Re-vitalising blogs in 2010

After taking a long hard look at 2009, I have decided that I want to do more blogging in 2010.  One inspiration may have been the book “Beyond Blogging” that came out only a few days ago and which I am currently reading, but another has been that although we put a lot of effort into our blogs and they are certainly making a nice amount of money, it is not enough to live on and I feel that more is possible.

Also, I often feel that I have lots of ideas for content and just don’t have the time to write posts that could be useful to our readers.  I would like to write more about places to visit in Germany that I can recommend, or computer tips on our Computius site.

The Cymeradwyo Project has, with the exception of the .de site, been laying dormant for most of the year.  Whilst I have allowed some guest posting on it, and may continue to do so, I have rejected a lot of posts that were submitted.  I would like to re-activate the project and thus dedicate a lot more time to blogging and podcasting.

The first step will be to re-work a lot of the plug-ins and themes on some of our sites to bring them up to date.  I will be documenting this on Cymeradwyo.net, so please stay tuned to this site (via the RSS feed for example) to see what happens over the coming months.

Silvester & Wunderkerzen

Today is the last episode of our German Words Explained podcast, which has now been going for 160 episodes.

We talk about the topics that we covered, and in particular about the Käseigel. Back in June 2007 Maria promised to make one and 158 episodes later here it is:

Ein Käseigel

Many of the episodes now have transcripts available to download for free.  Sign up on the downloads page to find out more.

To finish off the series, we explain the word Wunderkerzen.

So now, for the last time, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file |Subscribe to the podcast

Lametta

Lametta is a Christmas decoration found in German homes and in particular on Christmas trees. Similar to tinsel, it is hung over the branches to simulate icicles.

Originally it was made from a substance called “Stanniol”, which is Tin (Sn) flattened to make it into a foil.

To add weight to the Lametta, lead or even silver were added. Often this meant that it was used on New Year’s Eve for Bleigießen. However, modern Lametta is often made of plastic.

To hear a simple explanation and to find out what the number 90/10 has to do with Lametta, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download a transcript

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Please click on ACCEPT to give us permission to set cookies [more information]

This website uses cookies to give you the best browsing experience possible. Cookies are small text files that are stored by the web browser on your computer. Most of the cookies that we use are so-called “Session cookies”. These are automatically deleted after your visit. The cookies do not damage your computer system or contain viruses. Please read our privacy information page for more details or to revoke permission.

Close