Designing A New Tumblr Theme
For reasons best known to myself (read: I have no idea why), I’m building a new Tumblr theme - mainly because I didn’t like the free ones I can find, and I’m...
Posts from 2010
A Final Post For 2010
One hour remains of 2010 at the time of writing. We’re sat watching Return of the Jedi with our ten your old daughter. The younger children are fast asleep i...
Wondering What To Do With Myself
It’s the Thursday between Christmas and New Year, and I’m back in the office - wondering what to do with myself. I have no scheduled work as such, so I’m usi...
Unexpected Win Of The Day Crashplan
I’ve been tooling around with various methods of backing up the enormous amount of semi-precious data we’ve got floating around at home - photos of the kids,...
The One Where I Went Back To Work
It’s the Thursday between Christmas and New Year, and I’m back in the office, with no specific project to work on - the age old tradition of being here “just...
Being Interesting Is Difficult Sometimes
Tumblr is great fun, and the community is great, but do you ever feel that your life is just a little bit crappy from time to time, and that it’s not going t...
The One Where I Decimated My Tumblr Following List
In line with the earlier re-write of my about page here at Tumblr, I took a dispassionate look at the scarily huge list of tumblogs I have followed in the pa...
Reworking The About Page
Perhaps it’s that time of year. I just spent half an hour ripping pages out of this Tumblr account, and re-writing the about page. Hopefully it makes things ...
Is Reblogging Lazy
In recent days, while wasting time on the internet (something of a pastime around here), I have been reblogging the odd poster or cartoon that I liked. It do...
Stupid Ideas
Instead of buying an external hard drive for W to back her Mac up, I decided to be clever and bought a “Western Digital MyBook World Edition” - which is supp...
Christmas
I thought this was perhaps the funniest of our Christmas photos, so decided to share. Before anybody calls the social services, she was drinking fizzy orange.
2 More Sleeps
It’s just gone 8:30pm, and the children are already in bed. When they wake up tomorrow morning there will only be one more sleep until Christmas - and tomorr...
The One Where The Sky Fell On Me
Yesterday evening I looked outside, saw the clear sky, knew I had to go to the local garage for milk and bread, so asked our eldest if she wanted to accompan...
Tears At Bedtime
While W ran downstairs to heat up the various lavender scented beanies for the younger children’s beds this evening, I kept an ear out from the study to make...
Why Does Everything Have To Have So Much Wrong With It
It’s been a while since I had an out-and-out rant in a blog post, but this has been brewing in the darker corners of my mind for months, if not years.
Winter Arrives With A Vengeance
It started yesterday afternoon, with a cloud burst that covered the ground for miles around with perhaps an inch of snow. That inch was then deep frozen, and...
The One Where I Went Back With A Hacksaw And Bolt Cutters
If you either don’t follow me on Facebook (you totally should), or you didn’t see my status update the day before yesterday, let me relate a little story to ...
To Kindle Or Not To Kindle
Ignoring the fact that I’ve not written here for days, I keep seeing the picture of the Amazon Kindle at the top of their webpage. As much as I keep telling ...
Rarely Here
I sometimes wonder why so many people follow me on Tumblr - I’m very rarely here any more my blog gets piped in automagically, but otherwise it’s just anothe...
A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing
I just filled out an online survey at Google (you can do the same here). The results kind of speak for themselves, don’t they.
1337 Is Elite
This gives some insight into the depths of my geekiness. I just glanced down at the time, and noticed it was 13:37.
Some Mornings Just Happen Like That
It’s 8:55am, I’m sat in the office, so I’m guessing writing 750 words this morning is going to make me 10 minutes late (at minimum) starting work… ah well. I...
Random Statistics
Don’t ask me why the idea to compile this came over me… the following graph show the number of posts and words per month since I started blogging.
Damn Fool Crusades On A Sunday Morning
Have you ever written a blog post title before considering what you might write about ? Because that’s what I just did (and this post has already gone to the...
Another 750 Words
You know how I said I would probably not cross-post the 750 words I threw into the same titled internet thing this morning? Ahem….
750 Words For Sunday 5Th
The morning started at 8am with the arrival of a certain untidily blonde haired five year old appearing at the foot of our bed, and then climbing up my legs ...
Armageddon And New Beginnings
Apart from the obvious biblical references, most dictionaries define “Armageddon” as variations on “the end of all things”, and that’s exactly what has occur...
750 Words
I discovered a rather fun website called 750 words earlier this evening (while looking at reverb10, which Pammer pointed me towards). The following 750 words...
Back Soon
Having completed the idiotic month of inconsequential blog posts, otherwise known rather ridiculously as NaBloPoMo, I’m slowing things down a bit.
Monday Becomes Tuesday
This is probably the closest I have come to failure at this whole “post every day during November” malarky. It’s approaching 11pm, and I’ve finally got the c...
Have Headache Will Sit Quietly
It’s Sunday afternoon, and the rest of the family have headed off to visit their grandparents. Owing to me being pretty fantastically ill, but not really goi...
Following On Buzz
The matrix below shows the various people I am following on Google Buzz. As befits a software developer, I built a simple tool to generate the mosaic below -...
Doped Up Wrapped Up And Ready To Fight The Slings And Arrows
It’s Saturday morning, I’m doped up on “Max Strength” cold and flu remedy, wrapped up like an eskimo, and facing the prospect of taking the children to the l...
Dont Stop Believing
Earlier this evening I heard a wonderful song from a more innocent age, and it got me thinking…
Hospitals Errands And Running Yourself Ragged
It is with tremendous relief that I can report that our youngest - Little Miss 5 - is home, in her bed, and sleeping soundly after a day spent in hospital. S...
Thanksgiving And Royal Weddings
For many of my friends on the other side of the ball of mud we inhabit, Thursday is “Thanksgiving”. Due to my geographical displacement, which leads to an en...
Reclaiming My Inbox Sort Of
I have lots of email accounts. These days it’s almost unavoidable if you want to either have a presence, or protect your username in the various social netwo...
Reprising A Book Reading Memethe Bbc Big Read
A number of memes have been doing the rounds on Facebook recently, inviting people to highlight the books they have read from a long list. Among the variatio...
Reading Books And The Amazon Kindle
Every time I login to the Amazon online storewhere I freely admit to buying most thingspurely because I trust their logistics and distribution more than anyb...
This Isnt Falling This Is Failing With Style
The day began prettyinauspiciouslywhen I heard the refuse collectors drive past, and realised I hadn’t put the bins out, despite numerous reminders from my m...
2003 To 2010 A Restrospective
Given the discovery of the earliest days of my blogging exploits last night, I thought it might be fun to skim the archives, and pull back a post from each y...
The Past Rediscovered
While tidying up files in the depths of the computer earlier, I started delving through a folder titled “canned” - representing projects that had at some poi...
Time For A Change Of Banner And A New Messenger Bag
Is this a final “look and feel” for the blog? Probably not, but it’s a step in the right direction. Something a little more personal; a little less abstract....
Rediscovering Google Buzz
A relatively new online acquaintance popped up on my screen this morning asking “who is this Jonathan Beckett, and why is he so interesting?” - the ensuing c...
A Good Deed For The Day
Quite by chance this morning I decided to get my hair cut. Knowing that the place I normally go wouldn’t be open until at least 9am, I completed the school r...
William Henry Gates Becomes A Modern Hero
During my final year at college, we were ushered into the server room one day to look at a desktop machine running a new operating system. An alien interface...
Want To Know A Secret Steve Jobs Study Is Just As Untidy As Yours
When I first saw the photo below, I thought “YES!”…
Oh No Not More Random Questions
In keeping with the seemingly insatiable appetite for the mundane, I present another selection of random questions with my two penneth shared…
Aboutme Lets Me Through The Doors
A little while ago I signed up for a new internet “landing page” service thing, and then promptly forgot all about it. Just before collapsing into bed last n...
Thinking About Giving The Blog A Title
This blog doesn’t really have a title, does it. “jonbeckett @ wordpress” kind of states the obvious. Although the URL is deliberately in-line with my twitter...
Ignorance Of The Origins Of The Internet
I’ve just been reading this article in a national newspaper, covering Vint Cerf’s remarks about the IPv4 addresses running out. The article is fine, and the ...
Where For Art Thou Saturday
Oh Saturday, Saturday, where for art thou Saturday?
So Heres The Thing
This month I’m taking part in “National Blog Posting Month” - also known as NaBloPoMo. There’s a website hosted at Ning, and a lot of bloggers taking part… o...
1Am
It’s just gone 1am at the time of writing, and I should be asleep - I guess this post proves I am not.Not quite sure why I am becoming such a night owl of la...
Social Networking A Personal History
I don’t often think of myself as using social networking much. Sure, I have accounts almost everywhere, but that’s more to do with reserving my name should I...
The One Where Instant Messaging Became Social Networking
At some point late this afternoon while checking my code in at work, Windows Live Messenger popped up asking if I wanted to upgrade to “Windows Live Messenge...
The Flu Jab And The Ignorant Army
This morning at work a nurse arrived to administer a flu jab to anybody that wanted it. I wandered straight down (even though I wasn’t on the list), and afte...
Another Day In The Life
Could this really be a “day in the life” post at long last?
Rain Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day
There’s a quote about balance in Nature, isn’t there. I was reminded of it this morning while peering out of the landing window across the green where we liv...
Choosing A Bag For The New Netbook
Following the recent “Dance of the Laptops” (conducted to the music of the Polvotsian Dances by Borodin)throughout various members of our household following...
A Walk In The Woods
Given that friends are always telling me that I should post more photos, our trip to the local woods this morning handed just such an opportunity.
The One Where I Bought Myself A New Netbook
Since the old netbook vanished into our eldest daughter’s room, I have been without a mobile computer of my own. I had been using the Dell laptop we bought a...
Mailed By Chimp
I’ve been writing a blog in one form or another on the internet since about 2003, and have records of posts stretching back to about 2006. Idiotically, I did...
Cooks Source Awakens The Kraken
Inbetween picking away at some freelance webdesign work last night, a story crept from the sleepy backwaters of the internet, across LiveJournal, then Twitte...
Tilt Shift Photography
A little while ago I saw a photographic trick on the internet called “Tilt Shift” - a subtle change you can make to photographs to fool your brain into think...
Taking Tumblr Off Automatic
I’ve stopped piping the wordpress and twitter posts into Tumblr - it’s really crap at presenting them properly.
If You Could Have A Superpower What Would You Choose
While talking to a fellow blogging friend earlier about the dearth of bloggable things happening in my life at the moment (not the best situation to find you...
On The Road Again
Tiredness. That’s the overriding feeling. It’s been a while since I’ve done a 6am start, and a day pretending to know what I’m on about in front of professio...
The Irish Pub Formulation
My other half takes great delight in making parallels between Sheldon Cooper, one of the principal characters in the TV show “The Big Bang Theory”, and me. W...
Things That Go Bump In The Night Or The Year The Childrenfinally Got Halloween
I’m not quite sure what happened this year, but our children seemed to really “get” the wholeHalloween thingfor the first time. They were more excited about ...
Halloween
Just to clear this up
Tumblr Vs Wordpress
A few days ago I had 3000 people visit my wordpress blog. What’s more, many of them engaged with the content, commented, and have continued to return.
Saturday Night
It’s the weekend before “National Blog Posting Month” begins, and I’ve been picking away at a freelance project throughout most of the day.
Pedal Power
Not many people know that I cycle to and from work every day - a six mile round trip that takes me through suburban streets, a busy town, and into the countr...
Halloween Approaches
After walking in the door from work last night, I was asked “did you see them?”. “See what?”… an audience of puzzled and dismayed faces looked hopefully back.
Reaching Out To The Community
Following an influx of new visitors to my personal blog over the last 24 hours, I have been taking on Darren Rowse’s advice (he of ProBlogger fame), and reac...
November Nablopomo Nanowrimo
It just occurred to me that the title of this post might make you wonder about my spelling skills. I obviously can’t spell November at all. I can’t even lay ...
When Inspiration Strikes
Why is writing sometimes easy, and sometimes hard? Why do the words come so easily sometimes, and not without great effort at others?
The One Where My Blog Got Featured On The Front Page Of Wordpresscom
While making drinks for my colleagues at lunchtime today, I was gazing out of the window (waiting for the kettle to boil) when a rather marvellous and totall...
The Greatest Aptitude Test Ever Invented
While making a drink for my colleagues this morning, a thought popped into my head - an idea for the best aptitude test ever invented for interviews - a text...
Could Nanowrimo Be Attempted On Twitter
Just did some mental arithmetic
Backup And Version Control For Nanowrimo
If you’re going to take part in NaNoWriMo this year, how would you feel if your computer died half way through the competition and took your writing with it?
The One Where I Bought A Colour Laser Printer
For the past couple of years at home we have been using two printers (actually, I have seldom used either of them - most printing happens for knitting patter...
Long Time No Write
Yes, yes, I know I post random crap here almost every day at the moment, but I haven’t really written anything of substance for quite some time.
Google Chrome Tab Pinning
Who knew you can do this with Google Chrome?
Formspring
Just joined FormSpring after receiving an invite from a friend. I’ve seen it around for ages on the web, and pretty much ignored it.
Tantrums
Yesterday’s expertly engineered bedroom tidying competition never actually reached a conclusion; lunchtime eventually arrived, and I deemed refueling more im...
Sunday Afternoon
Somehow the house has returned to some kind of calm place this afternoon (after a mayhem filled morning). I’m sat in the lounge, listening to Linux Outlaws, ...
How To Fix The Well Liked Tumblr Theme Html Bug
If you’ve noticed the “Well Liked” theme layout breaks sometimes, I saw it happen again this morning, and decided to find out what was wrong with it.
Google Have Done Nothing Wrong
I can’t believe the news stories doing the rounds about Google intentionally storing network data while recording Street View mapping data. They would only h...
Single Handed Saturday
Following the departure of Mrs Beckett this morning to watch the “Great South Run” with her Mum, I am single handed this weekend for the first time in ages.
Friday Friday Friday
What is it that’s so good about Fridays? Actually I take that back. The weekend is coming, and my other half is going away - leaving me to look after the chi...
Custard Powered Nuclear Kitten Boots
I’ve been thinking more about participation in NaNoWriMo.
Nanowrimo National Novel Writing Month
The impending arrival of November also marks the arrival of National Novel Writing Month - or “NaNoWriMo”, to it’s thousands of participants.
Disclaimer Awesomeness
I threw a disclaimer page onto this tumblog earlier this morning (in reality, it’s a mashup of several other disclaimers that I found online). I guess coveri...
The Continuing Blackberry Saga
While travelling back from Reading this afternoon on the train, I took it upon myself to install the Twitter application. Mistake. The phone killed itself wi...
Blackberry Applications And Config
I’m writing this partly for my own reference in case the damn Blackberry lunches itself again. What follows is a list of the apps I have installed, and the c...
This Isnt Wasting Time This Is Procrastinating With Style
Given that I have to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to go sit the Microsoft exam from hell, I’m wasting the end of this evening surfing Tumblr for n...
Revision Study
Apart from half an hour wandering to the school and back this morning in order to delivery the children to their various places of learning, I’ve been shut a...
Revision City
Have been revising solidly since 9am (after taking the kids to school). Now 2:15pm. Stopped for 10 minutes for lunch earlier. Still have a mountain to climb ...
Ps Stopped Studying Now
Got fed up of studying. Learned as much as I am likely to learn. Getting ready for early getaway in the morning to reach Reading way ahead of the exam time -...
This Week In Tech
Listening to “This Week In Tech” while tidying up the study. They’re talking about the lifestyle choice of the blogger, versus journalists of yore - and the ...
Pointless List Of Programming Or Markup Languages I Know Better Than Ishould
A quick rundown of the various programming languages and/or markup languages that I can program fairly proficiently in I’m not going to say that I’m particul...
Old World Journalism
Inbetween doing other things this evening, I’ve been listening to “This Week In Tech” - a quite wonderful podcast I discovered while commuting into and out o...
Impressive Spider Web Comes Crashing Down
I just wandered into the kitchen and discovered a 2ft diameter spider web hanging across the room - suspended on a masterpiece of spider architectural achiev...
I Could Think Of Better Things To Do With A Monday
Today finds me revising for a professional exam at work. It was going to be on Wednesday, but that’s now skidded out to Thursday. It remains to be seen when ...
Hippo Remote
One of my colleagues just informed me he purchased an app for his iPhone called “Hippo Remote”.
Bedtime Story
Listening to eldest daughter read - tonight’s book is “Granny’s Great Escape” (I think). Listening to the kids read works two ways - they get better at readi...
400 Posts
Not exactly the most interesting landmark to celebrate, but I can confirm that I have posted 400 times to Tumblr since re-booting the tumblog a few months ag...
10 Minute Break From Revision
Brain has had enough today for revision just went through about a third of the exam subject areas, skimming the books - looking up anything new, or that I ju...
The One Where The Blackberry Lunched Itself
While sitting on the bedroom floor of our eldest daughter earlier this evening, the Blackberry popped up a notice reminding me that FourSquare had a pending ...
Google Analytics
Just discovered I have no analytics data for the last few days for Tumblr because (a) Tumblr lost all the custom theme fields the other day for no apparent r...
The Social Network
Mostly thanks to our wonderful friends Emma and Andrew who babysat for us this evening, we escaped to the cinema for the first time in three years tonight, i...
The Big Read
In 2003, the BBC surveyed the television audience over the course of several months to find the most loved books by the general public - here’s the top 20.
How To Not Get Followed By Me
While doing a little social network expansion today, I’ve been looking at a lot of Twitter and Tumblr profiles. It occurred to me while reading that there ar...
The One Where I Stayed Up All Night
It’s 2am at the time of writing. Little Miss Five has thrown up about six times so far.
Staying Out All Night
At about 11pm last night we realised one of the cats was missing - Tom, who you might describe as having rather too much character for such a small cat. I of...
M4A Annoyances
kidsonswings:
Han Solo Should Have Died On Endor
Who knew that Han Solo should have died in the forests of Endor? Read this interview with Gary Kurtz (co-writer of A New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back).
Is The Well Liked Theme Broken
Just playing around with the themes in Tumblr - it would appear the “well liked” theme by Peter Vidani (the one you’re looking at) is broken - and I’m not en...
Arse
Just dumped the “Well Liked” theme in favour of this one “Simplicity” or something, I think it’s called. Seems to work well, and avoids me having to pore ove...
A Day In The Life
Partly in order to force myself to take a lunch break, and partly to answer a recent question posed here, I’m going to run through a typical “day in my life”.
Mediocrity Rules
I took a look at the visitor stats for this blog last night - hardly inspiring.
A Few Thoughts About Spirituality And Theology
A few days ago I invited the readership of this blog (both of them) to suggest topics, or fire questions at me as a basis for subjects I might cover in the n...
The One Where You Tell Me What To Write About
While struggling to come up with anything informative, candid, or entertaining to share with the loyal readers of this blog earlier (both of them), a rather ...
Ten More Questions
If you could change something about your home, without worry about expense or mess, what would you do?
Monday Monday
Ba daaa, baa da daa daa…
13 13
In the spirit of repeating numbers (I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop last night - it didn’t dawn on me immediately that the date was 10/10/10), I weighe...
A Day Out At The Museums
At 7am yesterday morning I turfed our eldest out of bed, threw her in the shower, and set about packing our backpacks for her first trip into London - to vis...
This Woman Is Going To Be A Legend On The Internet
Last week a woman was involved in a robbery in Kansas City, which was covered by KMBC. She’s perhaps the most delightfully eccentric person I have ever seen ...
A Journey Of Discovery On The Wordpress Frontier
A few days ago, I decided it was time to reach out across the vast WordPress landscape. Using their own blog directory, I dug half the way to China and back ...
Oh The Fame The Fame
While searching for something online earlier, I quite unwittingly stumbled upon a quote on the 37Signals product blog. Forgetting for a moment that they didn...
10 More Random Questions
In keeping with the recent theme of answering random questions, I thought perhaps it might be time for another ten - enjoywe found ourselves with the dance f...
The One Where I Bought The Wrong Inner Tube
I walked to work this morning. Three miles through the picturesque back streets of my home town. Why? Because my bike has a flat tyre, and is at the office. ...
Sync Podcasts With Mp3 Player
Apart from meddling with a development drupal installation, tonight I finally got around to tweaking the shell script I wrote to update podcasts on my MP3 pl...
Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
I started reading “Scott Pilgrim” this evening - not sure what to make of it so far - I’m not really a comic book kind of person. More into the artwork - Ada...
Lost A Follower
I just noticed I lost a follower. While this wouldn’t be important, if you only had 65 followers to begin with, it’s the same as losing a chunk of chocolate ...
Privileged To Be A Part Of It All
I have been half-watching a documentary on the television this evening about changes that occurred in the chemical industry over the past hundred years. The ...
Olympic Swimmers And Porn Stars
While wandering around the shops today, enjoying a day off work to spend some time with my parents (who live several hundred miles away), I noticed something...
Day Off
Off work today! Taken the day off to go shopping with my parents who have been staying for the weekend (they live several hundred miles away). The house seem...
Photos Of The Recent Past
I get repeated requests from far flung friends to post more photographs - snapshots of family life in the UK. As the Blackberry goes everywhere with me, and ...
Change Of Theme
I just bought a new theme for my tumblog - “Well Liked” by Peter Vidani.
Saturday Morning Spendthrifts
In part to afford our eldest the opportunity to spend her birthday money, and in part to give W a few hours rest from the children, I marched our little gang...
Ten More Things You Didnt Know You Wanted To Know About Me
Continuing on with the recent theme of answering random questions, here’s another ten things you never realised you wanted (or didn’t want) to know about me,...
How Dyou Like Them Conkers
My work office nestles in the corner of a quiet country estate, alongside the River Thames. The river is lined with horse chestnut trees. I have children. Do...
Amazon Wish List
Seeing as I can’t think of anything to share with the world in general today (earache has something to do with that), perhaps a rather random post might fit ...
31 Days To Build A Better Blog
I’m taking it upon myself to follow the instructions advocated by Darren Rowse in his book “31 Days to Build a Better Blog”. At this point in time I’m not en...
Wordpress Mobile Awesomeness
Who knew that WordPress blogs automagically convert themselves for mobile devices?
Friends And Followers Everywhere
When I started taking a more pro-active part in the Tumblr community a few months ago, I had no idea what I was going to use it for, or there it might lead. ...
Eating Party Food
We’re sat here on the couch eating the leftover party food from our eldest daughter’s 10th birthday party. She had friends back from school today for dinner ...
Amazon Wish List
Some of the things on my Amazon Wish List
Working Working Working
Today’s topic of choice is “Event Receivers” in Microsoft SharePoint. Just tripped over “BeforeProperties” (I realise this will all make no sense whatsoever ...
The One Where I Think About Leaving Wordpresscom
I’ve been in an email exchange with the support staff at WordPress all evening about changing my username. I want my username at wordpress.com to match my bl...
Me Myself And I
In pursuit of the theme that has been absent within the blog for many months, and was pointed out by a long time reader recently -an absence of me! - I riske...
Idiocy Reigns At Wordpresscom
For some time I have been disgruntled that my username within the hallowed halls of the wordpress servers has been “jb73”. This might not matter to some, but...
Tumblr Needs A Spam Reporting Mechanism
I just had rather an entertaining “question” delivered to my Tumblr account; inviting me to visit a particular URL. It even proclaimed to be making my life e...
Seduced By The Evil White Box
It’s 9:30pm. I’ve pushed two websites out the door this evening - freelance projects that I’ve been kicking around for the last week or so. The tiredness hit...
Not Sleeping For Experts
I made the mistake of deciding to figure out “Civilisation” on the Nintendo DS last night (I’ve had the game for ages, but never played it).
Stepping Back From The Mayhem
It’s Sunday afternoon, and I have been attempting to avoid anything work related for the day. It occurred to me late last night while tinkering with a freela...
Social Networking Sunday
It’s time to reach out once more across the blogosphere / tumblrsphere / twittersphere, and take note of others.
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor
For the last several weeks I’ve been planning on getting a role playing game for the DS. Having sold the Playstation 2 and XBox, and not being able to warran...
Banned Books Week
While reading about Banned Books Week, I’ve just been looking a the list of books that have either been banned, or challenged in the American Libraries Assoc...
Yo Yo Hell
I just caught myself looking at a Yoyo on Amazon, and nearly buying it. What on earth was I doing. Suddenly the thought of taking up this kids toy as a stres...
Lunchtime Project Migration From Joomla To Wordpress
I have been helping somebody move their blog from Joomla to WordPress over the last couple of days. The final “big” thing to do was move their old posts and ...
10 Random Questions
While reading the blog of a good friend late last night, it occurred to me that I’ve written very little about myself for rather a long time. Rather than dre...
Promises Promises
After working on freelance stuff into the early hours for the last three nights in a row, I vowed not to this evening. It’s rapidly heading towards 1:30am, a...
Long Evening
It’s been a long evening;
Big Changes
Today I did something rather drastic, rather brave, and a little bit silly. I killed the blog I have been writing for the past four years. The content lives ...
The Four Cornered Triangle Of The Social Networking Apocalypse
In the last year I have been something of an online vagrant - wandering the streets of the various blogging platforms, trying to find a place to like - a pla...
Facebook Wordpress Tumblr Twitter
In the last year I have been something of an online vagrant - wandering the streets of the various blogging platforms, trying to find a place to like - a pla...
Cessation
I’ve been sat here this evening, considering closing the doors to my wordpress blog for the time being. I’ve been struggling to find anything to write about ...
An Awfully Big Adventure
Our eldest daughter is away this week on her first residential trip with school - four days away from home, with her entire year group and many teachers.
Two Chickens Down Again
Our spectacularly bad record keeping chickens continued earlier tonight.
The Breakfast Club 25 Years
Just watching “The Breakfast Club” (turns out it’s 25 years since it’s original release), and I started thinking about the age of the cast - given that Judd ...
Hiding In Plain View
Why do so many people hide behind pseudonyms online? Why are they so scared of being themselves?
Hiding In Full View
Why do so many people hide behind pseudonyms online? Why are they so scared of being themselves?
Fixed The Woo Themes Generate Disqus Comments Layout Bug
Not sure if anybody else has seen this, but if you use the Woo Themes “Generate” theme, the Disqus comments don’t work properly in Google Chrome - it wraps t...
Cats Meet World
This morning the kittens were let out into the garden for the first time - and met the chickens for the first time. I wonder how many times they will attempt...
Sunday Grinds To A Halt
It’s nearing the end of Sunday and I’m still waiting for #newtwitter to arrive. I wouldn’t so much call this “impatience”, as a burning curiosity to play wit...
Toy Story 3
We took the children to see Toy Story 3 this afternoon. It’s probably worth mentioning up-front that the first two movies have been watched to death in our h...
Stuck At 55 Followers
Maybe it has something to do with not posting anything recently - which has something to do with life and work taking over. Maybe.
When Is Mummy Coming Home
At 5:50am, I woke with a start. W was sat upright in bed, shooing the cat away, and cursing volubly.
The One Where I Told The Marketing Moron To Stuff It
While quietly getting on with my work this morning, my desk vibrated gently in that way that usually signals the arrival of something or other on the mobile ...
Mornings Arent Supposed To Happen Like This
At 5:45am the younger children woke up, and decided it was a fine time to get up and switch their bedroom light on - this despite the fact that we recently i...
Clothes Clothes Clothes
Speaking as somebody that refreshes his wardrobe perhaps once every three years (much to the chagrin of my better half), I’ve been scouting out new websites ...
Podcasts To Go
While commuting into and out of London throughout much of 2007 and 2008, I became a regular listener of several podcasts. The bug has stayed with me, and I o...
He Shall Have Music Wherever He Goes
After much digging around, listening, sorting, and choosing, I have settled on the first few albums to make their way onto the MP3 player that travels with m...
Podcasts To Go
While commuting into and out of London throughout much of 2007 and 2008, I became a regular listening of several podcasts. The bug has stayed with me, and I ...
First Batch Of Music
After much digging around, listening, sorting, and choosing, I have settled on the first few albums to make their way onto the MP3 player that travels with m...
Culling Facebook Friends
This lunchtime I culled my “friends” on Facebook pretty spectacularly - I realised I was losing touch with people I care about (in the real world, or online)...
A Day To Forget
After staying at home yesterday with a virus, I ventured back into the office this morning. Upon watching the beads of sweat running from my hair, one of my ...
Perfect Podcast Downloads With Linux
I ordered a Sandisk “Sansa Clip+” MP3 player today, to use instead of my phone to catch up on the various podcasts I try and catch.
Hello Blog Its Been A While
Hello blog - it’s been a while.
All Good Things Come To An End Vox Is Closing Down
All good things come to an end. Six Apart is closing down theVox website - Leo and Amber atNet@Night are speculating thatPosterous andTumblr were the harbing...
Why Cant Wordpress Leave It Alone
I’ve been using WordPress.com for something like 5 years now. During that time I’ve often tried other blogging solutions out, and always returned. It’s getti...
What Should A Blogger Do
It’s 10am on Sunday morning, and it feels like I’ve been up for hours already (in reality, I HAVE been up for hours). I have weighty contemplations on my min...
Stationary
I wonder if there is an official term for somebody who can’t walk past a stationary shop without at least having a look ?
Things I Carry Rebooting And Recycling
I seem to be going through a process of off-loading the various gadgets I have been carrying around to others recently. I thought it might be interesting to ...
Following And Followers
Over the past several months I have been experimenting, playing, exploring, and basically screwing around with all manner of social networking and blogging s...
The One Where I Return Home
For the last month I have been either holed up in hotels, on client sites, or travelling across the country on a variety of trains. At some point during the ...
Back In The Office
Arrived home from client site at 12:30am last night (or should that be “this morning”?), after a 5 hour trip across the country.
Another Morning On The Train
Back on the early train out of town, racing towards another client site. At least I’m not staying over this time
Photo Journey From Marlow To Preston
While spending the last hour or so of my weekend at home with my family this afternoon, I promised the children I would take photographs during my journey no...
Dipping A Toe Into The Tumblrsphere
Last night I ventured forth into the sweaty masses of the tumblrsphere, and began following a number of the lifestreamers. Until now, my connection to Tumblr...
Turnaround Time
The weekends seem like some kind of “turnaround”, or “pitstop” at the moment. Rather than go into some huge and boring story covering the last few days, I th...
Important Skills For Web Development
An online friend recently asked me if I could run through the important skills for students to learn if they want to pursue web design or development as a ca...
I Come In Peace
Greetings to those who have stumbled upon me following my mass followage of many this evening. I’ve been quietly existing withing the massed ranks of the tum...
Another Morning In Preston
Sat in Cafe Nero in Preston city center once more, just around the corner from the office I will be working today. Watching the world go by, sipping at a cap...
The One Where We Stood In The Car Park At 230Am
I woke to the wailing of an electrical alarm - a throbbing, screaming noise that caused confusion at first. I threw back the bed covers, and looked at the ti...
On Getting Up In The Middle Of The Night
I woke to the wailing of an electrical alarm - a throbbing, screaming noise that caused confusion at first. I threw back the bed covers, and looked at the ti...
Morning In Preston
8:30am - sitting in Cafe Nero in the middle of Preston - a few minutes walk from my eventual destination (which of course I cannot name for all sorts of prof...
A Good Day At The Coal Face
Today has been a remarkably good day. It began at 7am, jumping into a worryingly flexible shower, before donning work clothes and calling for a taxi to take ...
Podcast Playlist For A 4 Hour Journey
To help survive the hour into London, the hour across London, and the two hours heading north, I’m filling my phone with podcasts
Its The Little Things
After setting out late this afternoon from the railway station in town, and having traversed Maidenhead, Paddington, and Euston, and Preston stations, I fina...
Heading North Again
It seems like a long time since I last wrote anything here. Time for a catchup perhaps?
150 Posts Continuity
It just occurred to me that this is going to be my 150th post on Tumblr, so I thought a few words might be appropriate.
The Free Speech Corollary
I find it interesting that when a movie such as “The God Who Wasn’t There” (http://bit.ly/cmPMVC) draws attention from the masses, those opposing it are the ...
Can You Solve The Puzzle
Here’s the situation
Lunchtime At The Bootcamp
It’s lunchtime of day two at the Combined Knowledge SharePoint 2010 Bootcamp, and it’s been great so far. It’s rare to be afforded the opportunity to learn a...
Considering The Payload
I watched “Up in the Air” recently (the George Clooney movie), and loved it. For those who haven’t seen it, it describes the life of a businessman who has li...
Midnight Not A Sound From The Pavement
Okay - enough Elaine bloody Paige. We always seem to be on the road on a Sunday when she blights Radio 2 with her mummsy garbage.
The One Where I Review The Hotel Room
Some might consider this post a surrender to boredom, and I would agree with them completely. Enjoy.
Sunday Evening On The Road
It’s late on Sunday evening, and I find myself sat at a pretty nice desk, in a nice hotel room, in a hotel I’ve visited before, a couple of hundred miles fro...
Reasons To Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide
it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
First Full Day With The Kittens
Their confidence is increasing, they are investigating every nook and cranny of the house, and they are startled by every noise.
Meow
First couple of photos of the kittens…
Following On Twitter
<img height=”73C/3 width=”73C/3 alt=”hotdogsladies” src=”http://a3.twimg.com
Favourite Tumblogs
While talking to one of my favourite writers online earlier - she ofNot Well Versed-I was talking about being sucked back into Tumblr recently, and thought i...
Ending The Ebook Reader Experiment
We put the Sony eBook reader up for sale this week on eBay. It brings to an end a year long experiment; or at least a year of trying it out. During that year...
Consuming Tumblr
I’ve come to realise that I’m more a consumer of Tumblr than a contributor. Sure, I post “stuff” every so often, but invariably I most enjoy looking at what ...
The One Where I Restored Our Tv Reception
We don’t have a normal TV aerial - or at least, not for the big TV in the living room - chiefly because it has the worst reception in the known universe.The ...
The Contents Of Pockets
While figuring out how much money I had to buy lunch with today (hopefully more than I managed to find yesterday - none), I delved into all the various pocke...
The Evening Has Escaped Me
It’s nearly 11pm. I’ve been constructing a virtual machine all evening (in Sun/Oracle VirtualBox), with Alpha Five and MySQL on it for an upcoming freelance ...
Yes But What Do You Do
I realised this lunchtime while churning through Tumblr accounts in search of interesting people that I haven’t actually let out of the bag what it is that I...
Selling Everything We Dont Use
Time for the biggest clearout we have ever had - the following will be hitting EBay over the next few days
Back To Work
Back in the office this morning, churning through emails, finding out what I’m supposed to be working on (general dogsbody by the look of it), drinking lots ...
Back In The Saddle
I woke up this morning to the sounds of the breakfast radio show, and peeped out from beneath the bedclothes at the clock on the bedside cabinet.
Sunday Afternoon
Watching the remains of Sunday vanish, and wondering what to do with myself. Choices at the moment seem to fall between;
Growing Like Weeds
It occurred to me this morning that I’ve not posted any photographs of the children recently, and given their continual transformation from meek, scared, and...
Saturday Morning
It’s Saturday morning, and the rain is falling.Hopes of cooking on the barbecue later have vanished.
Bringing The Cross Posting Experiment To An End
And so it is done. I just put a figurative machete through the posterous account I have been fooling with for the last several weeks. It was an experiment of...
Home From Our Travels
We arrived home at 3pm, unpacked the car, and fell into the house. I immediately turned around, and walked back out of the houseto the corner shop to buy mil...
Slow Day
Sat in our temporary place of residence, relaxing at the end of the first rainy day of the holiday. Kids are watching movies, inlaws watching television, and...
Up In The Air And Adventureland
Finally saw two movies that have been on the “to watch list” for ages - Up In The Air, and Adventureland. Wonderful movies - will write more about them soon....
The Tour Of The British Isles Commences
Tomorrow morning we depart Beckett Towers, and escape to higher ground and higher latitudes for a week of hill walking fun with W’s parents and the children....
Returning To London
Actually - that’s not quite true. I also had to find out if there was any credit left on my Oyster card (London Underground credit card), download the latest...
Pre Roll Ads
Every time I see a video clip online that results in a pre-roll ad, I get no further than 2 or 3 seconds in before moving on.
Musing On Tumblr Tuesday
It would appear that convention dictates the turning of the cogs behind the Tumblr Directory on a Tuesday necessitates the pimping of Tumblites that carry yo...
Embracing The Tumblr Crowd
I’m embarking on something of a “following” expedition through the sweaty masses of the Tumblrati.
Distracted
There are too many toys, and not enough time. With Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Posterous competing for my down time, this personal blog has been sadly neg...
Resurrecting The Life Stream
After a few months experimentation with life streaming earlier in the year, I feel that perhaps I curtailed it a little early. In recent weeks I have been wa...
Starting Something
While monkeying with stuff online earlier, it occurred to me that I haven’t been sharing things quite as well as I might, as thoughtfully as I might, or as c...
Three Kittens
“What would you think about 3 kittens?”Following an exchange of questions and answers via mobile phone, and a rather mystified call, it transpired that we ar...
Getting Up Too Early
I got up at 6am. Breakfast won’t even be delivered to my room until 7:30.
Preparing For Departure
I’m preparing to snap my laptop shut, wander home mid-afternoon, fold up some clothes, and head off to the south west with work for a couple of days. I will ...
First Evening In Salisbury
The hotel I’m staying in is small, but everything works. Anybody who remembers my weekly incarceration at the Hilton late last year will recall the hilarious...
The One Where The Car Broke Down
An hour later, a nice man in a reflective orange tunic peered at the engine and fiddled with things. He then fetched his latop, plugged it into the car, and ...
And Low The Mighty Axe Of Azeroth Did Fall Upon Those I Followed Ontwitter
Somewhere, in the deep, dark corners of the internet, sombody is probably quite upset that I unfollowed them this morning. I brought to bear the great axe of...
Helmet Cam Bike Ride To Work
This will be interestingI tried out the tiny camera I bought last week this morningstrapped it to the top of my bike helmet, and recorded the journey.
Daddy Stupid Int He
After hearing little people stomping across the upstairs landing the other evening (long after they should have been asleep), I quietly walked upstairs and o...
Differences Of Opinion
What do you do, when you’re reading a blog post that expresses a strong opinion, and you find yourself at odds with it? Do you respond?It’s been ticking away...
Multiple Reboots And Idiotic Phone Crapware
I’m sat here at work, watching a new product install, and reboot the machine repeatedly (thankfully I have another computer to useotherwise I would go quite,...
Social Networking And Freedom Of Speech
What a difference a week makes.
Why Be In One Place When You Can Be Everywhere
I’ve had an ideaan experiment of sorts. While playing around with stuff on the internet late last night, it occurred to me that rather than dictate where peo...
Tiredness Abounds On A Quiet Sunday
We went to the birthday party of a colleague last night - just the two of us. Most people would view this as a normal kind of thing to do on a Saturday night...
Returning To Graze On Healthy Junk
People who mistakenly find themselves reading my blog on a regular basis will remember me talking about the need to have some “me” time now and againand the ...
The Restorative Powers Of A Six Year Old
“Where are the kids?”“Outside somewhere”I then realised that if you cocked your head to one side and listened, you could hear the childrens version of world ...
Old Artwork Prepares To Travel The Globe
After an email back and forth, it turns out the drawing isn’t really what BlogHer are after for their auction, but it got me thinking… I wonder if somebody w...
Playing With Foursquare
I’ll probably go to hell for this (or whichever purgatory your faith system threatens the gullible with). In a fit of curiosity, I joined FourSquare late las...
Unexpected Compliments At The Swimming Pool
While Little Miss 6 was in a dance show earlier today, we took the other children swimming for the afternoon. It’s perhaps the second time we have gone as a ...
An Unusual Day
I had the day off work on Tuesday, to attend our eldest daughter’s school sports day. For the first time in months - if not years - I had the chance to wande...
The Blog Has Handlebars
In a fit of “why not” idiocy this evening, I have changed the header image at Cheese and Beans to a photo taken of my bike handlebars. Notice the motion blur...
Sunday Approaches
I’ve been up since about 8, have an ever so slight hangover, and am busy watching Sunday vanish in front of my own eyes - in much the same way as the traffic...
Paying It Forward Blogs I Read First Five Of Many
In the spirit of “paying it forward”, I have listed below five of the blogs I regularly read. They are not listed in any particular order, and if you’re sudd...
School Summer Fte
We just got back from the junior school summer fte - part of our annual jam packed itinerary of school fund raisers, parents evenings, sports days, PTA event...
Keep Turning The Pedals
Snapped this morning while zooming through the estate on the way to work. Probably not the safest thing in the world to do - cycle along at 25mph, one hand i...
Images Of London
A far flung friend, and long time reader of my blog requested a few photos of London - while I didn’t get much chance over the past few days, here are a sele...
On The Road Again
The alarm clock on my mobile phone beeped into life at 5:30am. I had been awake since just after 5 - watching the minutes tick down, drifting into and out of...
Fathers Day
Each year the infant school hosts a “camping on the school field” father’s day event. I did it last year single handed with the kids - this time W came along...
Fathers Day With The Brownies
Partly as a result of my other half being “Brown Owl”, and party so our kids didn’t miss out, I took part in the annual Brownies father’s day event this even...
Working From Home
There must be something about being six years old. Illness doesn’t just cause a temperature - it causes hallucinations, nightmares, and a pretty good line in...
A Letter To Myself At 20
Excellent idea from Pammer at Outside Voice - to write a letter to yourself at 20…
Running Errands
The house is remarkably quiet this morning - two of the children have gone out for the day, leaving me with Little Miss 6 - essentially as her chaperone to a...
Friday Funk Books And Blogging
Time to obsess over blogging and social networking has been several restricted lately due to the unwelcome intrusion of… you know… the real world.
Bringing The Life Streaming Experiment To A Close
Last night I closed the book on the life stream experiment in tumblr. I have kept the tumblr account, but sanitised it, renamed it, and filed it away for a r...
Energy Finally Runs Out
I’m off work - for the first time in months. What I thought was the after-effects of too much red wine yesterday morning didn’t get any better throughout the...
Disconnected
Do you ever get the feeling that the world has carried on quite well without you, thankyou very much, and that you’re involvement in it isn’t really needed a...
Standing In The Kitchen
Sunday morning. Kids are fed and watered, chickens are fed and watered, I’m dressed, I’ve brushed my teeth, the kids are playing our museum piece electric pi...
Family Wedding
We just got back from spending the afternoon and evening at Knebworth manor attending a family wedding. It was a privilage, and a pleasure to be invited to s...
Temptation Destroys Peace Of Mind
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave my work mobile alone. It sat quietly charging in the corner of the study until late this afternoon when I happened to busy...
Camping In The Forest Part Two Memories And Thoughts
We have spent the past several days holed up in a tent, deep in the Forest of Dean to give the children a holiday, and to give ourselves a break from the usu...
Camping In The Forest Of Dean Part One The Photos
For the past few days we have been camping with our children in the Forest of Dean. Following a marathon slog, today we pulled the tent down, packed everythi...
Four Chickens
When the children awoke early this morning and saw me walk past on the upstairs landing, they didn’t greet me with “Dad!”. They shouted “we got new chickens!...
Mind The Gap
I arrived back in England at about 7pm this evening, and began the railway adventure towards home. Seeing “Mind the Gap” painted on the ground reminded me th...
Approaching Journeys End
I’m sat in the lounge area of the Pom d’Or hotel in Jersey, just across from the marina. I have a couple of hours to kill before a final meeting, after which...
The Jersey Adventure Begins
The day began at 5am when I woke, and quite surprisingly found myself wide awake. The alarm had been set for 5:30am. I watchedthe minutes tick by for a few m...
Must Fly
I’m packing clothes and a laptop this evening to travel with work to Jersey - one of the islands between England and France - with work. My mission will be t...
Sunday In The Garden
It’s baking hot outside, so we’re holed up on the house, doing homework, playing games, and otherwise hiding. I wandered outside briefly with the camera and ...
Rekindling My Love Affair With The Internet
For the past few days I have been perched atop a precarious knife edge - on the one hand deleting, cancelling, and purging huge swathes of my involvement in ...
A Few Minutes Calm
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m enjoying a few minutes of calm before the rest of the weekend chews me up and spits me out. After today, I’m not expecting to ...
The Great Social Network Massacre
If you’re anything like me (and I strongly suspect you are not), you have all manner of accounts, spread all over the internet. I’ve been doing something abo...
Considering A Reboot Of Online Friendships
CiX, Compuserve, innumerable bulletin board systems, Yahoo 360, Blogger, DiaryLand, LiveJournal, Vox, WordPress, Identica, Facebook, Cliqset, Plurk, Twitter…...
Being Stupid
Little Miss 6 has decided she likes pasta and sauce. This is a breakthrough. She finally seems to be leaving behind the year of “I don’t like that”. Of cours...
What Stops Trees From Falling Over
At the end of dinner last night, while we were all sat at the table, I leaned behind myself an retrieved a box of quiz questions that we acquired at Christma...
The May Fayre
Yesterday found us camped on the school field, running a stall for the May Fayre. Our stall (invented by my better half) consisted of throwing balls onto a t...
How Does This Free Time Thing Work Again
The work week has finally ground to a halt. The project that sucked the life out of me for the last month ground to a begrudging halt. I will admit to being ...
A Difficult Day
Yesterday was one of the most difficult days I have experienced professionally. I obviously can’t explain much further than that for all kinds of reasons. At...
Posting Into The Future From A Hotel Room Weird I Know
In these days of immediate feedback, it feels a little odd to write a blog post for a future publishing date. The reason is my own stupidity; I am sat in a h...
The One Where I Didnt Run In The Marlow 5
Our local 5 mile running race took place this morning, starting from Higginson Park, doing a tour of the town, and returning whence it came. For the first ti...
Facebook Just Jumped The Shark
I cannot quite believe what just happened (well, I can believe it, but still…) - Facebook just turned a corner in my opinion. If you thought Apple were bad f...
Link Gets His Turn In The Header
I just took the entirely autocratic decision to install “Link” from the “Legend of Zelda” into the header of Cheese and Beans for the next month or so. Perha...
I Am Invisible
We went to the garden center earlier to buy food for the chicken - my attendance was required because my other half is not strong enough to lift the sack of ...
Three Weeks Of Mayhem Comes To An End
The finish line is within site. For the past three weeks I have been working all day, returning home, and working most evenings - sometimes into the early ho...
Election Idiocy Overtakes The United Kingdom
I visited the local polling station on the way to work this morning, and was struck by the absence of people while en-route. Either some kind of mass alien a...
A Dragon Called Jug
The journey home from work today was probably unremarkable. I say “probably” because I have quite obviously arrived home, and appear to be in one piece. I do...
Selling The White Macbook
I put the white Macbook up for sale on EBay this morning. We need the money more than we need yet another computer in the house. The auction is going off her...
Half Chocolate Spread And Half Chocolate Spread
The bedroom door cracked open at 7am with a little voice asking “go downstairs?”. I heard a muffled “yes”, and the door closed once more.
Little Miss 6 Takes Her Rainbows Promise
I took the kids down to visit the first “Rainbows” group in our area this morning. Little Miss 6 has been going since it started, and today the first girls t...
Creative Failure Abounds
While approving and replying to comments on recent posts earlier, I noticed the links that WordPress sometimes throws into the footer of blog posts pointing ...
A Few Words Today
The phrase “a few words today” reminds me of Immortal Beloved - the movie about the life of Beethoven, and his letters to a secret love who he eventually lef...
When Will The Hysteria Surrounding The Apple Ipad Subside
Forgive me for being a cynical old curmudgeon, but I’m getting pretty sick and tired of people going on about the Apple iPad. Yes, it’s nice - a wonderful pi...
A Self Imposed Night Off
Today I lifted the world onto my shoulders (figuratively speaking), arranged it into a configuration of my choosing, and set it down again.
The One Where I Got Told Off By Another Parent
I forgot to report this one - I got told off on the way to school this morning by another parent. Shouted at. W didn’t hear because she was busy dealing with...
An Accidental Night Off
Throughout the recent overtime madness I have been subjecting myself to, I have been working on a laptop with a “virtual machine” running on an external hard...
The Twenty Ten Theme Is Here
I wasn’t expecting this until the release of WordPress 3. Today the mighty powers atop mount WordPress released the “Twenty Ten” theme unto the sweaty masses...
Big Blue One
Our youngest received money from “Grandad at the Seaside” for her birthday - yesterday was her first chance to spend it. Little did we know that we would be ...
An Evening Off
Finally taking a night off from development work. Listening to podcasts, scribbling in my notebook. Life is good.
Simplification Of Life Required
I read an update on Facebook from a long time friend this morning that she was “turning inward”, and it got me thinking - about blogging, online presence, my...
School Reunion Madness
While taking a few minutes out at lunchtime today, I checked Facebook and discovered a message about the laughable attempts to organise a school reunion of m...
The Weekend In Photographs
I just found time at work to stop for something to eat, and to splurge something into here.
Three Weeks Of Unlimited Overtime
There will be very little in the way of deep insightful posts from me over the next three weeks (not that there ever is anyway). I have been given approval f...
More Moleskine Madness
I lose count of the hours I spend scribbling while listening to things. My notepads at work invariably end up looking like the genius plans of a lunatic whil...
And So The Great Lifestreaming Experiment Begins
I’m not exactly sure that “lifestreaming” is a real word, but in the grand tradition of embracing new words into the living language we called “English”, I w...
Leaving A Legacy For Future Generations
I just happened to wander into the lounge while W was watching an episode of the BBC genealogy series “Who Do You Think You Are?” - the featured celebrity wa...
5 Years Old New Bicycle
A certain little girl wandered into our bedroom this morning, rubbing her eyes.
Plasticine Girl From Hell
Shortly before leaving work this evening my other half called my mobile. I noticed it vibrating, and picked it up just in time to hear the following…
Open Source And Free Software
In something of a marked departure from the previous post about making hideous little girls out of plasticine, I thought perhaps we might explore something I...
The Value Of Doing Nothing
“Doing nothing” is a misnomer, isn’t it. There’s no such thing as “doing nothing”. Our hearts keep beating, our lungs keep inflating, and our nails keep grow...
And Thats Why We Dont Ask Dad What He Did Today
When I get in from work on an evening, the first few minutes are usually filled with a mad scramble around the house to clear the decks ready for dinner - to...
A Message To All The Ipad Early Adopters
Perhaps this post should be more accurately titled - “a message to all the iPad early adopters who are now complaining”. My message - It serves you f*cking r...
A Child Of The Star Wars Generation
I was born in 1973, which made me four years old when Star Wars arrived at the cinema in 1977. It was quite possibly the first movie I went to see, and predi...
Drawing A Line Through Past Writing
While attempting to catch up on the increasingly worrisome mountain of unread blogs that cast a dark shadow over much of my online presence, I read something...
Door To Door Electricity Supply Salesmen
We just had a guy turn up at the door selling electricity. Only he wasn’t of course. He was conducting a door-to-door survey on behalf of Scottish Power to m...
A Rare Breed Of Blogger
The more I write and share my own experiences, thoughts, opinions and ideas on the internet, and consume those of others, the more I realise I am something o...
A Few More
A final few photos from our Easter trip to Cornwall. We are home now. Just gone midnight - now the first minutes of Tuesday morning - and I am due back in wo...
Cornwall
We’re at the coast over Easter staying with my parents. In some ways this break feels like a refuge - a break from the mayhem of our normal life - of our hou...
Easter Approaches
What is Easter to you ? To me it’s a time to eat enough chocolate to render a large Rhinoceros very poorly indeed. To others it’s a time to go and sit in a c...
Being Sociable
Over the past few months I have been “hitting” twitter pretty hard - exploring what value might be had through growing the number of people I follow, and who...
Taking Responsibility
I got up at 5am (6am after moving the clocks forward an hour) this morning to watch the Formula One race in Melbourne, Australia. I’m not going to bore you w...
An Attempt To Post More Photos
While reading other people’s blogs I always find myself making mental notes to take more photos - and to share more of them. This is an attempt to do just th...
Parents Evening
Yesterday evening saw us make the journey to school for parents evening while good friends babysat the children.
Decluttering The Nuclear Option
I wage a continual war in our study at home - with paperwork, junk mail, flyers, magazines, letters, envelopes, food wrappers, boxes, cartons, bags, wires, b...
Surrounded By Self Absorbed Ignorance
While cycling to work this morning I stood at a junction for nearly five minutes astride my mountain bike, waiting for a break in the traffic. The entire roa...
Retro Organisers Rule
Filofax personal organisers appeal to the productivity maniac part of my brain somehow. Considering that I lived for 2 years with an iPhone in my pocket, now...
The Weekend In Photos
Saturday was filled with a visit to relatives we should really visit far more often in Oxfordshire.
New Broom Sweeps Clean With The Macbook
Who remembers the couple of years I spent working in central London ? Who remembers the blog posts written on the train, performing character assassination o...
Some Numbers
For those with an anally retentive statistics streak, here are some numbers fresh out of Google Analytics, charting the return of “Cheese and Beans” on 25th ...
A Crash And A Whoosh
This morning the machinery of our house spat us out of bed at the prescribed moment, pitching us into the morning routine. I woke several times as the radio ...
Take The Keyboard Away From Me
It would appear that if a computer keyboard is within reach of my insane fingers, I will meddle with the theme of this blog. Given a little reflection, it se...
The Wisdom Of Children
In between various work requests and support calls from customers, I sat at work this morning watching the clock - watching for 11am to arrive; knowing it wo...
Its Official I Hate The Mustard Theme
I don’t quite know why I chose the mustard theme. It seemed like a good idea at the time. On reflection, it was pretty crap, wasn’t it. Awful in fact. I susp...
Lady Gaga Heres To The Crazy Ones
This week the video for “Telephone” by Lady Gaga was released. There are not enough adjectives. It’s inventive, loud, original, and perhaps most importantly,...
A New Coat Of Paint
It’s all change again for my personal blog - gone with the minimalist theme, and in with the loud, in your face theme. I would like to say this was all plann...
A Difficult Weekend Ahead
Over the past few weeks we have been keeping a brave face on a rather sad story at home. Simpson, our many adventured cat, has run out of lives. What we thou...
Please Excuse Me While I Kick Something
For some unknown reason (and remember this is a professional software developer and web designer talking) the web server this installation of wordpress is sa...
A Family On Two Wheels
Taken while en-route to school this morning… what a change - over the course of three weeks we have gone from all walking, to all riding bikes. The youngest ...
The Journey Home
1st Mile
Changing Scenery
A higher power than myself has dictated that I must move locations in the office once more - and I find myself sat back at the desk I had early last year. I’...
Ever So Slightly Annoyed
While skimming the various news outlets around the internet before turning in for the night, I happened upon a news story relating the frustration of home sc...
A Birthday Card Fit For A Software Developer
After delivering copious amounts of chocolate biscuits to the kitchen at work, I arrived at my desk to discover this…
Hunting For Nasties
The “big” computer at home - the desktop one with printers and various other doo dads attached - is busy checking for monsters in it’s own closet. It’s been ...
The Many And Varied Facets Of My Idiocy
Since deciding to continue with a personal blog a month or so ago, I have been wondering just how stupid I am. Of course there are many different ways somebo...
Too Many Walls
Just discovered this acoustic version of “Too Many Walls” on YouTube, and had to share it;
Sunday Morning Music And Illness
It’s now 10:30, Sunday morning. I’ve been up for about an hour - I arrived downstairs to find the children had made their own breakfast without complaint. Th...
Countdown
I just caught our youngest stood on a foot stool alongside the toilet, doing a very loud and enthusiastic Thunderbirds style count-down towards flushing it.
Through Different Eyes
I was talking to a wonderful friend on the other side of the world earlier, and the question of perception came up - how we see the world, and perhaps how th...
The Soundtrack Of A Day Spent Working From Home
After a steady decline through yesterday afternoon and evening, I woke this morning with rather more aches and pains than I normally have - the kind that nor...
Little Green Men
When I was young I watched all manner of movies, television shows, and read all manner of books about space, the universe, and the idea that we might not be ...
Short Form Blogging With Tumblr
For the past several days I have been exploring and participating in Tumblr - you might call it a blogging platform, a social network, or a social media site...
Long Lost Artwork
While rooting around for something in our bookshelves yesterday I found an old sketchbook tucked down the back of a row of books - a sketchbook I had presume...
Have Notebook Will Scribble
My once mighty notebook - a “Moleskine” no less - seems to have been reduced to a container of drivel. A real-world twitter account. Notes in passing. There ...
Two Minutes To Myself
With the children on half term, and the house seemingly running on autopilot at the moment, something quite unexpected happened this morning - I found myself...
And The Shallow Fanboy Hordes Go Forth And Multiply
In a stunningly transparent example of the hilariously shallow nature of the global geek army spread throughout the internet , I would like to report that wh...
The One Where Our 6 Year Old Learns To Ride A Bike In Half An Hour
I promised during the week that we would spend as much of the weekend as possible out on the bikes. During my childhood this would have meant all weekend. As...
Opportunity Falls From The Sky
Over the past few days a couple of emails have fallen into my in-box requesting help with website design and development projects. Their arrival got me think...
Whats Not To Like
We were invited to the local school parents and teachers social this evening, held at our local pub (within walking distance!). Apparently W set about organi...
4 Year Old Brain Work In Progress
Our youngest daughter developed an unexpected speech impediment several weeks ago; she became unable to say her sister’s name without stuttering on the first...
Little Children And The Human Condition
I’m off work with a cold. I can’t quite figure out how it crept up on me - yesterday evening I was fine; this morning I felt like my brain had been put in ba...
Dinner With Friends
This weekend has served to remind me about the value of friendship, and of having a life. It’s easy to let work consume your life - in my case so much that I...
The School Reunion
A few of the people from my year at school are arranging a reunion this year. Quite why it has to be this year, I’m not sure - we’ll all be hitting 37 - sure...
The Failings Of Facebook And Twitter
Over the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about social networks - perhaps triggered by the reaction to my recent post about community, and children. I ...
The End Of Community
I grew up in small town England in the 1970s. I can still remember moving house when I was five years old, and spending the first nights on bare floorboards....
I Have Not Read Belle Du Jour
Sunday night became Monday morning about an hour ago, and I’m skimming through the television channels. Billie Piper is on one of the channels, and she’s not...
Photographing The Girls
While wandering around the house this morning making breakfast, I happened upon three little girls watching Sunday morning cartoons on the television, and pl...
Being A Teacher For Two Days
For the past two days I have commuted towards the southern reaches of London to teach a group of business people how to use a technology product I happen to ...
Cycling On The Footpath
Shortly before leaving work this evening I called home to check if I should stop off in town. As far as I can tell, calling home is similar to playing russia...
At What Price Can You Be Bought
While listening to a podcast last week, an interesting subject came up. Unfortunately I was running between trains at the time, so all I managed to do was ba...
The Year Of Living Dangerously
Today marks both the end of something, and the beginning of something new.
Considering Doing This Whole Blogging Lark Properly
The next sentence is going to cause a number of people to slap their own foreheads with their hands - perhaps the entire readership - you know, all six of yo...
I Will Not Go Quietly Into The Night
As I have wrestled over the past year with the idea of stopping all this blogging nonsense, I have been turned around each time by an avalanche of comments a...
The One Where The Universe Carried Me Along For The Ride
If you’re wondering what on earth is going on with my WordPress blog, you’re not wondering in vain. I’m experimenting with the “P2? template from Automattic ...
Severing The Many Tentacles Of Cheese And Beans
I’ve been using posterous to throw thoughts into this blog for a while now. It’s a clever system that lets you publish to multiple places off the back of one...
Nothing To See Here
Nothing to see hereWhile talking with my cousin earlier, I realised a blog had not left a computer by my hand for several days. I’m not suggesting that some ...
A Life Online
Anybody who has read my personal blog recently will be aware that I have ditched the iPhone in favour of a Blackberry. The Blackberry is somewhat better at o...
The Best Birthdays Are Those Shared With Friends
The venue for the party was a local kids play facility with all manner of “safe” climbing frames, ball pools, ramps, slides, and crash mats. It all seemed li...
On The Occasion Of Becoming 6 Years Old
This evening my return home from work heralded a banquet your average 6 year might turn inside out for. Hotdogs, chips, dips, potato wedges, and cheese and p...
Avatar Under Attack From All Directions
It would appear that Avatar - one of the best science fiction movies ever made - is under attack from all directions.
Goodbye Iphone 3G Hello Blackberry Curve
I just put the order in for a Blackberry Curve 8900, and a new mobile phone contract with Orange. It’s going to give me the same functionality I actually use...
Life The Universe And Everything
While catching up on the various thoughts of those I follow on Facebook, LiveJournal, WordPress, Posterous and Tumblr early this morning (yes, I am mad), I c...
Snow Is Falling
I’m working from home today. On reflection this morning I probably couldhave walked the 3 miles across the fields to work, but knowing that further heavy sno...
Snowing In The Night
Just took the above photo with our Fuji S1000fd - set to shutter priority, 6 seconds (with the camera jammed against the window to hold it steady). It’s snow...
Iphone Blackberry Or Google Phone
In mid February, my iPhone contract runs out - I am therefore starting to think about what I will do. Anybody who knows me (in the real world) will know I ha...
Advertising Isnt What It Used To Be
While we all know that advertising standards exist for a reason, I can’t help thinking that advertisements were better when the world was morenaive, even if ...
Playing God With The Sims
If you have not played it before, “The Sims” is a stupid computer game where you get to play godcontrolling little people who exist within the game. As again...
The Curious Incident Of The Lack Of New Years Resolutions
While wrestling with the idea of giving up the blog altogether earlier, conversation around me turned to resolutionsor rather “New Year Resolutions”. I thoug...