Spending Another Evening In The Company Of The Navi
We went to the cinema in Plymouth this evening with my Dad to see Avatar. It was his first trip to the cinema in at least ten yearsI was hoping Avatar would ...
Posts from 2009
Christmas In Cornwall
In the same manner as Tolkein’s Hobbits having “second breakfast”, we are having a second Christmas of sorts at my parents in Cornwall. It’s the first opport...
Christmas Day 2009
Our day started with a certain little person opening our bedroom door in the dark, excitedly telling us Father Christmas had been, and was it time to get up ...
Bringing My Life Back Online
It’s Christmas Eve, and I am finally home for more than a couple of days after several months spent in a hotel with work. I had anticipated being at work tod...
Avatar
This evening myself and several colleagues headed out to watch the new James Cameron movie “Avatar” at the local cinema. Stunning. No other words for it. Abs...
Outside The Christmas Loop
While watching our children talk to their grandparents in Cornwall on Skype this evening, I got the first real sense so far that Christmas is coming. Lunatic...
Snow Stops The World At Home
While I’m holed up in an office building at the other end of the country, the schools at home have closed on the final day before Christmas after the snow fe...
Yet Another Nativity
We finished the Nativity marathon this evening; I accompanied W’s parents to see our five year old singing the songs we have been bludgeoned with for the pas...
Homeward Bound
Waiting in Birmingham Station to travel back towards home - and anight and day of coding. Not very happy that my planned morningChristmas shopping is now goi...
Sunday In The Playpark
Another morning with the children, and another visit to the playparkaccompanied by excited shouts of “Yay!” when I asked if they would like to go. Unfortunat...
Following On Twitter
While tinkering with some Javascript earlier, it occurred to me that it would be easy to rip the various users I follow from Twitter, and display a rogue’s g...
Junk Food Avoidance
I ate burgers for dinner every night last week while staying in the hotel, and then on friday capped the week off with a pizza. Not exactly good for me.
Another Monday Another Hotel
It’s Monday evening, and I’m in the Hilton again (I wonder if Paris Hilton’s boyfriend says that? Does she have boyfriends for longer than a week?)
Deegs Wedding Party
A few snaps taken on my iPhone at Deeg’s wedding party last night. Ws parents babysat for us, allowing us to escape for a few hours. W has far better picture...
Home Again
I’m finally home this evening after four days away with work. After ringing the doorbell, I heard excited shouts from two little girls who had been allowed t...
What Day Is It Today
Do you ever lose track of which day of the week it is? I have this evening. While staying away from home, I have begun counting the days by the number of set...
Another Week Another Hotel Room
I’m starting to get the hang of this - not living in a hotel - I’m starting to get the hang of expecting failure. Don’t get me wrong - this hotel room is nic...
A Case Of The Mondays
After sitting down at my desk to begin work this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about the scene in Office Space;
Saturday In The Playpark
It’s mid afternoon on Saturday and I’m pretty much wiped out. Today was the day of the primary school Christmas Bazaar - and W was roped in to creating and h...
Symphony Of Science
I first heard this a while ago, after a friend with a science teacher Dad pointed me towards it. Follow the video to youtube, and re-post it on your own blog...
Crash Bang Wallop Out Of Nablowrimo
With days left to go, I didn’t post anything yesterday. Crash bang wallop indeed.
Blogging Goodness Subscription By Email And Curry With Colleagues
The more eagle eyed among you will notice the “subscribe by email” thing in the right hand margin - WordPress switched it on today, so I’m trying it out. If ...
Tuesday Night Working Again
It’s Tuesday night. I’m sat in the hotel working again. I just stopped to bash out a quick post in order to keep going with NaBloWriMo.
Another Monday Another Hotel
Monday night, and I’m sat in a hotel once again. This hotel is not as grand as the previous one from the outside, but the rooms are infinitely better.
Another Week Of Hotel Life Beckons
Sunday night is ticking down, my bag is packed, and I’m more or less ready to head out again. Following a late night of coding on Friday when I was seemingly...
Worn Out Shattered
I worked all yesterday evening on something that was bugging me, and I’ve worked all day today (and into the evening) on freelance work. I’m going to be work...
Home
I’m home from my first stint working away from home.
Getting Into The Swing Of It
It’s Wednesday evening - the third night in the hotel - and I’m slowly getting used to it. If the old saying about not missing what you never had is true, I’...
Hilton Wins Me Over With Her Mediocrity
Hotel breakfasts rule. You don’t have to make them, and you don’t have to wash up after yourself either.
Paris Hilton Can Go Stuff Her Family Hotel Chain Up Her
While away with work over the coming weeks, I am staying at a rather big, rather expensive hotel on the outskirts of a big city in the UK.
Brooke Magnanti Joins Heather Armstrong And Catherine Sanderson In Thepantheon Of Outed Bloggers
News broke in the UK this morning that the writer of “Belle De Jour” had finally been outed by the press - it turns out she is/was Brooke Magnanti. I haven’t...
Windy Day
Little Miss 5 accompanied me shopping today to buy clothes and wash bag stuff. We also had to choose a birthday present for her friend’s birthday party (she’...
Getting Organised
The near future is slowly becoming more clear; I will typically be leaving early on Monday mornings for work, and returning on Thursday evenings.
Thoughts About My Impending Life In A Hotel
Starting at some point next week, and for the next six weeks or so, I am going to be “living” in a hotel during the week. Thus far I had only considered the ...
Bidding Farewell To Social Services
We had a final “official” meeting with our social worker this morning, and bade warewell to the amazing woman who has accompanied us along the journey from b...
The Eleventh Hour Of The Eleventh Day Of The Eleventh Month
I was sat in a meeting this morning as eleven o’clock ticked by. I wondered if I was the only one who noticed. I lost track of what everbody was talking abou...
Junk Food Wine And Big Bang Theory
The last few days has heralded something of a resurgence within meI have stories to share for the first time in ages. Perhaps it comes from a recent attack o...
Not Being There
I haven’t said anything about this on my blog yet - but half the reason for me spending so much time with the children recently has been because I knew what ...
Would You Still Read Me If I Wrote Elsewhere
Those who have read my various writing online will know I have had blogs at pretty much all of the more noteable hosts - WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Posterou...
Ive Done It Again Havent I
My blog is back at WordPress - hosted by their good selves rather than me. I haven’t so much gone “full circle”, as started another lap. Hopefully this will ...
Just A Few Words
It’s 11:34pm on Sunday night, and I’m scraping inside the deadline for NaBloWriMo (I have to post every day this month to get away with it). I know I could a...
Saturday With The Children
From the moment I woke this morning until the moment they fell asleep this evening, I have spent the day with the children - it’s the first time I have done ...
The Results Of The Great October Pleb Fishing Expedition
Over the course of the last month, I have been investing a little more effort than normal into both writing hopefully interesting posts for my personal blog ...
Curiosity Gets The Better Of Me Jupiter And Its Moons
You know the photo I took the other night of Jupiter and it’s moons?
Retro Labels Decluttering And Giving Stuff Away
Given that I wrote a rather philosophical post a few days ago about the attachment of labels to people, the irony has not escaped me that I bought a Dymo lab...
Remember Remember The 5Th Of November
For generations (the last 400 years in fact), English families have taught the rhyme to their children “Remember, Remember, the 5th of November”. The rest of...
Geeking Out With Ubuntu Netbook Remix
A couple of evenings ago I slotted a spare hard drive into my ASUS EEE 1000H netbook, and installed the latest build of Ubuntu Netbook Remix. If you have no ...
Things The Movies Have Taught Us
Having a membership at Tumblr sometimes pays off in the strangest ways; this cross my path this morning, and I thought it was too good not to share;
Showing The Children The Stars
While cycling home from work this evening it struck me how clear the sky was; signalling not only the coming of winter, but also of opportunities to get the ...
Attaching Labels
If a child is not the most academically gifted, it cannot be because they are not the best - oh no - it’s because they have ADHD, mild autism, dyspraxia or s...
The Endless Search For Buttons To Push
I sat down to begin writing this evening with memories of a stereotypically draining and stressful Monday morning running through my head. While contemplatin...
The Morning After The Night Before
The kids didn’t fall into bed until about 9:30 last night, and somehow recharged their batteries sufficiently after a night of mayhem to wake up at 6:30am. H...
Running On Empty
When children get ill, their body does the same thing mine does; hikes the temperature up and burns the virus from their system. The kids have something happ...
Falling Back In Love With Blogging
For the past few weeks I have been investing a little more effort into the words and pictures I contribute to the world you and I know as the blogosphere. It...
The Great Google Wave Invite Giveaway
THEY HAVE ALL GONE!
Seduced By A Flawed Time Suck Called Tumblr
I have been playing with Tumblr again (my page lives at jonbeckett.tumblr.com). I know I shouldn’t but I can’t leave it alone. It’s addictive. Imagine Twitte...
Flagging
It’s 8:30pm at the time of writing - I returned from work at 6, and have been on my feet until a few minutes ago - clearing a day’s worth of washing, and cor...
Star Trek
We finally sat down and watched the “new” Star Trek movie this evening - months after it’s theatrical release.
Time To Read
Visitors to our house are invariably astounded at the plethora of books that surround them - and probably make snap judgements about us, or the “kind of pers...
The One Where We Flooded The Street
Before I recount this story, I need to make it clear that - technically - it wasn’t us that flooded the street.
Dreams About Street Fighter Nazi Children I Dont Have
Yesterday morning I woke at 6am to the sound of our resident air raid siren, otherwise known as “Little Miss Five”.
You Have To Hand It To Apple The Magic Mouse Is Spectacularly Sexy
While catching up with various online acquaintances earlier this evening I came across a friend’s post on Twitter about the Apple “Magic Mouse”. How do Apple...
Taking Part In Nablowrimo Again
I will be taking part in NaBloWriMo again this year (also known as “National Blog Writing Month”) - the annual challenge to write a blog post on every day th...
Sunday And The World Slows Down
For the first time in weeks, I am being afforded the opportunity to spend Sunday doing what I want. This is so rare it seems like something of a novelty.
Imagine A World Without The Royal Mail
Isn’t it interesting that the UK postal service is branded as “The Royal Mail” when it’s a commercial service. Isn’t it also interesting that they think they...
Congratulations To Jenson Button Formula One World Champion 2009
Just a short message to pass on my congratulations across the internet to Jenson Button, who won the 2009 Formula One Drivers World Championship today in So ...
A Toy From My Childhood
When I was young my Dad went on a business trip to Germany, and came back with a toy (from the Frankfurt Toy Fair?) called “Big Loader” - this was at least 3...
Foaming Invective
What is it about Fridays? Where does our energy and enthusiasm go?
How Social Is Too Social
I gained access to the Google Wave beta earlier today, and logged in with quite some excitement. If you’ve not heard about Google Wave yet, you have either b...
Just A Few Words Tonight
You find me on arrival home from a walk into town - an eleventh hour dash to procure food for dinner - and a hearing of our eldest daughter reading from a bo...
Retro Gaming Jak And Daxter Style
It’s strange to think that the previous generation of games machines is now thought of as “Retro”, but apparently it is (ask any ten year old).
Cats And Chickens Friends Or Enemies
Somebody asked me this morning - knowing that we have a cat, and we have chickens - if cats and chickens can peacefully co-exist. Finally a question I can of...
Website Traffic A Nice Problem To Have
I received an email from the hosts of Cheese and Beans earlier today, notifying me that on the 12th of the month, I have already over-run the bandwidth limit...
Second Life In The Playpark
I’m considering setting up a comfy armchair, table, and permanent supply of flasks of tea in the nearby playpark. Despite being off work today with a head fu...
Rainy Days And Sundays
If you arrived here expecting a post about The Carpenters, I should probably apologise. It’s Sunday afternoon, the rain is falling outside, and I just sat do...
Graze Delivers Healthy Snacks And The Post Office Delivers On Time
Graze (www.graze.com) and the british postal service combined overnight to deliver snacks to me, so I thought it only right that I should do an “unboxing” po...
Fck It Friday
While making the very important decision about what to have for a first drink of the day, one of my colleagues (who has been attempting to detox a little) pr...
Snacks Through The Mail With Graze
One of my oldest friends online (she has a blog here) messaged me this morning, asking if I had heard of “Graze” - and I had to admit I had not. The photo ab...
The One Where The Rain Made Me Wretch
The cycle home from work this evening was rather eventful, on account of the great deluge that befell most of southern England in time to coincide with my jo...
The One Where My Other Half Gets A Blackberry
W took delivery of her first “smartphone” earlier today - a Blackberry 8520 “Curve”. To say she is happy is something of an understatement; she’s been living...
Swords Sorcery Magic And Madness Gamers The Movie
In a repeat of their earlier generosity with “Clerks”, Amazon again sent me two movies for twice the price yesterday. This time the movie was “Gamers”, which...
Monday Morning Mayhem
I sometimes envy the single guys at work - that can roll out of bed with a finely crafted routine ahead of them to leave the house with seconds to spare beyo...
Shall I Get Naked
If you arrived here via a search for something rather questionable, I’m sorry to disappoint you. This does involve nakedness, and showers, and lots of giggli...
Going To The Zoo You Can Come Too
If you recognised the lyric from the Tom Paxton track, well done. We went to the Cotswold Safari Park with our kids today - the first time myself or my other...
Messages From The Clouds
No, I have not bought a copy of “The Cloud Spotters Guide”, neither have I suddenly started reading the collected writings of Billy Meier (I’ll let you look ...
Book Crossing And The Beginning Of The Exodus
As can be deduced from the photo above without too many Sherlock Holmesian skills, we have a lot of books in our house. While the photo doesn’t actually look...
New Mug Required
Like most workplaces, we each draw from a collective pool of mugs in the kitchen. The various drinkingreceptaclesare emblazoned with an assortment of long de...
The Emperors New Movie Clerks
While listening to a podcast a few days ago, the movie “Clerks” came up, and I realised I had not seen it. A quick search on Amazon revealed it for a reasona...
Clerks 2 And The Great Redemption
I like to finish things. I might not finish them immediately, but there is some weird, screwed up part of my head that likes things to be orderly - in the ri...
A Social Networking Sht Storm Of My Own Making
When you’re busy fiddling with something interesting, it’s easy to become so engrossed in “the next thing” that you forget all about the trail of things you ...
Lunchtime Redesign Of Cheese And Beans
I got a virtualmacheteout this lunchtime, and set about hacking lumps from my personal blog. I have been looking a the “Thesis” default template recently, an...
The School Barbecue
This afternoon we all trooped off to one of the several events throughout the year at the primary school two of our girls attend. Well troop is somewhat of a...
Ducks In A Row
I have been meddling with the various places that I hold accounts on the internet this eveningtrying to bring the same username into effect everywhere (as mu...
Contemplating Another Twitter Cull
Back when twitter was shiny, new and horrendously unstable, it was also interesting; or rather the people who frequented it were. Popularity heralded the arr...
Acronyms
Why are some people preoccupied with acronyms, or catch phrases ? I’m going to theorise that those who include them in their general vocabulary are perhaps e...
Counting The Days
It’s been a mental week.
Preparing For Adventure As King Of The Nerds
I’m not actually sure if the next few days of my professional career can be regarded as adventure or not. Of course, given the usual constraints on that whic...
Losing Track Of Time
This evening I have been implementing a new theme on a WordPress blog for a friendand as anything of this nature would naturally dictate, I completely lost t...
Handy Tip Three And A Half Hours Sleep Is Not Enough
You might imagine I would have worked out how much sleep I need to survive on by now, wouldn’t you. You would also be wrong.
Playing With The Traffic
Once upon a time I read the book “Chaos” by James Gleick. Within the many and varied unfathomable ideas was the concept of a “strange attractor”. It has stru...
Bridge To Terabithia
We sat down last night and watched the movie “Bridge to Terabithia”, rescued from the bargain bin at our local movie rental store. The cover sold it as “from...
Alvin Theadore Simon Cue Machine Gun Fire
I just got back from a trip to the shops accompanied by our youngest, and was subjected to a barrage on 4 year old thoughts about life, the universe and ever...
Surviving The Birthday Party
I arrived home last night a little early to help out with our eldest daughter’s birthday party. It seemed like a simple enough idea for a birthday; 3 friends...
Skimming The Firehose With Netvibes
I’m trying out “Netvibes” - http://www.netvibes.com - as an alternative to Google Reader. If you’ve not seen it, it’s similar to PageFlakes, and iGoogle - al...
Words Never Written
For some time I have been promising a far flung friend that I will re-imagine her blog - make it pretty, shiny, professional, approachable, fun, and welcomin...
Talent Wins Every Time
I showed this to our kids earlier, and they sat goggle eyed throughout. It’s easy to forget just how much they have yet to discover - so many great musicians...
Chronic Tiredness
Should 2am be regarded as “last night”, or “this morning” ? Whatever, it’s the time I finally rolled into bed last night. This would have been find had a sma...
Freelance Web Designer For Hire
I went through the website I use to attract freelance work earlier and gave it a polish. Given the fact that a certain somebody will be learning all about we...
8 Years Together
We went out for dinner last night at Bangkok Lounge in Bourne End to celebrate surviving 8 years of marriage without killing each other. Apart from being the...
Apple Ipod Nano 5G First Impressions
The Nano arrived in the post yesterday, and I finally got a chance to have a play with it late last night.
Nsfw Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Xtz
You have been warnedthis is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. It is laden with expletives, and is completely and utterly unsuitable for minors to watch.
Consolidation
After being incredibly impressed with Posterous over the last few weeks, I have decided to jump ship for my regular blog (that very few people read anyway). ...
Remembering Marilyn
After dinner this evening I was listening to music with our eight year old daughter. She was taking an interest in “my music” for a changeI’m not quite sure ...
Children Need To Learn Where Meat Comes From
There has been a crazy news story on television this morning - about aprimary school that has reared several lambs, and is about to sendthem off to market to...
The New Ipod Nano Music Camera Video Camera Fm Radio Pedometervoice Recorder And More
I just finished watching live coverage of the Apple press conferencein the US, and immediately following it went to the online Apple Storeand ordered a new i...
Scooter Crash
While walking to school this morning, our 5 year old had the kind ofscooter crash that Barry Sheene would have been proud of. It seems tobe pre-programmed in...
Agnetha Faltskog Sometimes When Im Dreaming
I often wondered what Agnetha did after ABBA. Amazing voice - when she gets to the chorus the voice we grew up listening to appears fleetingly… makes the hai...
On The Train
This morning finds me on the London train once more - for the first time since I stopped commuting for a project last year. It felt very strange preparing to...
The One Where The Spider Had Babies
You know the spider I evicted from our house a few days ago? The one I evicted from the kitchen yesterday? It had babies. In something approaching the Oklaho...
The One Where Two Of Our Chickens Got Eaten Again
Given the general level of mayhem that exists in our house, nobody else tends to remember to let the chickens out, or shut them back in their run each night....
They Are Letting Me Write For The Local Newspaper Website
It would appear that I have been approved to write for the local newspaper website. I’m not quite sure at the moment what I will write about - they appear to...
Keeping The Dream Alive Munchener Freiheit
I have no idea why this piece of music appeared in my head earlier this evening. Perhaps the 1980s music festival we went to is to blame. Who knowsAs far as ...
First Day On The Felt Q720 2009 Mountain Bike
As promised, some thoughts about the bike after a first day commuting on it - and a trip to the local bike shop to get essentials (and a few non essentials)....
Felt Q720 Mountain Bike It Will Never Be This Clean Again
Fresh out of the boxthe first photos of the Felt Q720 mountain bike I took delivery of earlier today.
Good Morning From Cornwall
It’s Friday morning, the sun is shining, I’ve had two cups of coffee, and the day ahead looks good. The kids have had their breakfast - I just need to go jum...
The Rewind 80S Festival Henley 2009
The photos from the “proper camera” of our day at the Rewind Festival, Henley on Thames, 2009. Among the acts, The Blockheads, Nik Kershaw, Go West, The Chri...
Saturday With Dad
In continuation of a pattern of late, I took the children off W’s hands this morning for a “Saturday with Dad”. In reality it had been engineered to allow cl...
The One Where The Insurers Buy Me A New Felt Q720 2009 Mountain Bike
My faith in the world in general has been repaid somewhat this afternoon, following news that our home insurers are paying out on the mountain bike I had sto...
Almost Las Vegas
The last 24 hours have been somewhat bizarre (or at least, more bizarre than normal, which is saying something). For those who don’t know, I work in the dayt...
The One Where My Bike Got Stolen
When I arrived home from work yesterday evening, there were several teenagers hanging around under the trees on the green outside our house. I noticed them b...
Playing With Things
The license for Remember the Milk just came up for renewal, so I am taking another look at “Things” for Mac and iPhone - a nice task list application. Things...
Holiday In Pembrokeshire
A few of the photos from our holiday - trying out the media integration built into Posterous - if this works, it will arrive at Flickr, Facebook, my blog, De...
Deciding On A New Bike
I reported my stolen bike to the police this morning, and we’re calling the insurance company this evening to find out how much they will pay out - which mor...
Testing Something Out
If this works, this post will automagically arrive on my blog, Twitter, facebook, Flickr, Livejournal and various other sites simultaneously - meaning I can ...
Confessions
Originally spied on the wonderful blog “inProgress” (http://kassota.wordpress.com), this seemed like a lunchtime sized activity to partake in. Random confess...
Thoughts About Watchmen And Sex In The Movies
I finally got around to watching the “Watchmen” movie last night, after completely missing it at the cinema, and repeatedly picking the graphic novel up in b...
Pondering Reclusion
I’ve been wondering for some time about the relevance of a personal blog on the internet.
Nandos G Force And Hmv
I took two of the kids off W’s hands today for a trip to the cinema. I had planned to take all three, but following little miss 5’s repeated adventures durin...
A Week In Pembrokeshire
We spent last week staying in a house in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with W’s parents and her brother. I spent most of the week battling the remnants of the cold I...
Rejecting Virtual Worlds
I have never played “World of Warcraft”. The lure of escaping into a fantasy world where I could be anything I wanted, and behave any way I wanted always see...
Sickness Sucks
I hadn’t been off work sick since the girls arrived with us 18 months ago. Thanks to a wandering cold virus that chanced upon me and grinned wickedly, I am a...
Charlotte And Jacob Got Married
This weekend most of our collective families assembled from the four corners of the globe to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Charlotte, and her fianc Jac...
Sex Always Sells
While tinkering with some Javascript last night, I extracted the avatar images of everybody I follow from Twitter and posted it online. All good.
A Family Wedding Approaches
At some point tomorrow morning we will pack ourselves and the children into the car and travel to London, where we will be staying over the weekend to witnes...
The People I Follow On Twitter
While tinkering with some javascript earlier, I thought it might be fun to scoop out of twitter the various users I follow, and assemble them all in one post...
Celebrating Nothing
While reading somebody else’s blog last night, I realised that my own personal blog isn’t actually about anything in particular. If you read any of the publi...
Five New Blogs To Follow
While re-acquainting myself over the last few days with the various online communities I used to call home, I stumbled upon some excellent personal blogs tha...
Contents Of The Bag Of Holding
If you have ever wondered what I might be carrying around in the bag slung over my shoulder, wonder no more;
The Music Of The Blogosphere
I began wondering this evening if there was a piece of music that I could tie to writing - to blogging. Was there a piece of music that encapsulated the shar...
Goodbye Lg Cookie Hello Iphone 3G
For the last several weeks I have been using an LG Cookie mobile phone - the one I bought to use for freelance use - in place of the iPhone which had develop...
Has The Twitter Bubble Burst
I was going to title this post “To blog, or to microblog”, but I’m not quite sure if “to blog” is grammatically correct or not (if it is in the dictionary, I...
Returning To The World Of Apple
This evening has been my first real chance to sit with the white Macbook - my Macbook - since it came back from being fixed by the local Applecare service ce...
Time To Blog Or Rather Lack Of It
This blog has been woefully neglected recently, and I can see no immediate opportunity to redress that. Work, life, and the universe in general are conspirin...
Chess And Lunchtime
I played chess on the internet at lunchtime against some anonymous person somewhere else in the world. I would love to tell you who they were, and where they...
Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince
I headed out to watch “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” last night with a good friend.
Teaching Children To Play Chess
One evening last week while our eldest (8 years old) was up late having her hair de-nitted (yep - the week before the summer holidays, all our kids got nits ...
Miley Cyrus Breakout
I bought a Miley Cyrus album for our eldest daughter earlier from iTunes, which she has been listening to throughout the afternoon… while washing up and putt...
Lady Gaga Bizarre And Brilliant
When I first saw her on television, I thought “what on EARTH?!?”, and switched channels. Since then the chorus lines of her songs have invaded my brain via t...
Back On The Air
The photograph is of astronaut Steve Bowen. His expression pretty much sums up my feelings of being back online.
Fullmetal Alchemist
I bought the first series of “Fullmetal Alchemist” at the weekend. I’ve read a couple of the Manga books in the past, and thought it was interesting. For tho...
Painting The Wendy House
A couple of weeks ago, some good friends offered us the W House at the foot of their garden. I nearly bit their hand off.
Why Are You Great
Following an interesting idea invented by Antidamen on her LiveJournal, I’m turning this blog inside out today - and asking why you think you are so great;
Threaded Comments Ahoy
I took a few minutes out this lunchtime to implement threaded comments on this blog. WordPress has been able to do it for ages (since version 2.7) - I just c...
Light At The End Of The Broadband Tunnel
You might not know this, but I have had no broadband internet connection at home since February. With a little luck the situation is about to change (5 month...
Thunking Away
You’re probably wondering what on earth “Thunking” means. As far as I am aware, it comes from computer science - and is often used to describe the process of...
Our Wedding
I just realised that I have never shared the photos of our wedding (in 2001 with the world at large. Consider this the start of that being corrected;
Keeping In Touch
I’ve been having a bit of a sort out this morning (in between making breakfast for everybody, coffee, getting dressed, brushing teeth, dealing with tantrums…...
At The Races
We went to the horse racing at Windsor Royal Race Course today with some friends - first time I have ever been to a horse race, race track, or anything like ...
Thinking About Blogfriday
I have had this domain name sat dormant for quite a while - www.blogfriday.net - and have been wondering what to do with it.
Michael Jackson Rest In Peace
It has just been reported on the news that Michael Jackson died earlier today. Twitter beat the news networks to the news by about a minute.
Grunting At Wimbledon
Finally some sense came to the Wimbledon tennis tournament today, when a quietly spoken Argentinian girl beat Maria Sharapova. While Sharapova grunted, screa...
Wandering Thoughts On An Early Commute
Sitting on the train, en-route to Birmingham once again. Woke with a start at 4:55am, and lurched out of bed. Espresso at home, and a capuccino at Maidenhead...
Camping Single Handed With The Kids
The primary school that our youngest is at stages a “camping” evening each year - usually coinciding with father’s day. It takes place on the school field fo...
View From A Train Window
While commuting towards a client site last week at some ungodly hour, I pointed my iPhone out of the Window and took this…
The World Carried On Regardless
If you’ve been wondering about my whereabouts over the last month - and let’s face it, few if any of the people who happen across this blog will have done - ...
Tumblarity
I thought it might be interesting to share the results of my week long assault on Tumblr, and it’s ranking system - “Tumblarity”…
A Quiet Day At Home
I had planned to stay at home today and bury myself in a couple of freelance projects that have been hitting the skids recently (due to the crazy schedules I...
Flat Out
Tonight is a night off from both my professional and freelance work - the first time out I have taken in a week or so. It’s time.
Tumblr Is A Virtual Scrapbook
I think I’m finally beginning to get my head around Tumblr. Where WordPress is designed for wordsmiths - people with a story to tell - Tumblr is designed for...
Crazy Schedule Invites Tumblr And Twitter To Seduce Me
You read the title correctly. Given the ever increasing demands on my time over the last month or so, the frequency and quality of my blog posts has hit an a...
Hannah Montana The Movie
This afternoon, while playing the part of “Dad”, I took our eldest daughter to see “Hannah Montana - The Movie”.
Nik Kershaw Somebody Loves You
I discovered the album “15 MInutes” way back in 1999 before I visited my cousin in America. I have always regarded it as perhaps the best Nik Kershaw ever ma...
Artwork From My Past
While replying to somebody on Twitter earlier, it occurred to me that I had not posted any of my old artwork on this blog.
500 Followers On Twitter
This evening I passed the 500 follower mark on Twitter. The lucky (?!) 500th person was @soyleslie - an interesting young woman on the other side of the plan...
Travelling With Work
I’ll be leaving the house in the early hours of tomorrow morning to travel with work. I have been working as part of a team to build a project that we are sh...
Football In The Park
In between working on a freelance webdesign contract, taking our middle girl to a “modern dance” rehearsal, trudging around town, and then totally missing th...
Overwhelmed By Stuff And Nonsense Or How To Waste A Saturday
I’ve spent the last hour looking at Tumblr after a far flung friend (laurenmalone.tumblr.com) voiced her admiration of it. I was surprised - she has been hos...
Branding On Twitter
Earlier this evening I changed my username on Twitter from jonbeckett73 to jonbeckett - in a feeble attempt to start sorting out my “online brand” (don’t lau...
Software Development In The Real World Geniuses And Numpties
Although I am officially a “Technical Specialist” on paper for Microsoft technologies, the ability to pass an exam is pretty much useless when faced with rea...
Busy Busy Busy
You may have noticed the severe lack of posts from me recently. A combination of working on a huge project to a deadline in the daytime, freelance work in th...
12Seconds This Could Get Silly
In the depths of last night, long after I should really have gone to bed, I took a look at 12 seconds on the internet…
The One Where I Nearly Hit Our 4 Year Old Over The Head With A Snowshovel
Just one of the exchanges that took place today;
This Used To Be My Playground
There was a time when I would find a quiet hour to sit at the computer and write. The keyboard served as a conduit between mind and computer, translating the...
Day Out With The Kids
Over the four days of the easter break, I have taken an unfeasible number of photos of the kids this year. Here are a few of today’s… (warning - crap load of...
How Many Faces Is Too Many
While running back and forth tugging children along a zip-line at a theme park this afternoon, I started wondering about my work colleagues - about those who...
Im Not Dead Yet
The title is of course a reference to a rather famous scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It also refers to the lack of wordage pouring forth from my...
Frustrating Weekend
I had hoped to make progress with a number of freelance projects this weekend. It didn’t happen (or at least it hasn’t happened yet - I forsee a very late ni...
Wendys Birthday Random Photos
a few of the many photos I took at W’s party, while dividing myself between roles of organiser, host, financier, friend, husband, dad, mental dancer, and tir...
And The World Keeps Turning
The last few days have been unrelenting.
When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth
I discovered “When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth” while looking at the ePub digital document format last year. I was commuting into and out of London each day, a...
A Moleskine Comes To An End
This is the friendly Moleskine notebook that has travelled with me over the last couple of years, being filled with all manner of idiotic ideas, opinions, th...
Tori Amos And The Soundtrack Of My Life
I discovered her one morning in 1991 while watching breakfast television. She was there during the hundreds of hours spent commuting to and from London. She ...
Looking Forward To My Old Macbook
After I’ve booked the old Macbook in for service, it will be mine once more. It is covered by three years Apple Care (which cost a small fortune, but looks l...
Wendys Birthday
In celebrations normally reserved for the Queen, W is having two celebrations this year - the first (today) on her actual birthday, and the second next weeke...
Very Very Tired
Today started at 5:40am, in order to get kids lunches ready, breakfast ready, clear the kitchen, and then get ready for work before leaving at 7am. I didn’t ...
Little Broken Camera
We took the kids to the woods at the weekend, and in the face of continual moon faced complaints about never being allowed to do anything from our eight year...
72 Hours Offline
The wheels fell off our broadband connection at home a couple of days ago in spectacular style, and it’s starting to feel like somebody has cut my air supply...
The One Where Pipex Hold Us To Ransom
For the last two months we have been trying to move our internet service provider at home from Pipex to British Telecom. The main reason for doing so is that...
My Second Moleskine
A new Moleskine notebook arrived through the post a couple of days ago - my original one is slowly filling up, and I realised I would hate to be without one ...
The Wii Fit Has Landed
After several months thinking about it, we finally succumbed and bought a Wii Fit last week - it arrived on Saturday morning. It was bought as a belated birt...
10 Favourite Personal Blogs
In the spirit of sharing, here is a list of ten personal blogs I like. If you’re not on the list, and you know I read your blog, worry not - I’ll do another ...
The One Where I Froze Like An Ice Lolly
In choosing the title of this post, I debated between “Popsicle” and “Ice Lolly” - mainly because I know a lot of Americans ready my blog, and I’m not really...
Musical Brilliance From 1985
A couple of nights ago I needed to make an emergency trip into town to buy groceries - and happened to pick up the earphones for my iPhone as I left the hous...
A Rare Night Out
After much planning and preparation, last night we managed to escape together for a night out in town with W’s brother. It was our second night out together ...
We Have Three Chickens
Nestled in the corner of our garden, in their own arc and run, are three new additions to our menagerie - three chickens.
At The Beginning Of My 36Th Year On This Planet
With the advent of my 36th birthday earlier this week, I have been wondering how much I have changed over the years - how I am different than I was before.
Being A Rubbish Dad
I was pulled up by W last night for becoming more rubbish than normal at this whole business of being a Dad. The worst part is that I already knew.
Join Me For Some Cheese And Beans
I gone done and did it. Again. (and yes, I am quite aware of how many grammar rules the first sentence breaks. I also know this footnote should not have star...
A New Wordpress Theme
It’s not actually a “theme” as such yet - just an HTML and CSS file sat on my hard drive that I came up with over lunch. You can click on the image to see th...
To Brand Or Not To Brand
Over the last eight or nine years I have “existed” in many forms on the internet - a member of Compuserve, a contributor to bulletin boards, a sometime usene...
The Morning Commute A Photo Journey
I couldn’t figure out how to attach the digital camera to myself in order to shoot video on the way to work (I’ll probably have to buy a bracket for the bike...
Experience The Firehose
If you have ever wondered just how much crap I spew out onto the internet, wonder no more.
Drawing
I promised to draw a few people a couple of months ago, and have not got around to it - while taking a half hour break from freelance work yesterday evening ...
Unexpected Gort Style Fury
The other day somebody posted a comment on a photo of one of our kids that nearly caused me to go nuclear on the spot.
An Invitation To Analyse My Handwriting
After reading Antidamen’s blog post, I’m joining in - here’s some of my handwriting - analyse away…
Books To Read
I love reading - I just wish I could find more time to devote to it. For the past several months, most waking hours have been spent buried in work of some ki...
New Theme And New Wordpress Goodness
When I moved my personal blog back to a hosted solution at wordpress.com it was for entirely fiscal reasons - we’re busy cutting back on unwarranted expendit...
And Thats Why He Is Brave
The swirling maelstrom of thoughts cleared a little this evening while waiting for our eldest to brush her teeth. A section of my favourite book appeared in ...
Returning To The Real World
We’ll be getting back in the car in a couple of hours time to travel home from my parents on the south west coast - a five hour car journey taking us through...
Alone At Midnight Once More
Once again I’m sat here in the early minutes of the morning, alone downstairs, bathed in the light of the monitor, fingers tapping away at inconceivably comp...
Working Late
Another night down, another night closer to paying for our new car, and another night of churning out illustrations that will eventually grace a corporate we...
Mediocrity
If you look up mediocrity in the dictionary, you find the following;
Change Is Good Right
I know, I know… I changed the look of this blog again (if you’re reading this through an RSS reader, you’ll need to click on the title to see the wonderous b...
Apparently We Have A New Car
I called home earlier today, knowing that W went looking at replacement cars.
Monday Morning Cranky
My weekend consisted of getting up early, making breakfasts, getting the kids dressed, washing up, tidying up, working like a lunatic on freelance stuff, mak...
First Photos From The Fuji S1000Fd
Here are some of the first photos from the new camera - a Fuji Finepix S1000fd. It’s an amazingly compact little machine, and seems to be very economical on ...
Favourite Photographs
With the impending arrival of a new camera at home, and the inevitable avalanche of new photos as I learn with it, I thought it might be timely to post a few...
New Camera Avalanche Of Pictures
I am retiring our huge, battery hungry Fuji S9500 with it’s little successor - a Fuji Finepix S1000fd. It has all manner of cleverness wrapped up in it appar...
The Bicycle Of Invisibility
Before explaining about the two traffic incidents that occurred today - neither of which are out of the normal at all - it’s worth explaining that when I rid...
February 2009 Photo Journal My Home Town
I have been repeatedly requested by far flung friends for pictures of where we live - and today while walking through the snow and ice into town for emergenc...
Evolving The Design
This evening has been spent evolving the design of a website for a freelance client - trying out new design ideas and directions. Design is difficult, but ul...
Words From Another Life
An email arrived in my inbox this morning from somebody I have not seen for about 8 years - my closest friend for a couple of years back before I got all sen...
Snow
It was forecast, but I guess until you wake up, and it’s coming down like a thick white blanket over the world around you, you don’t always believe it.
Freelance
I’ve been working away on a freelance project throughout most of Sunday. Where most people think web development is all about making websites look a certain ...
Twitter How Much Is Too Much
With the recent surge in popularity of Twitter, I have been wondering how much information is too much when sharing thoughts, discoveries and observations wi...
My Thoughts In A Wordle Word Cloud
The above image was generated by Wordle, after pointing their wonderful gadget at my blog. How cool is that!? I may have to post one of these at the end of e...
Websites For A Rainy Day
Given that I spend an inordinate amount of time online, and have therefore amassed a somewhat embarrassing level of knowledge in terms of “what can be found,...
The 25 Things Meme
I honestly thought I had avoided this one - several of the blogs I read had been caught up in it, but I had not received the dreaded instruction. Until ten m...
The Morning The Smile Slipped
Before going to bed last night, we talked to the children about them getting dressed as soon as they woke in the morning - rather than waiting for us to “hel...
A Year With The Girls
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since we visited the foster carer’s house, and met the girls for the first time. A year of fun, stress, hard work, exa...
Fifteen Thousand Hits
Can you believe this blog has been visited 15,000 times ? What on earth is so interesting about the words I write or the pictures I occasionally post? The wo...
Sunday Morning 9Am
It’s Sunday morning, it’s raining outside, the kids are watching Harry Potter on the television in the playroom, W is sitting quietly sipping Rooibos tea in ...
Listening To Tiny Dancer
It’s Sunday evening - heading towards 10:30pm - and I’m sat listening to “Tiny Dancer” on the “Madman Across the Water” album by Elton John. There is an inte...
The Information Integration Paradox
If I was ever going to have a falling down moment over something trivial, now would be the time.
Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist Mcts Web Developer
After several years working with the Microsoft .
Timbuk2 Design Your Own Bag
While hunting around the Moo Cards website, I happened upon “Timbuk2” - a company that makes bags…
Nothing To Report
While not revising for another Microsoft certification exam tomorrow, I have been wondering what to write a blog about today. The “common sense” part of my b...
Medadfriend Vs Clientcolleaguerockstar Web Designer
I have taken the next logical step towards the seperation of “Jonathan/Dad/Friend” and “Colleague/Client/Rockstar Web Designer”, and acquired a phone number ...
Iphone Lg Cookie Solution Of Sorts
At some point over the next few days - possible this evening - I am going to replace my venerable old Nokia pay-as-you-go phone with a more modern handset. A...
Bloglines Beta Better Than Google Reader
A good friend who just started writing a blog asked me how to subscribe to other blogs that she might want to read - and before giving any kind of definitive...
Your Chance To Get A Drawing By Me
The first seven people to send me an email with a photo of themselves in it will get a drawing of the photo. If nothing else, it will force me to start drawi...
Self Portrait 20Th January 2009
Still posting self portraits as and when I feel like doing so… this one was again taken with the crappy little Fuji J10 point and shoot - using the computer ...
Mobile Phones Galore
With the impending trip my iPhone is going to make back to Apple (it’s borked), I will have to survive with an alternative mobile phone for a couple of weeks.
Big Bang Theory Strikes Again
This is getting bad. We’re on our second episode tonight. I’m not sure how many we have left… and I’m not sure what we will watch when we run out.
Playing Grid On The Nintendo Ds
If there is a reason I am so tired this morning, it’s not just because I was watching back-to-back episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” last night - I was also ...
Freelancing Into The Night
I live a strange existence at the moment. My daytimes are filled with either revision for Microsoft certification exams, or requests to add non-existent cont...
Sunday Night Becomes Monday Morning
We’re sat here trying to make best use of the remainder of our Sunday evening - well, perhaps “evening” is a little wrong. It’s 10:56pm at the time of writin...
Filofax
I visited our local stationers earlier, and somehow found myself buying this year’s week to view diary for my old Filofax. I have no idea why I bought it, be...
Changing Themes Developing Themes And Getting Organised
If you’re wondering why I changed back to “The Journalist” theme on my personal blog, it’s purely because it’s easy to read, and it doesn’t get in your way -...
End Of A Long Day
It’s been a long day. As arranged yesterday evening, I gave Wend a break today and took the kids off her hands as much as possible.
Google Force My Hand Notebook Is Closing
I just read a news item that surprised me - there will be no further development of Google Notebook - and services are being taken away from it right now. Go...
Wordpress Theme Design And Development
I’ve been working away for the last couple of evenings to design and build a new theme for WordPress. It’s name thus far is “Subminimal” - I have no real rea...
Working Late On Web Design
I’ve been working late this evening on a freelance web development project - I can’t show you the actual project yet, but I can give a hint through the graph...
One Exam Down Four To Go
I passed the first of my Microsoft exams this morning. The full title was “Microsoft .
Revision Revision Revision
I’ve been busy revising for a Microsoft exam all weekthe .
2 Minute Poetry Competition
While kicking back, drinking our coffee, and putting the world to rights, myself and a colleague invented a rather fetching poem…
Contemplating A Return To Backpack
It’s the start of a new year, and I’m thinking once more about the challenges that face me, and the methods I might use to manage them. Last year I happened ...
Up Early Tired Aggravated
I have been up since 7:30am today (Sunday) after the kids all woke up and started making a noise like the house falling down from about 6am onwards. I didn’t...
Trip To The Farm
Just to finish ourselves off in spectacular fashion, we took the kids to the farm today. They love it, and get to feed the various animals, experience “real”...
Sunday Ends
It’s the end of Sunday evening, and I’m sat here wondering what to do with myself for the remaining hour or so of the weekend before I crash into bed. I woul...
5Th Birthday Party
Our middle daughter had her 5th birthday party today. She is mad about Diego, so we dressed the living room up as a jungle, and made all manner of animal the...
Motoko Kusanagi
While waiting on the phone the other day, I found myself looking at the drawing of Motoko Kusanagi (character from Ghost in the Shell) that I drew last week ...
Tinkering With Wordpress Templates
As the first step into a much longer journey, I have been teaching myself the nuts and bolts of WordPress theme creation tonight - and in doing so have re-im...
Productivity Tip How To Prune Your Blogroll
If you’re anything like me you have an enormous list of feeds in Google Reader that you don’t keep on top of at all. From time to time you go in with a prove...
A Place To Write
After returning to WordPress a couple of days ago, and writing “Life and Times” after a year long sabbatical writing elsewhere, it feels strangely comforting...
Wallpaper Set Repost For The Asus Eee Pc 1000H
For the benefit of those hosting their blogs at WordPress who may have missed these first time around, here is the complete collection of wallpapers I tailor...
Finding Time To Consume And Participate
While making a coffee in the kitchen this morning, and discussing last night’s MacWorld keynote with a colleague, the subject of how we keep up with the late...
Wrestling With Privacy Concerns
I have wondered increasingly frequently over the last year or two if to write a blog at all any more - or at least if to write a “personal” blog. Thoughts su...
Tired And Cranky
The day started with me being first out of bed (as per usual), before heading downstairs in my robe to wash up two sink fulls of cups, plates, and god knows ...
Is Livejournal About To Die
While reading the tech news this morning, it appears that the team running LiveJournal has made 20 of it’s 28 staff redundant. It looks like the beginning of...
Self Portrait 5Th January
Taken this evening after getting in from work, washing up a mountain of dishes, putting all the kids through the bath, putting them to bed, reading their sto...
Back At Work
This morning I find myself back at my desk, in the office of my employer for the first time in many months - with no immediate prospect of leaving the office...
Finding Five Minutes
I’m hiding in the study for five minutes - and using the time somewhat productively to splurge various throughts through the keyboard into the interwebs.
Somebody Stop The World
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m knackered. I’ve been up since 7:30, and all I did so far was wash up, and clean the kitchen up.
Happy New Year
It’s 2009! Just handed the phone over with my parents - now talking to W. Just wanted to wish everybody who reads a happy new year.