the utility of which has been described elsewhere (Hall, Conboy-Hill, and Taylor 2011). The validity of VEs to model human behaviour is underpinned by extensive research by Bailenson and his team (see  Blascovich & Bailenson, … Continue reading An exploration of the value of computer-based virtual environments in the management of visible disfigurement

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