Last entry here
To keep up to date you need to go to http://specimendays.co.uk
Friday, October 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I have moved house
I have moved house no and the place is barely furnished.
I can be found here :http://www.kafkasworld.com
Just look at the menu bar at the the and click on Specimen Days
I can be found here :http://www.kafkasworld.com
Just look at the menu bar at the the and click on Specimen Days
Leaving
I am leaving blogger but going to start a proper regular blog elsewhere.
If you want the address will you please email me s.d.rogerson@btinternet.com
If you want the address will you please email me s.d.rogerson@btinternet.com
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Long time The Reasons
I see I have failed to update for ages.
Well you will be aware if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook that a week ago I became a grandfather for the second time, this tie of a little girl Ailsa Elizabeth. (I might call her Lizzie as pet name)
Life has been hectic with birthdays we have four in August and a Wedding Anniversary. That’s us clocked up 36 years already.
I am also very busy with my radio station now I broadcast live via Shoutcast.
http://bit.ly/fDLlf this link will open it in your own media player of choice.
Please do listen in it will relax and chill you out.
Another reason is that I am busy writing and contributing as I can to geeks.co.uk but when the creative juices start to flow I NEED to write so I am doing so each night from 11 pm onwards.
So I’m not dead just busy.
Oh yes anyone keep a budgie or canary?
Well you will be aware if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook that a week ago I became a grandfather for the second time, this tie of a little girl Ailsa Elizabeth. (I might call her Lizzie as pet name)
Life has been hectic with birthdays we have four in August and a Wedding Anniversary. That’s us clocked up 36 years already.
I am also very busy with my radio station now I broadcast live via Shoutcast.
http://bit.ly/fDLlf this link will open it in your own media player of choice.
Please do listen in it will relax and chill you out.
Another reason is that I am busy writing and contributing as I can to geeks.co.uk but when the creative juices start to flow I NEED to write so I am doing so each night from 11 pm onwards.
So I’m not dead just busy.
Oh yes anyone keep a budgie or canary?
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Tuesday Rambles
I am currently adding about 200 tracks to my music collection and for broadcast on Kafkasworldradio my wife would kill me if she saw our credit card bill this month for CDs however as it is an online bill only she won’t unless you clype!
Last month i.e. July I spent hours on email and phone calls with Tmobile trying to get them to let me change contract and get a new phone as the one we had was knackered and had been unreliable for some ten months. They refused point blank. I finally got them talked in to dropping me back to my original contract but even then they got it wrong and then charged me the wrong amount.
All I wanted was a new 18 month contract and a new phone preferably the G1 Android. I was told I would have to wait till September. I told them if that was the case and intransigence was the name of the game they could cancel my contract. They chose to do that. At a time when they are losing customers hand over fist I found this surprising.
So we moved over to O2 which has dreadful coverage here but give you the wonderful iPhone and took out an 18 month contract with them.
Yesterday Tmobile phoned me - a different department it appears and offered me the chance to upgrade my phone early and to give me £10/month off my contract. I told them I had already cancelled something she wasn’t aware of and I told her why.
Now is that not the silliest bit of business practice you have ever come across.
Idiots.
Last month i.e. July I spent hours on email and phone calls with Tmobile trying to get them to let me change contract and get a new phone as the one we had was knackered and had been unreliable for some ten months. They refused point blank. I finally got them talked in to dropping me back to my original contract but even then they got it wrong and then charged me the wrong amount.
All I wanted was a new 18 month contract and a new phone preferably the G1 Android. I was told I would have to wait till September. I told them if that was the case and intransigence was the name of the game they could cancel my contract. They chose to do that. At a time when they are losing customers hand over fist I found this surprising.
So we moved over to O2 which has dreadful coverage here but give you the wonderful iPhone and took out an 18 month contract with them.
Yesterday Tmobile phoned me - a different department it appears and offered me the chance to upgrade my phone early and to give me £10/month off my contract. I told them I had already cancelled something she wasn’t aware of and I told her why.
Now is that not the silliest bit of business practice you have ever come across.
Idiots.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Get a Film for 99p this week
Perhaps one of the best kept secrets on iTunes is the 99p film rental deal – every Tuesday a new film is flagged at a penny shy of £1 for rental.
The films can be kept on your computer, iPod or iPhone for 30 days before they are deleted and once you start to watch them you have 48 hours of viewing before deletion.
Recently I have watched The Royal Tenenbaums, The Pink Panther (Steve Martin version), and while it is usually just one film they did in June offer a double Clint Eastwood package.
Now I like watching these films on my iPOD touch but this will also produce an excellent televisual experience if you watch via a component cable set up on an HDTV.
How to find them? Simply log on to the iTunes store and go to films and the banner ad at the top. Happy Watching!
This week’s offering is How To Be and is available until next Monday
How To Be
A wry comedy about ART, a frustrated musician, undergoing what he sees as a
quarter life crisis. This is not helped when his girlfriend dumps him and he has to
move back in with his middle class parents – who are far from thrilled with the idea.
Art’s only friend, agoraphobic RONNY, has his own problems. Holed up in a
London flat in a daze of nitrous oxide and electro music, Ronny wants to start a
band with Art and happy-go-lucky friend NIKKI, but only if it involves going no
further afield than the flat’s roof garden.
Art discovers self-help guru, DR LEVI ELLINGTON, author of It’s Not Your Fault.
Using inheritance money, Art pays for Dr Ellington to move in with him and his
parents becoming Art’s full-time life coach, shadowing him wherever he goes.
Art’s painfully funny journey to define his existence brings to the fore the
dysfunctional relationship he has with his parents and the importance in his life
of his oddball friends. Rich in detail and dark yet affectionate humour, How To
Be is a timely look at the increasingly common phenomena of grown-up children
living at home, frustrated creativity and self-help.
starring
ROBERT PATTINSON REBECCA PIDGEON
JEREMY HARDY POWELL JONES
written and directed by
OLIVERIRVING
HOW TO BE
sometimes we all need a little help
The films can be kept on your computer, iPod or iPhone for 30 days before they are deleted and once you start to watch them you have 48 hours of viewing before deletion.
Recently I have watched The Royal Tenenbaums, The Pink Panther (Steve Martin version), and while it is usually just one film they did in June offer a double Clint Eastwood package.
Now I like watching these films on my iPOD touch but this will also produce an excellent televisual experience if you watch via a component cable set up on an HDTV.
How to find them? Simply log on to the iTunes store and go to films and the banner ad at the top. Happy Watching!
This week’s offering is How To Be and is available until next Monday
How To Be
A wry comedy about ART, a frustrated musician, undergoing what he sees as a
quarter life crisis. This is not helped when his girlfriend dumps him and he has to
move back in with his middle class parents – who are far from thrilled with the idea.
Art’s only friend, agoraphobic RONNY, has his own problems. Holed up in a
London flat in a daze of nitrous oxide and electro music, Ronny wants to start a
band with Art and happy-go-lucky friend NIKKI, but only if it involves going no
further afield than the flat’s roof garden.
Art discovers self-help guru, DR LEVI ELLINGTON, author of It’s Not Your Fault.
Using inheritance money, Art pays for Dr Ellington to move in with him and his
parents becoming Art’s full-time life coach, shadowing him wherever he goes.
Art’s painfully funny journey to define his existence brings to the fore the
dysfunctional relationship he has with his parents and the importance in his life
of his oddball friends. Rich in detail and dark yet affectionate humour, How To
Be is a timely look at the increasingly common phenomena of grown-up children
living at home, frustrated creativity and self-help.
starring
ROBERT PATTINSON REBECCA PIDGEON
JEREMY HARDY POWELL JONES
written and directed by
OLIVERIRVING
HOW TO BE
sometimes we all need a little help
Monday
I am struggling with torn muscle in my shoulder which is literally a pain in the neck. Without prescription painkillers I would be gubbed as they say in Glasgow.
Life is a hectic round of one Grandson and one at term daughter who looks rather like a whale. On top of that parents, cars etc...
I came down a peg on my meds which was terrible as the side effects were awful however it didn’t really work. Certainly I stopped having these queer turns but that was about the only benefit. For the next month back on the old dose till we see whether I feel better, now I know what causes these queer turns - which are visible to all as I go very pale and feel really ill - maybe I can jut live with them.
I do wonder this year why we have a caravan as we are never there and aren’t likely to be there at all this summer. All being well we might make it for a week or two in October.
We could do with a bigger van but can’t afford it.
In fact money seems really tight just now, seem to have had lots of expenditure that has taken its toll along with inflation which of course we all know is not really happening according to the government.
Must take up smoking and drinking then I would be broke and not care!
People don’t really blog anymore do they? Or comment. Those idiots at AOL really killed a community.
Life is a hectic round of one Grandson and one at term daughter who looks rather like a whale. On top of that parents, cars etc...
I came down a peg on my meds which was terrible as the side effects were awful however it didn’t really work. Certainly I stopped having these queer turns but that was about the only benefit. For the next month back on the old dose till we see whether I feel better, now I know what causes these queer turns - which are visible to all as I go very pale and feel really ill - maybe I can jut live with them.
I do wonder this year why we have a caravan as we are never there and aren’t likely to be there at all this summer. All being well we might make it for a week or two in October.
We could do with a bigger van but can’t afford it.
In fact money seems really tight just now, seem to have had lots of expenditure that has taken its toll along with inflation which of course we all know is not really happening according to the government.
Must take up smoking and drinking then I would be broke and not care!
People don’t really blog anymore do they? Or comment. Those idiots at AOL really killed a community.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Commercial Bullies
I was sailing along just fine broadcasting Kafkasworld Radio on Shoutcast, regularly hitting my peak listener limit and just committing to a huge purchase of extra slots when along comes a huge commercial rival jazzradio.com and launches 20 odd stations and sticks them in my genre of Classic Jazz, Swing and Big Band.
Fancy website, lots of publicity, premium paid membership options etc and so what happens, little man me gets pushed way out of the number one slot and disappears down the plug hole.
I am a bit hacked off.
Want to support an underdog?
Tune in : http://Kafkasworld.com/Kafkas_World/KAFKASWORLD_RADIO_%28LIVE%29.html
Fancy website, lots of publicity, premium paid membership options etc and so what happens, little man me gets pushed way out of the number one slot and disappears down the plug hole.
I am a bit hacked off.
Want to support an underdog?
Tune in : http://Kafkasworld.com/Kafkas_World/KAFKASWORLD_RADIO_%28LIVE%29.html
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
unbreakable at 99p
iTunes which as you know offers us a 99p film rental each week managed this week to forget to flag the film at the new lower price, however a word with Gary at tier 2 support managed to get the store to amned the details.
As usual we get a raw deal the films in the US on this deal are 99c and they are offered three per week!
Anyway this weeks film is “unbreakable”
Plot Summary:
Released 2000 - Actor Bruce Willis and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan reunite after the surprise success of The Sixth Sense for this supernatural thriller. David Dunne (Willis) is taking a train from New York City back home to Philadelphia after a job interview that didn’t go well when his car jumps the tracks and collides with an oncoming engine, with David the only survivor among the 131 passengers on board. Astoundingly, David is not only alive, he hardly seems to have been touched. As David wonders what has happened to him and why he was able to walk away, he encounters a mysterious stranger, Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson), who explains to David that there are a certain number of people who are “unbreakable”—they have remarkable endurance and courage, a predisposition toward dangerous behavior, and feel invincible but also have strange premonitions of terrible events. Is David “unbreakable”? And if he is, what are the physical and psychological ramifications of this knowledge? Unbreakable also stars Robin Wright-Penn as Audrey, David’s wife; the supporting cast includes Spencer Treat Clark and Joey Perillo.
This film is well worth watching if you haven’t seen it already, I’m not sure it stands up to a second viewing.
So if you are interested here is the link :
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=261327583&s=143444
It is available till next Monday.
Remember if it isn’t flagged on the actual page as 99p it isn’t!
As usual we get a raw deal the films in the US on this deal are 99c and they are offered three per week!
Anyway this weeks film is “unbreakable”
Plot Summary:
Released 2000 - Actor Bruce Willis and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan reunite after the surprise success of The Sixth Sense for this supernatural thriller. David Dunne (Willis) is taking a train from New York City back home to Philadelphia after a job interview that didn’t go well when his car jumps the tracks and collides with an oncoming engine, with David the only survivor among the 131 passengers on board. Astoundingly, David is not only alive, he hardly seems to have been touched. As David wonders what has happened to him and why he was able to walk away, he encounters a mysterious stranger, Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson), who explains to David that there are a certain number of people who are “unbreakable”—they have remarkable endurance and courage, a predisposition toward dangerous behavior, and feel invincible but also have strange premonitions of terrible events. Is David “unbreakable”? And if he is, what are the physical and psychological ramifications of this knowledge? Unbreakable also stars Robin Wright-Penn as Audrey, David’s wife; the supporting cast includes Spencer Treat Clark and Joey Perillo.
This film is well worth watching if you haven’t seen it already, I’m not sure it stands up to a second viewing.
So if you are interested here is the link :
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=261327583&s=143444
It is available till next Monday.
Remember if it isn’t flagged on the actual page as 99p it isn’t!
Monday, August 3, 2009
An Apple World is Best.
You know what it is like, you get all kitted you and head out to disappear in the jungles of Costa Rica and the high Volcanic desert regions of Nicaragua. The family buy uber thin writing paper and start penning notes that take three weeks to wend their way to your base camp to be picked up as and when. You are so far away and out of touch for months, toughing it out on Gallo Pinto which is black beans and rice fried with spices - for breakfast and sometimes for lunch and dinner as well.
Such is life for daughter number 3 at the moment on a four month Raleigh Expedition.
But find a power point plug in your beloved MAC hit your Skype button and your Dad sitting at his iMAC answers the call and switches on video and you chat till the cows come home. After that you plug in to Radio 1 and feel just at home.
Meanwhile back at the ranch Mummy writes to daughter number 3 from her bed using her iPhone and sends a long email.
Feeling thirsty Dad emails his wife from his ipod touch and asks for coffee.
She replies a little unkindly Dad thinks.
Ah now that is what I call social networking!
ps trying doing all that with Windows!
Such is life for daughter number 3 at the moment on a four month Raleigh Expedition.
But find a power point plug in your beloved MAC hit your Skype button and your Dad sitting at his iMAC answers the call and switches on video and you chat till the cows come home. After that you plug in to Radio 1 and feel just at home.
Meanwhile back at the ranch Mummy writes to daughter number 3 from her bed using her iPhone and sends a long email.
Feeling thirsty Dad emails his wife from his ipod touch and asks for coffee.
She replies a little unkindly Dad thinks.
Ah now that is what I call social networking!
ps trying doing all that with Windows!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
ONE APPLE TASTED
MY REVIEW OF THE BOOK
This is an excellent first novel. I have left it awhile before submitting a review because I like to digest a book and to see if the characters live on in my life.
In this case they do, well some of them anyway, which means this book passes my acid test.
It also means I will buy the next book the author writes as she has been added to my list of authors to look out for.......
When the author takes us back in time the book comes to life in a way that the first half failed to do, this was when my interest was really grabbed and I knew this was a novel in a different class.
it starts off a little like a high class chic lit book but it is far more than that and at times I had to stop myself reading and slow it all down to enjoy the prose itself.
The ending may be a little convoluted for my taste and Dora might have been better left alone and on the shelf but hey I'm a bloke what would I know ;)
I wish that tags and comments making this out to be chic lit, hen lit or whatever had never been placed on this book, it is far more than that and if you are a man be bold READ this book!
One criticism only, did we really need a bodice being ripped at the beginning of the book? That could have been avoided :)
One suggestion - having listened to the author read the prologue to the book made it come alive in way that the prose itself failed to do - I love audio books and really hope that Josa Young can be persuaded to read the whole book - I would buy it all over again and even forgive the bodice ripping if she were to read it aloud to me!
BUY THIS BOOK it is rather special.
This is an excellent first novel. I have left it awhile before submitting a review because I like to digest a book and to see if the characters live on in my life.
In this case they do, well some of them anyway, which means this book passes my acid test.
It also means I will buy the next book the author writes as she has been added to my list of authors to look out for.......
When the author takes us back in time the book comes to life in a way that the first half failed to do, this was when my interest was really grabbed and I knew this was a novel in a different class.
it starts off a little like a high class chic lit book but it is far more than that and at times I had to stop myself reading and slow it all down to enjoy the prose itself.
The ending may be a little convoluted for my taste and Dora might have been better left alone and on the shelf but hey I'm a bloke what would I know ;)
I wish that tags and comments making this out to be chic lit, hen lit or whatever had never been placed on this book, it is far more than that and if you are a man be bold READ this book!
One criticism only, did we really need a bodice being ripped at the beginning of the book? That could have been avoided :)
One suggestion - having listened to the author read the prologue to the book made it come alive in way that the prose itself failed to do - I love audio books and really hope that Josa Young can be persuaded to read the whole book - I would buy it all over again and even forgive the bodice ripping if she were to read it aloud to me!
BUY THIS BOOK it is rather special.
One Apple Tasted
ONE APPLE TASTED
JOSA YOUNG
I first met Stuart when I was in charge of 'products' at AOL UK. One of the products was AOL Journals, one of the UK's first blogging tools, then only available to AOL members. As part of my promotional activities I started a blog myself called A Mum's Tale, which quickly gained lots of followers. One of them was Stuart, and his captivating enthusiasm and his own interesting blog, Specimen Days, led to me appointing him head of the blogging community for AOL UK. He was an enthusiastic host, and after I left we were still sporadically in touch online - most recently on Twitter.
I did some other blogs on AOL as well, including uploading chapters from my novel One Apple Tasted as blog posts to see how the community would respond. The Guardian took an initial interest in the project, but it was simply too way out there in 2003 for them to get a grip on it. I took it down quite soon after that.
I wrote One Apple Tasted in initial draft a few years ago, immediately landed an agent (who was super enthusiastic) and thought my dreams had come true. They hadn't. Rejection after rejection followed. Looking back on them now, I can see that the publishers and subsequent potential agents did not read beyond the first couple of pages.
This was disheartening, but the publishing world will always tell any aspiring writer about dust-infested and undisturbed slush piles, and how lucky you are if they even open the envelope. So I went back to journalism and carried on rearing my children, worked for AOL and wrote other bits and pieces. But at the back of my mind niggled the idea that One Apple Tasted was enjoyable and should be published. It is a love story with a twist, and explores back through the generations to try to understand why the characters behave as they do. And it kicks off in 1980s London - all New Romantics wailing on the radio, headbands and big floppy shirts.
I left AOL when I was headhunted to be launch features editor for a relaunch of a popular UK women's magazine. One day I was editing a piece about writing and publishing a novel - the journalist had left quite a lot out, so I found myself researching self-publishing. In the course of the research, the guy I was interviewing at Authorhouse.co.uk suggested I upload something to 'see how it worked'. So I did. I was horrified by what came back, and I settled down to do a couple of new drafts with updates and a tight edit.
Then I had fun designing a cover, and writing a blurb, and did nothing else to trigger publication. The proof sat on the Authorhouse website, where anyone who wanted to look at it could - if I gave them the password. People did, including Lorne Forsyth, then in the throws of relaunching publishers Elliot & Thompson - and he surprised and delighted me by reading it and immediately offering publication.
In January 2009, I had my first publisher meeting, which was a delightful experience as this is what I always wanted to do. I then built a website at www.oneappletasted.co.uk, and embedded a blog in it and, together with Mark and Ellen at E&T, did everything I could to get the book in front of interested people. I have already had the pleasure of reaching 250 in the Amazon.co.uk charts, and bouncing around for nearly a week in the Amazon Hot New Releases - getting up to #10 at one point. Amazon has started sending it out early, and reviews are already coming in - 5-star so far, but I expect other opposing views imminently. Working with Lorne, Mark and Ellen at E&T Books has been a pleasure and now I wait to see what will happen next. It has been such a long time since the conception of OAT that I have unfathomed wells of patience still to tap no doubt.
On with the next one, which is called Sail Upon the Land. And thanks, Stuart, for all your support over the years. It is delightful to be back in touch.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Phew
Life has been full of illness and hospitals and for once not really about me, although I have had weird withdrawal symptoms as I cut down one of my meds.
We have, I hope, got a window of about seven days before it all starts again.
It now ages since we heard from Sarah who was visiting sites in Nicaragua- she was due back at field base on Saturday that got pushed back to Sunday for reasons I guess I had better not put in my blog as it won’t ever appear on the public Raleigh blog. However it then turned in to I don’t know when I will get back. Her only communication was a rural internet connection which was very bad indeed. So she is out of touch altogether now dealing as one of the leaders with a situation.
How I long for a cheeky wee email.
Now here is a strange thing. You know I have plugged away for yonks with internet radio stations on Live 365. Well I am going to close them down two are already going and the third will go next year when the contract run out. It is all legal to broadcast there. I have had most of today precisely 0 listeners. Now about a month or so go I decided to broadcast via Shoutcast and do it live and relay that station to Live 365. So it is a level playing field.
I keep on maxing out my listener slots on Shoutcast. I can only afford a few slots but I am regularly hitting my limit of 15 simultaneous listeners. Now this is technically illegal as I am not paying royalties as I was in my fee to Live 365. HOWEVER it makes no difference to listeners listening to Internet Radio is not illegal in anyway. There thousands upon thousands of Shoutcast Stations.
I can’t work this out at all why one medium is successful and another sucks.
Just go to http://kafkasworld.com if you want to try it out. It is live and mixed for a good overall experience.
Currently playing is Carmen McRae and cued is Glenn Miller. That of course will have moved on by the time you read this.
I currently have 1700 songs to play!
Maybe on Sunday we will grab three days holiday.
Maybe.
ps on a diet.
We have, I hope, got a window of about seven days before it all starts again.
It now ages since we heard from Sarah who was visiting sites in Nicaragua- she was due back at field base on Saturday that got pushed back to Sunday for reasons I guess I had better not put in my blog as it won’t ever appear on the public Raleigh blog. However it then turned in to I don’t know when I will get back. Her only communication was a rural internet connection which was very bad indeed. So she is out of touch altogether now dealing as one of the leaders with a situation.
How I long for a cheeky wee email.
Now here is a strange thing. You know I have plugged away for yonks with internet radio stations on Live 365. Well I am going to close them down two are already going and the third will go next year when the contract run out. It is all legal to broadcast there. I have had most of today precisely 0 listeners. Now about a month or so go I decided to broadcast via Shoutcast and do it live and relay that station to Live 365. So it is a level playing field.
I keep on maxing out my listener slots on Shoutcast. I can only afford a few slots but I am regularly hitting my limit of 15 simultaneous listeners. Now this is technically illegal as I am not paying royalties as I was in my fee to Live 365. HOWEVER it makes no difference to listeners listening to Internet Radio is not illegal in anyway. There thousands upon thousands of Shoutcast Stations.
I can’t work this out at all why one medium is successful and another sucks.
Just go to http://kafkasworld.com if you want to try it out. It is live and mixed for a good overall experience.
Currently playing is Carmen McRae and cued is Glenn Miller. That of course will have moved on by the time you read this.
I currently have 1700 songs to play!
Maybe on Sunday we will grab three days holiday.
Maybe.
ps on a diet.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Death of An Old Friend - A Reflection on Old Technology
The Guardian and others announced today the death of an old friend. To be perfectly honest I didn’t know the friend was still alive but there you go, time moves on and you forget. Seems however the old friend won’t actually have the life support pulled until January so there will be time to a final visit.
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/16/teletext-to-be-pulled-tv]
So allow me a little wallow in an old technology?
I first came across this trusty friend in 1974. It was called Oracle. Gosh it was exciting technology! Blocky little diagrams and snippets of hard to read news. Hard to believe now but it lasted nineteen years before it lost out to the now better known but not long for this world Teletext which took over in 1993.
Mind you even by 1993 it was beginning to look a bit long in the tooth. The same technology was used to drive the BT Prestel/Micronet service and I remember fondly spending hours working on those teletext type pages. They had two sides - literally. One for public view and one for manual editing of content routes and prices! This was the cutting edge of technology in those heady and far off days. The days when you stuck a BT handset into rubber suction cups and roared along at 300 baud if you were lucky although Prestel did offer the super high speed of 1200/75 baud.
In common with the Ceefax and ORACLE teletext services provided by the BBC and ITV television companies, the system used a modified television to display information in a non-scrolling window of 40x24 text characters, with some simple graphics, conforming to the 1981 CEPT1 standard. Unlike the restricted number of pages available on Ceefax and Oracle, Prestel offered an extensive range of information that had been supplied both by a Prestel department at the Post Office and by third-party information providers.
The range of Information Providers (or IPs) was wide, including: news services, travel companies (serving both the public and travel agents), estate agents, banks and financial services, those providing stock market information, the government and Parliament. The IPs entered their information on a central computer update, "Duke", located in London.
The computers we accessed were located in major telephone exchanges, were known by code names such as "Dryden", "Kipling", "Derwent", "Enterprise", "Dickens", "Keats", "Bronte", "Eliot" and " Austen "!
Prestel was launched as I recall in 1979 and was then sold as a domestic product with the advent of Micronet and Timefame from 1983 onwards with the arrival of home computers like the ZX Spectrum.
So it came to pass I went online in 1983 and haven’t been off it since!
This old technology had its darker side in my life as well here I was involved in my first and only hack, if we can call it that!
Access to online services was expensive phone bills were huge never mind the cost of viewing the actual pages. They were also similar systems throughout Europe. We had a little computer club running on a certain remote Hebridean island known for its whisky. We shared the modem! One night in the long world of innocence one of our members arrived at my house with said modem and we logged on and went off to explore the German service. I was horrified at the thought of my phone bill until the said member a BT engineer told us that had visited the exchange on his way to my house and a matchstick was in place stopping my calls being noted. High tech crime!
Anyway with these fond remembrances I pay my respects to the last relic of that old technology as it quietly goes off to that great mountain of old technology to rest in peace.
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/16/teletext-to-be-pulled-tv]
So allow me a little wallow in an old technology?
I first came across this trusty friend in 1974. It was called Oracle. Gosh it was exciting technology! Blocky little diagrams and snippets of hard to read news. Hard to believe now but it lasted nineteen years before it lost out to the now better known but not long for this world Teletext which took over in 1993.
Mind you even by 1993 it was beginning to look a bit long in the tooth. The same technology was used to drive the BT Prestel/Micronet service and I remember fondly spending hours working on those teletext type pages. They had two sides - literally. One for public view and one for manual editing of content routes and prices! This was the cutting edge of technology in those heady and far off days. The days when you stuck a BT handset into rubber suction cups and roared along at 300 baud if you were lucky although Prestel did offer the super high speed of 1200/75 baud.
In common with the Ceefax and ORACLE teletext services provided by the BBC and ITV television companies, the system used a modified television to display information in a non-scrolling window of 40x24 text characters, with some simple graphics, conforming to the 1981 CEPT1 standard. Unlike the restricted number of pages available on Ceefax and Oracle, Prestel offered an extensive range of information that had been supplied both by a Prestel department at the Post Office and by third-party information providers.
The range of Information Providers (or IPs) was wide, including: news services, travel companies (serving both the public and travel agents), estate agents, banks and financial services, those providing stock market information, the government and Parliament. The IPs entered their information on a central computer update, "Duke", located in London.
The computers we accessed were located in major telephone exchanges, were known by code names such as "Dryden", "Kipling", "Derwent", "Enterprise", "Dickens", "Keats", "Bronte", "Eliot" and " Austen "!
Prestel was launched as I recall in 1979 and was then sold as a domestic product with the advent of Micronet and Timefame from 1983 onwards with the arrival of home computers like the ZX Spectrum.
So it came to pass I went online in 1983 and haven’t been off it since!
This old technology had its darker side in my life as well here I was involved in my first and only hack, if we can call it that!
Access to online services was expensive phone bills were huge never mind the cost of viewing the actual pages. They were also similar systems throughout Europe. We had a little computer club running on a certain remote Hebridean island known for its whisky. We shared the modem! One night in the long world of innocence one of our members arrived at my house with said modem and we logged on and went off to explore the German service. I was horrified at the thought of my phone bill until the said member a BT engineer told us that had visited the exchange on his way to my house and a matchstick was in place stopping my calls being noted. High tech crime!
Anyway with these fond remembrances I pay my respects to the last relic of that old technology as it quietly goes off to that great mountain of old technology to rest in peace.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
That darn Widget
For years now I have wondered what that widget was all about! You know the one in beer cans! Designed to give you a nice foaming head?
I have imagined all sorts of things inside that can.
A wee keg that releases CO2 and allows the froth to develop on the Guinness.
A hi-tech twizzle stick or perhaps in my wilder imaginations a little elf hard at work pulling the pint for you.
I have often thought of looking but assumed somehow that the widget disappeared after use or would explode if examined.
Having reached a grand old age I feel I can now afford to take my life into my own hands and risk all.
I reached in to the drawer and withdrew my favourite and necessary kitchen gadget the battery operated can opener. I placed it on top of the Guinness can and then retreated behind the handy kept in the kitchen cupboard 4 inch thick anti radiation blast proof wall (another favourite gadget) and ducked.
I heard it whir and cut and rotate, I waited.
Finally silence. A clean cut is achieved. Nothing has happened. So far so good. I approach the now open can and in great trepidation and curiosity lift off the top of the beer can.
At this point I wept.
A grown geek of a man broke down and wept like a wee lassie.
That mysterious widget lay before me in all its glory.
It must have taken years of development and all just to give me a nice creamy head.
What does it look it?
A white plastic marble.
What is it?
A white plastic marble.
Sigh.
I have imagined all sorts of things inside that can.
A wee keg that releases CO2 and allows the froth to develop on the Guinness.
A hi-tech twizzle stick or perhaps in my wilder imaginations a little elf hard at work pulling the pint for you.
I have often thought of looking but assumed somehow that the widget disappeared after use or would explode if examined.
Having reached a grand old age I feel I can now afford to take my life into my own hands and risk all.
I reached in to the drawer and withdrew my favourite and necessary kitchen gadget the battery operated can opener. I placed it on top of the Guinness can and then retreated behind the handy kept in the kitchen cupboard 4 inch thick anti radiation blast proof wall (another favourite gadget) and ducked.
I heard it whir and cut and rotate, I waited.
Finally silence. A clean cut is achieved. Nothing has happened. So far so good. I approach the now open can and in great trepidation and curiosity lift off the top of the beer can.
At this point I wept.
A grown geek of a man broke down and wept like a wee lassie.
That mysterious widget lay before me in all its glory.
It must have taken years of development and all just to give me a nice creamy head.
What does it look it?
A white plastic marble.
What is it?
A white plastic marble.
Sigh.
What's the Difference?
What’s the difference? That is always a good question to ask anytime of the day or night.
So what is the difference between a geek and an a$££$le?
Well a geek like me complete with beard,cardie and occasional pipe, would take his Mac to bed and lie awake thinking of gadgets and dreams of coding the perfect iPhone App or wondering if he could ever afford the estimated $150,000 to buy all iPhone apps.
I might be found fiddling with a remote control Thomas the tank Engine or a scale replica of a Dyson that actually sucks (ok I have a grandson to indulge).
What I won’t be doing is inventing or worrying about a tag for tracking rubbish. That isn’t geekdom or even tech savvy that is being a grade A unmentionable word!
To what do I refer?
Quote :
“The ebb and flow of thousands of pieces of household rubbish are to be tracked using sophisticated mobile tags.
It is hoped that making people confront the final journey of their waste will make them reduce what they throw away.
Initially, 3,000 pieces of rubbish, donated by volunteers, will be tagged in New York, Seattle and London.
"Trash is almost an invisible system today," Assaf Biderman, one of the project leaders at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told BBC News.
"You throw something into the garbage and a lot of us forget about it. It gets buried, it gets burned, it gets shipped overseas."
The Trash Track aims to make that process - termed the "removal chain" - more transparent.
Friends of the Earth's Senior Waste Campaigner Michael Warhurst said the project could be a "useful tool" for highlighting the impact of rubbish.
"[Waste] doesn't simply disappear when we throw it away, and all too often it ends up causing damage when it could be recycled instead.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8149183.stm
With apologies to Waste Aware Scotland and the fine folk who work there (waves to daughter) this is the work of the crazies! I don’t mind recycling. I don’t mind composting. But why are we spending money tracking rubbish?
What a rubbish idea!
So what is the difference between a geek and an a$££$le?
Well a geek like me complete with beard,cardie and occasional pipe, would take his Mac to bed and lie awake thinking of gadgets and dreams of coding the perfect iPhone App or wondering if he could ever afford the estimated $150,000 to buy all iPhone apps.
I might be found fiddling with a remote control Thomas the tank Engine or a scale replica of a Dyson that actually sucks (ok I have a grandson to indulge).
What I won’t be doing is inventing or worrying about a tag for tracking rubbish. That isn’t geekdom or even tech savvy that is being a grade A unmentionable word!
To what do I refer?
Quote :
“The ebb and flow of thousands of pieces of household rubbish are to be tracked using sophisticated mobile tags.
It is hoped that making people confront the final journey of their waste will make them reduce what they throw away.
Initially, 3,000 pieces of rubbish, donated by volunteers, will be tagged in New York, Seattle and London.
"Trash is almost an invisible system today," Assaf Biderman, one of the project leaders at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told BBC News.
"You throw something into the garbage and a lot of us forget about it. It gets buried, it gets burned, it gets shipped overseas."
The Trash Track aims to make that process - termed the "removal chain" - more transparent.
Friends of the Earth's Senior Waste Campaigner Michael Warhurst said the project could be a "useful tool" for highlighting the impact of rubbish.
"[Waste] doesn't simply disappear when we throw it away, and all too often it ends up causing damage when it could be recycled instead.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8149183.stm
With apologies to Waste Aware Scotland and the fine folk who work there (waves to daughter) this is the work of the crazies! I don’t mind recycling. I don’t mind composting. But why are we spending money tracking rubbish?
What a rubbish idea!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
99p Film Rental From iTunes
Perhaps one of the best kept secrets on iTunes is the 99p film rental deal.
Every Tuesday a new film is flagged at 99p for rental.
The films can be kept on your computer,iPod,iPhone for 30 days before they are deleted and once you start to watch them you have 48 hours of viewing before deletion.
Recently I have watched The Royal Tenenbaums, The Pink Panther (Steve Martin version), and currently they are offering Starship Troopers for week beginning 14th of July.
While it is usually just one film they did in June offer a double Clint Eastwood package.
Now I like watching these films on my iPOD touch but this will also produce an excellent televisual experience if you watch via a component cable set up on an HDTV.
How to find them? Simply log on to the iTunes store and go to films and there is banner ad at the top.
Every Tuesday a new film is flagged at 99p for rental.
The films can be kept on your computer,iPod,iPhone for 30 days before they are deleted and once you start to watch them you have 48 hours of viewing before deletion.
Recently I have watched The Royal Tenenbaums, The Pink Panther (Steve Martin version), and currently they are offering Starship Troopers for week beginning 14th of July.
While it is usually just one film they did in June offer a double Clint Eastwood package.
Now I like watching these films on my iPOD touch but this will also produce an excellent televisual experience if you watch via a component cable set up on an HDTV.
How to find them? Simply log on to the iTunes store and go to films and there is banner ad at the top.
My Favourite Gadget
Last night I curled up in bed with my favourite gadget.
It is small, discreet and slips easily into pockets and other places. ;)
Most of all I like stroking her soft smooth surface.
Last night I was feeling in a really low geeky place so I needed to be read to sleep.
She whispered poetry in my ear and then a nice fairy tale.
I woke up cuddling her and she told me what the latest news was, how many emails I had and let me listen to my very own radio station.
She is a lovely little thing, cute and black although I keep everything but her face covered in a tight rubber outfit just to be safe it also makes her easier to hold on to.
Recently late at night she has been showing me lots of Wentworth Miller in Prison Break.
I love her dearly. If she could provide me with a tad more than a virtual cup of coffee I might toss the other occupant of the marital bed out on to the floor at night (I just typed marital as martial wonder what Freud would say about that).
My exciting and geeky life has been transformed by my 8GB Apple iPod touch.
Apart from all the wonderful things she can do with music and video when you are in range of WiFi this is first class little laptop in reality allowing full web browsing at lightning speed and excellent email facilities allowing me among other things to keep in touch with daughter number 3 who is in the jungles of Costa Rica.
I have owned MP3 players {and tape players before that} of all sorts and varieties since they first appeared but this little beauty has stolen my heart and she goes everywhere with me.
[for the really geeky ancient bearded and sandaled - listening to the radio via the tiny speaker is as exciting as listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bed clothes on your tranny fun in the 60s}
It is small, discreet and slips easily into pockets and other places. ;)
Most of all I like stroking her soft smooth surface.
Last night I was feeling in a really low geeky place so I needed to be read to sleep.
She whispered poetry in my ear and then a nice fairy tale.
I woke up cuddling her and she told me what the latest news was, how many emails I had and let me listen to my very own radio station.
She is a lovely little thing, cute and black although I keep everything but her face covered in a tight rubber outfit just to be safe it also makes her easier to hold on to.
Recently late at night she has been showing me lots of Wentworth Miller in Prison Break.
I love her dearly. If she could provide me with a tad more than a virtual cup of coffee I might toss the other occupant of the marital bed out on to the floor at night (I just typed marital as martial wonder what Freud would say about that).
My exciting and geeky life has been transformed by my 8GB Apple iPod touch.
Apart from all the wonderful things she can do with music and video when you are in range of WiFi this is first class little laptop in reality allowing full web browsing at lightning speed and excellent email facilities allowing me among other things to keep in touch with daughter number 3 who is in the jungles of Costa Rica.
I have owned MP3 players {and tape players before that} of all sorts and varieties since they first appeared but this little beauty has stolen my heart and she goes everywhere with me.
[for the really geeky ancient bearded and sandaled - listening to the radio via the tiny speaker is as exciting as listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bed clothes on your tranny fun in the 60s}
Thursday, July 2, 2009
An Update on an update
First things first thank you Rache so much for sending whatever it was you sent to Sarah it has arrived in Costa Rica and was very welcome and waiting for her when she came back from a run.
Secondly Bunny and Joan want to argue from the POV of the WW2.
Fair enough and this is always brought up.
So let me ask this, what caused WW2 was it not WW1? So would there have been a WW3 if there hadn’t been a WW1 and all the other wars waged by this country and others for dominance of sea and land or commerce?
At what point do we stop?
Yes maybe we did have to fight WW2 but would have had to have such a war without all that went before?
Bunny said...
I don't know where we'd be - or IF we'd be - if we hadn't gone to war in 1939.
JULY 2, 2009 1:22 PM
Joan said...
I agree with Bunny.
Secondly Bunny and Joan want to argue from the POV of the WW2.
Fair enough and this is always brought up.
So let me ask this, what caused WW2 was it not WW1? So would there have been a WW3 if there hadn’t been a WW1 and all the other wars waged by this country and others for dominance of sea and land or commerce?
At what point do we stop?
Yes maybe we did have to fight WW2 but would have had to have such a war without all that went before?
Bunny said...
I don't know where we'd be - or IF we'd be - if we hadn't gone to war in 1939.
JULY 2, 2009 1:22 PM
Joan said...
I agree with Bunny.
War what is it good for?
War what is it good for?
WHAT’S THE POINT ANYMORE?
The US army says it has launched a major offensive against the Taliban in south Afghanistan's Helmand province.
The US military says about 4,000 Marines as well as 650 Afghan troops are involved, supported by Nato planes.
Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said the operation was different from previous ones because of the "massive size of the force" and its speed.
A Taliban spokesman said they would resist in various ways and that there would be no permanent US victory.
Qari Yosuf Ahmadi added that "a large number" of Taliban were in the area.
"I cannot accept the fact that 4,000 US troops have taken part in this operation," he said, quoted by the Afghan AIP news agency.
"I consider it a part of a psychological war, but if 4,000 US troops really are taking part in the operation, they will not have any permanent victory."
Meanwhile the US military reported that a soldier had gone missing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.
______________
I read this and wonder what has changed since Edwin Starr sang the blatantly anti war song War in my young days.
Over the years swayed by politicians and emotion I have vacillated between a reluctant support for military action and out and out pacifism.
Finally it seems to me that all this military action produces only one result.
More WAR.
Edwin Starr :
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
Ohhh, war, I despise
Because it means destruction
Of innocent lives
War means tears
To thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives
I said, war, huh
Good God, y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, it ain't nothing
But a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Ooooh, war
It's an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die
Aaaaah, war-huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend
That's the undertaker
Ooooh, war, has shattered
Many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life
It can only take it away
Ooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way
Ooooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
You tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it
War, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it
Nothing
WHAT’S THE POINT ANYMORE?
The US army says it has launched a major offensive against the Taliban in south Afghanistan's Helmand province.
The US military says about 4,000 Marines as well as 650 Afghan troops are involved, supported by Nato planes.
Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said the operation was different from previous ones because of the "massive size of the force" and its speed.
A Taliban spokesman said they would resist in various ways and that there would be no permanent US victory.
Qari Yosuf Ahmadi added that "a large number" of Taliban were in the area.
"I cannot accept the fact that 4,000 US troops have taken part in this operation," he said, quoted by the Afghan AIP news agency.
"I consider it a part of a psychological war, but if 4,000 US troops really are taking part in the operation, they will not have any permanent victory."
Meanwhile the US military reported that a soldier had gone missing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.
______________
I read this and wonder what has changed since Edwin Starr sang the blatantly anti war song War in my young days.
Over the years swayed by politicians and emotion I have vacillated between a reluctant support for military action and out and out pacifism.
Finally it seems to me that all this military action produces only one result.
More WAR.
Edwin Starr :
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
Ohhh, war, I despise
Because it means destruction
Of innocent lives
War means tears
To thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives
I said, war, huh
Good God, y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, it ain't nothing
But a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Ooooh, war
It's an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die
Aaaaah, war-huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend
That's the undertaker
Ooooh, war, has shattered
Many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life
It can only take it away
Ooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me
War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way
Ooooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
You tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it
War, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it
Nothing
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Heat
One thing I don’t get on with is heat. This weather is way too warm for me to cope with happily. It was worse down at the caravan than it is here in Scotland but still way too hot for me. I have never understood sun worshippers. Shade is what I need in the sun and these days preferably with air conditioning.
Life turns bizarrely on a pin head sometimes. At the moment my life has been occupied with Dentists for J and now hospital for her Dad and of course Sarah in Costa Rica - never mind the ordinary things of Adam and his Mum and all the other family things.
I am as far as possible in constant touch with Costa Rica. I am writing a daily private blog for Sarah full of the minutiae of life for us here so that she misses nothing. It is my little promise to her and it is a place she can go to if she feels at all in need of home news or feels even a tad homesick.
For just now this blog has to take a backseat.
Life turns bizarrely on a pin head sometimes. At the moment my life has been occupied with Dentists for J and now hospital for her Dad and of course Sarah in Costa Rica - never mind the ordinary things of Adam and his Mum and all the other family things.
I am as far as possible in constant touch with Costa Rica. I am writing a daily private blog for Sarah full of the minutiae of life for us here so that she misses nothing. It is my little promise to her and it is a place she can go to if she feels at all in need of home news or feels even a tad homesick.
For just now this blog has to take a backseat.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Note from Sarah
You can follow the official Raleigh Blog here : http://raleighcostarica.blogspot.com/
From a personal email :
A normal day (for this week) -
get up at 6am
get to office by 7am
start work or email home!
Get breakfast - cereal or porridge
8:30 morning meeting
BAU - business as usual
12:30 group lunch
BSU
7pm group dinner
entertainment - games or watch a movie or continue working if you have lots to do.
This pattern varies will different training activities such as driver training.
Sometimes we squeeze a wee swim in the afternoon at the local open air pool, its the only time I ever feel cool.
Things you might like to know -
Mars Bars are called Milkyways in CR - very confusing but they taste just as good if not better! yum yum
You can't put toilet paper down the loo it has to go in the bin
The sound of the local wildlife at night is almost deafening!
The birds are amazing mum - i don't know what any of them are but they make great sounds and are very colourful
We have field of very clever cows next to field base!
Maxi Bodega (supermarket owned by Walmart!) is a ten minute walk and stocks everything you could wish for! I got a new top there the other day!
Anyway better get on with the mountain of work.
----------------------
All this of course is Sarah and the team getting ready before others come out and they will soon be heading off to the jungle and to visit the projects the Venturers are coming out to do.
From a personal email :
A normal day (for this week) -
get up at 6am
get to office by 7am
start work or email home!
Get breakfast - cereal or porridge
8:30 morning meeting
BAU - business as usual
12:30 group lunch
BSU
7pm group dinner
entertainment - games or watch a movie or continue working if you have lots to do.
This pattern varies will different training activities such as driver training.
Sometimes we squeeze a wee swim in the afternoon at the local open air pool, its the only time I ever feel cool.
Things you might like to know -
Mars Bars are called Milkyways in CR - very confusing but they taste just as good if not better! yum yum
You can't put toilet paper down the loo it has to go in the bin
The sound of the local wildlife at night is almost deafening!
The birds are amazing mum - i don't know what any of them are but they make great sounds and are very colourful
We have field of very clever cows next to field base!
Maxi Bodega (supermarket owned by Walmart!) is a ten minute walk and stocks everything you could wish for! I got a new top there the other day!
Anyway better get on with the mountain of work.
----------------------
All this of course is Sarah and the team getting ready before others come out and they will soon be heading off to the jungle and to visit the projects the Venturers are coming out to do.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Twitter Comes of Age
Over the last few days Twitter has rapidly come of age. It is no longer a silly application that you either get or don’t get, it has become the source of choice for information of the situation in Tehran. Iran is a highly computer literate country and hackers and Twitters are posting open proxies as fast as the Government close them and engaging in Cyber War as well providing a constant stream of photos and news and rumours.
By posting lists of Government websites they encouraged the Twitterverse to ope their browsers and leave them on auto-refresh and around the world sped the request and the pan worked!
Twitter had planned maintenance and downtime scheduled and at first were adamant that this could not be delayed but pressure from users has now seen this postponed.
Turning on the BBC, Sky, CNN will get you at the moment for some strange reason a paucity of information on this rapidly changing revolution. Turning on Twitterfall and follwing the #iranelection will flood you with information. Not all of it can of course be trusted! persiankiwi is one group who can be trusted to give accurate news.
More street demos are planned for 5pm Iranian time today and the request is wear black.
If you have an iPhone you can download the Twitterfall app.
At home you can follow it a twitterfall.com.
The Washington Times reports :
The immediacy of the reports was gripping. Well-developed Twitter lists showed a constant stream of situation updates and links to photos and videos, all of which painted a portrait of the developing turmoil. Digital photos and videos proliferated and were picked up and reported in countless external sources safe from the regime's Net crackdown. Eventually the regime started taking down these sources, and the e-dissidents shifted to e-mail. The only way to completely block the flow of Internet information would have been to take the entire country offline, a move the regime apparently has resisted thus far.
By posting lists of Government websites they encouraged the Twitterverse to ope their browsers and leave them on auto-refresh and around the world sped the request and the pan worked!
Twitter had planned maintenance and downtime scheduled and at first were adamant that this could not be delayed but pressure from users has now seen this postponed.
Turning on the BBC, Sky, CNN will get you at the moment for some strange reason a paucity of information on this rapidly changing revolution. Turning on Twitterfall and follwing the #iranelection will flood you with information. Not all of it can of course be trusted! persiankiwi is one group who can be trusted to give accurate news.
More street demos are planned for 5pm Iranian time today and the request is wear black.
If you have an iPhone you can download the Twitterfall app.
At home you can follow it a twitterfall.com.
The Washington Times reports :
The immediacy of the reports was gripping. Well-developed Twitter lists showed a constant stream of situation updates and links to photos and videos, all of which painted a portrait of the developing turmoil. Digital photos and videos proliferated and were picked up and reported in countless external sources safe from the regime's Net crackdown. Eventually the regime started taking down these sources, and the e-dissidents shifted to e-mail. The only way to completely block the flow of Internet information would have been to take the entire country offline, a move the regime apparently has resisted thus far.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Bye Sarah
What a tough day it has been, fraught with emotion! Sarah has gone now and it was to say the least a bit traumatic as she wanted to make a fast non tearful exit and did leaving her poor Mum a little taken aback.
One daughter thinks for no reason that my quietness all week means I’m not talking to her. Really! As if I would do that! I have been quiet that I will admit and today I have hardly uttered a word. I have also been buying things online a sure sign of stress.
So it is now late at night and we are all heading for bed.I ought to go and comfort J I guess but I’m not sure I have much to give.
Part of my quietness has been the inner turmoil as I try to come to terms with my new awakening spirituality.
Quite sad tonight as we face a long haul in to the summer with us readjusting again to caring for our parents while our children take charge of us - well not quite but you know what I mean.
We have weeks of appointments, hospitals and operations and birth to come.
I hope I can gather my strength together for all that is to come.
One daughter thinks for no reason that my quietness all week means I’m not talking to her. Really! As if I would do that! I have been quiet that I will admit and today I have hardly uttered a word. I have also been buying things online a sure sign of stress.
So it is now late at night and we are all heading for bed.I ought to go and comfort J I guess but I’m not sure I have much to give.
Part of my quietness has been the inner turmoil as I try to come to terms with my new awakening spirituality.
Quite sad tonight as we face a long haul in to the summer with us readjusting again to caring for our parents while our children take charge of us - well not quite but you know what I mean.
We have weeks of appointments, hospitals and operations and birth to come.
I hope I can gather my strength together for all that is to come.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Would you vote for these policies?
Policies.
- Nationalise Railways and start a building programme to take the railways to every town and village.
- Fares to be standardised,subsidised and cheap for all journeys.
- NHS Services to be free again prescriptions, dentistry, opticians
- Privacy Laws
- University Education to be free of charge but limited to 10% of population
- End all private schooling.
- Build Council Housing
- All Sport to aired without cost to viewer
- Nationalise Satellite TV without compensation
- Nationalise Energy Companies - tariff structure reversed
- ie pay less at low consumption rising as consumption increases.
- Abolish all taxes except VAT which will be raised to cover ALL needs
- Disbanding of the armed forces and seek official neutrality status
- Membership of the EU only in so far as it is compatible with policy
- All UK citizens subject to non residency income tax at 50% above £100,000
- Establish parliament for England
- Elected House of Lords
- Proportional Representation to be introduced.
- State funding of political parties
- Ban the BNP
- Reintroduce common sense to politics
- All voting to be by postal ballots and compulsory
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday
I ought to have written but failed to do so as I fail at so much I plan to do in life.
Sarah is very stressed now at what is about to happen and it is hard to watch and she is keeping us all at a distance, well me anyway. Poor kid. It is going to be a very long summer.
Have ordered some items to create a little Oratory in the corner of this room. I finally found some space to talk to J about this and she recognised that has been at the heart of my spirituality since the middle 70s. It feels a bit like coming out as gay. For just now it is a private journey in time God will lead me to where I must go. I know it is the agonising over the events at this last General Assembly that has finally led me back to where I ought to have been years ago.
A real question does arise - will it be a flash in the pan or the start of new life of adoration and praise? A new rule of life? We shall see.
I think, no make that definite I have been overspending as I try to deal with my black moods. Unhappy at all social contact just now be it with the Dr or my daughters and sometimes even my wife. I am at sixes and sevens inside and feel worse after contact than before. What is interesting is that during these last ten years of mental problems (ignoring the physical ones)is that my contact with God for want of a better word or perhaps should I say my spirituality has been unaffected. When I have doubted everyone else I have never doubted God was here beside me. I owe Him all.
Sarah is packing today and I am here on my tod as J helps her out.
Friday is going to be tear jerking.
Sarah is very stressed now at what is about to happen and it is hard to watch and she is keeping us all at a distance, well me anyway. Poor kid. It is going to be a very long summer.
Have ordered some items to create a little Oratory in the corner of this room. I finally found some space to talk to J about this and she recognised that has been at the heart of my spirituality since the middle 70s. It feels a bit like coming out as gay. For just now it is a private journey in time God will lead me to where I must go. I know it is the agonising over the events at this last General Assembly that has finally led me back to where I ought to have been years ago.
A real question does arise - will it be a flash in the pan or the start of new life of adoration and praise? A new rule of life? We shall see.
I think, no make that definite I have been overspending as I try to deal with my black moods. Unhappy at all social contact just now be it with the Dr or my daughters and sometimes even my wife. I am at sixes and sevens inside and feel worse after contact than before. What is interesting is that during these last ten years of mental problems (ignoring the physical ones)is that my contact with God for want of a better word or perhaps should I say my spirituality has been unaffected. When I have doubted everyone else I have never doubted God was here beside me. I owe Him all.
Sarah is packing today and I am here on my tod as J helps her out.
Friday is going to be tear jerking.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Cost Rica
Hi everyone,
Thank you very much for all your generous support with my fundraising activities and preparations for expeditions over the past few months. I've had great fun doing the sponsored cycle, Costa Rica themed party and of course the pub quiz and I hope you all enjoyed participating! I wouldn't be able to go on the expedition without everyone's support so it really does mean a lot.
I'll miss you all loads and will be dying to hear all your news while I'm away so here is how to keep in touch.........
I'll miss you all loads and will be dying to hear all your news while I'm away so here is how to keep in touch.........
Here is the link to the official Raleigh International blog that I will be updating while I am away for the friends and families of all the young venturers from around the world. You'll be able to see what the expedition life is like, some cheesy and amazing photos and leave comments.
http://raleighcostarica.blogspot.com/
http://raleighcostarica.blogspot.com/
At the moment it is the last entry from the Jan-May expedition but once I am out there it will be updated regularly by me or one of my colleagues if I am out on a project site.
You can also contact me via this email address and on my mobile (while I'm in reception of course) on 07738 676711. I'm not sure until I'm there how much time and access I'll have to email, facebook etc but I'll be trying hard to stay in touch as much as possible. However the best way to keep in touch is via good old snail mail, it can take anything from 3 days to 3 weeks for mail to arrive! You can send it to -
Sarah Rogerson
RALEIGH INTERNATIONAL
Apartado Postal 17
Codigo Postal 7170
Catie
Costa Rica
In the words of Raleigh.......
Mail must be sent at least three weeks before the end of the expedition. Absolutely no parcels are to be sent because parcels have to be collected from a different location to normal mail and can incur a large storage and customs charge. Raleigh cannot undertake the return to the UK of anything sent out to the expedition.
Keep in touch
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Sunday
Not been the best Sunday ever it has to be said. I gave in around 6pm and took 10mg of Diazepam. I have to see the Dr tomorrow at 9am and must get more and try to sort out why the last time I only got 2m tablets which are as much use to me as a chocolate tea pot. It was hard with everyone here for the buffet lunch and the Grand Prix, it was the las thing I needed. Still it was Sarah’s last Sunday with us so quite emotional as she was given cards and special little things for her trip into the depths of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Friday will be worse when we actually say goodbye.
Something is troubling L - either she was unwell or used that as an excuse to exit early. Felt ill at ease. Expect to be in bad books till needed again. I remember well the advice Tom Morton gave us at our wedding - never let the sun set on your anger. I have tried very hard to live by that rule and sort out any problems on the day that they occur - it works that way - doesn’t when you don’t and it is hard when you try you get others to sort it out and it fails because they won’t deal with it on the day.
Trying to sell as much as I can on Amazon to clear space. I like the idea of creating an Oratory, sadly this is the first home without a spare room or two that I could commandeer, even my study is little more than a glorified cupboard. I miss it all but that is not something I can do anything about.
Well maybe I will feel better tomorrow. How often have I written that!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Saturday
Not been the greatest couple of days. How can I best put it, dealing with tearful, tense, hormonally challenged women does not seem to be my forte. I had a good old moan to Bill about it all which made me fell better and we both mused on the fact that no matter what the situation if you have balls you are to blame especially if tears are around. Thought about the comfort of a monastery.
Been busy baking bread all afternoon - made a ciabatta and I am now making rolls for tomorrow. The roadshow of Sarah leaving for Costa Rica rolls in to our house tomorrow for a Grand Prix Farewell party. £60 was spent on what? Dribble. Sorry nibbles. But then as has become really clear as a man my best move is to make myself scarce and to shut up and proffer no comment.
Had a couple of really tortured nights as I dwell on things spiritual. I am struggling trying to really get to grips with Catholicism as a viable alternative to my present presbyterianism. I found a wonderful sight where I could find all the materials to build a little altar and shrine in my study. I think I would like that. The C of S is all talk and no devotion. I want the devotional aspect and always have I am a fish out of water. When I look back at diaries from 76 - 80 I felt the same way. Can I really make the commitment to do this? I don’t know. Should I? You see that is my spiritual torment. Quite enjoying it all though as I have lots to agonise over and study and think about and chew the fat in prayer.
Been busy baking bread all afternoon - made a ciabatta and I am now making rolls for tomorrow. The roadshow of Sarah leaving for Costa Rica rolls in to our house tomorrow for a Grand Prix Farewell party. £60 was spent on what? Dribble. Sorry nibbles. But then as has become really clear as a man my best move is to make myself scarce and to shut up and proffer no comment.
Had a couple of really tortured nights as I dwell on things spiritual. I am struggling trying to really get to grips with Catholicism as a viable alternative to my present presbyterianism. I found a wonderful sight where I could find all the materials to build a little altar and shrine in my study. I think I would like that. The C of S is all talk and no devotion. I want the devotional aspect and always have I am a fish out of water. When I look back at diaries from 76 - 80 I felt the same way. Can I really make the commitment to do this? I don’t know. Should I? You see that is my spiritual torment. Quite enjoying it all though as I have lots to agonise over and study and think about and chew the fat in prayer.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Questions
Why when I ought to be in bed am I troubled by questions?
If you buy say a film from iTunes I take it you can watch it on both the MAC and the iPOD Touch?
Same format? Not two separate purchases?
If you have a bought film on it can you then play it through your TV? If so how and at what quality?
Watched a couple of fascinating programmes on BBC 4 tonight. The first was about “feasts” in Mexico. It detailed the coming of age ceremony at 15 for girls and all that goes with it - the church, the dress, the party. I much admired it, I know there were several times during our girls childhood that I thought it would have been good to celebrate the arrival in the adult world of a new young woman. 18th birthday parties don’t really cut it here. The second part of it was about the three day festival of the dead that happens around All Saint’s Day. It was riveting and moving and I felt how far away from the real world our society has become. When I think of the rituals of death on Islay 30 years ago and compare that to the factory process in cities and the way it is swept under the carpet as a taboo topic I am sad.
The church seemed much involved with this I felt it was a pity they hadn’t interviewed the priest for his point of view as they did over the first feast.
This was followed by an excellent programme showing some of the films made by the government to promote Britain abroad but never shown in this country. This was done from 1950 to 80. Oh my word as L would say was it a hoot and very embarrassing.
Then because the momentous events unfolding today I watch BBC News at 11 pm and all the papers seem to suggest by this time next week Brown will have been consigned to history. I would find this fascinating normally but I am in despair about it all.
If you buy say a film from iTunes I take it you can watch it on both the MAC and the iPOD Touch?
Same format? Not two separate purchases?
If you have a bought film on it can you then play it through your TV? If so how and at what quality?
Watched a couple of fascinating programmes on BBC 4 tonight. The first was about “feasts” in Mexico. It detailed the coming of age ceremony at 15 for girls and all that goes with it - the church, the dress, the party. I much admired it, I know there were several times during our girls childhood that I thought it would have been good to celebrate the arrival in the adult world of a new young woman. 18th birthday parties don’t really cut it here. The second part of it was about the three day festival of the dead that happens around All Saint’s Day. It was riveting and moving and I felt how far away from the real world our society has become. When I think of the rituals of death on Islay 30 years ago and compare that to the factory process in cities and the way it is swept under the carpet as a taboo topic I am sad.
The church seemed much involved with this I felt it was a pity they hadn’t interviewed the priest for his point of view as they did over the first feast.
This was followed by an excellent programme showing some of the films made by the government to promote Britain abroad but never shown in this country. This was done from 1950 to 80. Oh my word as L would say was it a hoot and very embarrassing.
Then because the momentous events unfolding today I watch BBC News at 11 pm and all the papers seem to suggest by this time next week Brown will have been consigned to history. I would find this fascinating normally but I am in despair about it all.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Dwam
Been in a bit of dwam over the last few days it seems. The cooler air floating about today has refreshed me somewhat.
Stupid woman was my first thought when I heard Blears had resigned and then attacked the PM. What a pity Gordon hadn’t sacked all these people as soon as it was obvious they were not only a liability but also morally flawed. Echoes all around just now of the 96/7 and the death of the John Major government.
I wish parliament could be dissolved and we could start all over again.
The problem is all parties seem hopelessly flawed at this stage. I fear for my country if the Tories get back in to power. They will do great damage again I suspect and encourage more personal and corporate greed. Really I think the Thatcher revolution has a lot to answer for it really did change the face of this country and not for the better.
At least here we can vote for the SNP who are still popular and trusted by most voters and are doing a decent job of looking after Scotland.
Seen Adam every day since Sunday. He is off now with Mummy and Granny in tow to see the Dentist. All will go well. It has been tough for L these past few days and I remember the trouble J had in summer hear when heavily pregnant.
Swine flu has fallen off the media radar but is causing some concern now as we have close to here one or two folk seriously ill with it and they hadn’t been in contact with the Mexican source. Hm.
Stupid woman was my first thought when I heard Blears had resigned and then attacked the PM. What a pity Gordon hadn’t sacked all these people as soon as it was obvious they were not only a liability but also morally flawed. Echoes all around just now of the 96/7 and the death of the John Major government.
I wish parliament could be dissolved and we could start all over again.
The problem is all parties seem hopelessly flawed at this stage. I fear for my country if the Tories get back in to power. They will do great damage again I suspect and encourage more personal and corporate greed. Really I think the Thatcher revolution has a lot to answer for it really did change the face of this country and not for the better.
At least here we can vote for the SNP who are still popular and trusted by most voters and are doing a decent job of looking after Scotland.
Seen Adam every day since Sunday. He is off now with Mummy and Granny in tow to see the Dentist. All will go well. It has been tough for L these past few days and I remember the trouble J had in summer hear when heavily pregnant.
Swine flu has fallen off the media radar but is causing some concern now as we have close to here one or two folk seriously ill with it and they hadn’t been in contact with the Mexican source. Hm.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Specimen Days
Well. it is only 11 am and already this feels like a typical day for me, so i might as well record it.
Bullet Points are a good way to organise my thoughts.
Mood :
Bullet Points are a good way to organise my thoughts.
Mood :
- Fairly dark and miserable but with due cause
- After suffering with antibiotics they have as usual really messed up my gut and after a period of hesitation and doubting I took steroids about half an hour ago. I still feel ill at ease inside and that will take some time to settle down. This will if it is prolonged not help my eyesight or my mood or weight and will be no real fun when I go for my retinopathy screening in three weeks.
- By people
- I started my first ever live broadcasting experiment via Shoutcast which means anyone can listen to it. My computer has been pumping out the music for 24 hours. I Tweeted and Facebooked the info and asked people to give it a try. Ha not one person could be bothered, I watched and looked.
- http://public.wavepanel.net/QZWAIBOD3QEDDQOV/listen/pls is the Link - my that is not attractive!
- An ouch day
- Switching to a MAC has been quite expensive (BUT WORTH IT) and yesterday trial replacement software needed to be bought - for example MACJOURNAL where this entry is being typed.
- Mince and doughball comfort food planned for tonight
- I am broadcasting live, crossfading tracks, and choosing what to play next which is great fun and so much easier than on a PC
- I am warming up thanks to the fire in the study
- I am on my own till mid afternoon and instead of it being awful it is rather nice.
- The terrible face eating virus is slowly going away
- I love Twitter
Scary Moments
Scary moments indeed.
What?
I didn’t realise just how essential the internet and broadband had become in my life. True having been an online geek since 1983 I ought to realise it. Having seen various members of my family off the premises I came upstairs to do a little work.
The MAC needed to be restarted after an update downloaded. Fine no problem.
You think?
Restarted as always before I had time to blink but absolutely no internet connection available. I did all I could and by this time it was run to the loo in panic time. No internet. Yet my internet radio was still playing. Weird.
I looked out the Apple Care phone number and went downstairs to collect the cordless phone (why was it downstairs?). Ah I thought that old and useless Windows laptop might boot that up. Wrote a novel waiting for it get itself sorted out - don’t you just hate Windows.
Ah no internet there.
Off to beloved BT Home Hub. Couple of resets later and I am back online.
Relief floods through my body.
Sad really it was like having a life support machine switched off.
What has been driven home to me over the last week is just how important Twitter has become. I was able to follow all of the General Assembly via Twitter feeds. I get my news and contact my companies via Twitter using Tweetdeck. Not for me the folly of following the famous name I just want to be in touch with folk I know and keep abreast of all that is happening the moment - there are some youngish luddites out there who don’t use it yet of course which is a pity. I was able to ask Tmobile if they would be getting their hands on the new iPhone and offering it to customers. I got the Twitter nod on that one. I look forward to upgrading in September
In between bouts of illness I have been creating 3D worlds.
I leave you with my current screen.
What?
I didn’t realise just how essential the internet and broadband had become in my life. True having been an online geek since 1983 I ought to realise it. Having seen various members of my family off the premises I came upstairs to do a little work.
The MAC needed to be restarted after an update downloaded. Fine no problem.
You think?
Restarted as always before I had time to blink but absolutely no internet connection available. I did all I could and by this time it was run to the loo in panic time. No internet. Yet my internet radio was still playing. Weird.
I looked out the Apple Care phone number and went downstairs to collect the cordless phone (why was it downstairs?). Ah I thought that old and useless Windows laptop might boot that up. Wrote a novel waiting for it get itself sorted out - don’t you just hate Windows.
Ah no internet there.
Off to beloved BT Home Hub. Couple of resets later and I am back online.
Relief floods through my body.
Sad really it was like having a life support machine switched off.
What has been driven home to me over the last week is just how important Twitter has become. I was able to follow all of the General Assembly via Twitter feeds. I get my news and contact my companies via Twitter using Tweetdeck. Not for me the folly of following the famous name I just want to be in touch with folk I know and keep abreast of all that is happening the moment - there are some youngish luddites out there who don’t use it yet of course which is a pity. I was able to ask Tmobile if they would be getting their hands on the new iPhone and offering it to customers. I got the Twitter nod on that one. I look forward to upgrading in September
In between bouts of illness I have been creating 3D worlds.
I leave you with my current screen.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Cockchafer
We get excited bug hunting.
These do a LOT of crop damage.
About 35cms long.
As Bunny pointed out that is rather large 3.5cm long !
Earthquakes
It came with a sudden crash as I lay sleeping in the caravan. There is nothing I like better than to lie out on the front seat, full length, head against the front window and let the sun soporifically filter on to my face as I drift in and out of sleep. Suddenly from such a slumber and all alone in the van I was wakened without mercy into a world of fear. My first thought was something large had driven in to the side of the caravan and knocked it for six. But there was nothing to see or feel. The bang, the shake the thud, were all gone.
It was scary. Beyond scary actually. In the land of freaky.
It turned out to be a small earthquake centred just across the bay in the southern lakes.
It was in truth nothing but for the brief time it lasted it scared the living daylights out of me.
That was abut five weeks ago now and I am still haunted by the event. It made me stop and think about the utter fragility of life and what we build our lives on. Reminded me I suppose of a favourite sunday school lesson about the two men, one who built his house on sand and the other on rock and how when trouble came the man with his house built on sand was washed away.
Made me think about what we actually value in life and how sad it is to build your life round the material things that money can buy.
We have never been rich by the standards of this country not even well off, but we didn’t build our lives on that basis, we built them on our family and our faith which guided us to the non material view of the world.
It is 40 years past since my wife and I started going out together and we have just celebrated my in-laws 65th wedding anniversary. Love, family, and all the intangible things that cost nothing are what make for lives built on rocks and not sand.
It was scary. Beyond scary actually. In the land of freaky.
It turned out to be a small earthquake centred just across the bay in the southern lakes.
It was in truth nothing but for the brief time it lasted it scared the living daylights out of me.
That was abut five weeks ago now and I am still haunted by the event. It made me stop and think about the utter fragility of life and what we build our lives on. Reminded me I suppose of a favourite sunday school lesson about the two men, one who built his house on sand and the other on rock and how when trouble came the man with his house built on sand was washed away.
Made me think about what we actually value in life and how sad it is to build your life round the material things that money can buy.
We have never been rich by the standards of this country not even well off, but we didn’t build our lives on that basis, we built them on our family and our faith which guided us to the non material view of the world.
It is 40 years past since my wife and I started going out together and we have just celebrated my in-laws 65th wedding anniversary. Love, family, and all the intangible things that cost nothing are what make for lives built on rocks and not sand.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
MPs
Hm been thinking a great deal about the expenses debacle that is consuming the nation and the Telegraph at the moment, and after much consideration I have come to conclusion that it is a fuss about very little.
MPs have appalling levels of pay kept low because every time the independent body recommends a substantial pay rise it gets knocked back because the public won’t like it. However a nod and a wink system was brought in to place whereby MPs could claim substantial allowance for all sorts of things in order to give them a decent income.
It was simply a back door way of giving them a decent level of income.
Was there abuse, of course, but probably very little.
The book case claim was for the housing of 40 years of Hansard - perfectly legitimate under any circumstances.
Michael Martin is in the dock for resisting the publication of these expenses - can you blame him? The public don’t understand. The press don’t understand - well they do but they need to sell papers.
Heaven forbid my own working expenses were ever subjected to public misunderstanding.
Clergy can claim for heating for part of their homes, for paper, stamps, paper clips, bookcases, desks, computers, cleaning (normally understood to be your wife), biscuits, tea, coffee, meals provided and so the list goes on and these are set against income and tax relief is granted on these costs.
I claimed for all of the above. Guidance is given each year as to how much you can claim for certain items without falling foul of the tax or NI system.
Without these claims I couldn’t have fed and clothed my family.
What is a scandal is that an MP is paid £62,000 a year and a newsreader £92,000 or Paxman close to a million from public funds.
MPs have appalling levels of pay kept low because every time the independent body recommends a substantial pay rise it gets knocked back because the public won’t like it. However a nod and a wink system was brought in to place whereby MPs could claim substantial allowance for all sorts of things in order to give them a decent income.
It was simply a back door way of giving them a decent level of income.
Was there abuse, of course, but probably very little.
The book case claim was for the housing of 40 years of Hansard - perfectly legitimate under any circumstances.
Michael Martin is in the dock for resisting the publication of these expenses - can you blame him? The public don’t understand. The press don’t understand - well they do but they need to sell papers.
Heaven forbid my own working expenses were ever subjected to public misunderstanding.
Clergy can claim for heating for part of their homes, for paper, stamps, paper clips, bookcases, desks, computers, cleaning (normally understood to be your wife), biscuits, tea, coffee, meals provided and so the list goes on and these are set against income and tax relief is granted on these costs.
I claimed for all of the above. Guidance is given each year as to how much you can claim for certain items without falling foul of the tax or NI system.
Without these claims I couldn’t have fed and clothed my family.
What is a scandal is that an MP is paid £62,000 a year and a newsreader £92,000 or Paxman close to a million from public funds.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Some Photos - This one is for real
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Gay Minister
This is a hard one to write. It is a true dilemma.
For those of you not in the know I would refer you to :
Now this my least favourite newspaper so I think that will be fair.
So the nub of the matter is homosexuality and the ministry and to reject this man is to be homophobic.
Well that is the way the press and Scott Rennie would like us to see it. However that is not the case. I have no real problem with anyone who tells me that they are homosexual. Nor does the Bible. It is not an issue at all.
What is a clear and fundamental part of Christianity is that it teaches that homosexual activity is wrong and not something that can be welcomed within the Church or the Christian community. That's what we believe just as we believe that marriage is for life and is sacred and the only place for sex. So we hold no truck with folk who live together and by that I mean that is not an acceptable place to be as a Christian.
So this analogy makes the point a little clearer I think. The issue here is about Christian values and morality. If he were to be thinking about moving into his new charge with a live in female lover then he would be found to be wanting and indeed his call would not have been sustained. Why? Because Marriage is sacred and part of the expected lifestyle of the Christian. Living together is not.
So Scott plans to move his boyfriend into the Manse and live in an openly active homosexual relationship. That is just as unacceptable.
The fact that he is gay is not really the issue.
This of course is not the case being made in the press at the moment.
He also took ordination vows as I did to uphold the peace and unity of the Church. It seems in his orchestrated and high profile media campaign that is hell bent on doing anything but uphold the peace and unity of the church.
There is an online petition.
It is with reluctance I have signed it :
I am saddened by his actions.
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