Buffet meal

so it's the last day of 2011 and in 6 or so hours we start 2012.

So a buffet meal at home with a glass or two of Abbott's Ale I think will go down a treat.

Last day

So this is the last day of 2011, I see from my logs of my blog that this year I have written more blogs than I have ever done. I think it's because I now have access to software that makes it easier to do a blog when and where I have the idea for a blog. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

View

Do you sometimes fell as if you are viewing your life through a camera lens? I mean have you had that chance or feeling that you can relive part of your life thought your memories and that as you relive those memories it's as if you are seeing the world though a camera lens? Well if the answer is yes then you are not alone in that I have the same experience. Not that is either good or bad As far as I am concerned its a good experience in being able to replay in your head things that have happened, the good news is that when you replay your life in your head what you see is in 3d and in stereo and is much much better than anything you can see on the telly or at the movies. No it's true What you see in your head will always be better than anything that you see on tv or at the movies, the other great thing about it is that when you recall the events they will always be the same no matter how old you are when you recall them. It's also a bit sad that as you get older you will find yourself relieving the same events over and over again, I am told that it just something that happens as you get older! So my advice to you is make the most of the here and now as you are going to be able to in enjoy them more than once as the years pass you by and that in the end all you will have will be your memories of what was,and as they are so precious why not make sure they are the best memories you can have so that when you relive them that they are the best they can be! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New car

So I said a while ago in another blog post that I am going to get a new car, now one of the biggest questions that needs to be answered is just what colour the car is going to be. I mean this is not a question that can be answered lightly, in fact as it is such an important question that needs an answer my wife and daughter are involved in this very important question and they have to be involved in the process. So even though it's me car the colour of the car is that important that wife and daughter will make the final choice! I know! But in my experience they have always made the right choice when it comes to car colour! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Rain

So guess what it's raining, it's not heavy rain, but it is rain nevertheless, I do wonder just how many days have passed without rain or it has rained but no one has recorded the fact. It must be many So I want to record the fact that today it started to rain in the afternoon, in fact it got that dark that I had to turn on the lights at 3 in the afternoon, which well before sunset at this time of year, I looked it up a d sunset is about 4 in the afternoon. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

New car

The joy of buying a new car is the fact you find out just how much money your car looses in the couple of years that you have owned it for. In my case I appear to have lost more that 5000 in just two years. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Boxing day

Well another boxing day over with and so onwards to the end of the year which seems to be approaching very fast. The holiday so far has been mostly good, it's just sad that daughter is not with us but that's what happens when they grow up. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blogging

I have just noticed that I have done more blogs this year than I ever have, which is I suppose because I now have tools or the software to blog easier. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Fresh coffee

So fresh coffee in the morning , what else is there to say other than its great and sets you up for the rest of the day. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cooking

Been cooking all afternoon been fun - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Xmas

Food brought, beer brought,now to tidy up house and start baking, while having a drink...always good - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cold

So it's turned cold yet again - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Looking back

Looking back on 2011 one thing that has stood out for me is the fact that the year has gone passed so quick, and the fact that many others have stated the same thing. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Work

Well today was my last working day of 2011 and so I am glad that I can put my feet up for while and have a rest. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Updated BlogPress

Finally after rather a long time I am not to sure just how long it has been but it's more than four weeks BlogPress has finally arrived on the apps store of iTunes and it all appears to be working well, which is good as without the proper working version I have not done much blogging. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Winter solstice

So how did you spend your solstice?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Work

Well one day left and then a few days off, which will be really good, as I need a rest.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Xmas

So Xmas is yet again about to hit us big time and you know this when you find yourselves doing ordinary shopping at nine at night and it's busy and when you get home you find that you have not brought everything you need to for a normal week of living.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Is it the right day

I wonder if I have got it right and it's winter solstice today or was it yesterday any way happy solstice day.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Website Updates

I did some more work on the Dirk Maggs Productions website, not a lot as there is lots of other things at this time of year that one is supposed to be doing.

I managed to add tome pictures to the site for some of Dirks's early productions, eg his Flywheel stuff and also his Superman series two stuff.

The things is that redoing the website is taking so much longer than I remember it taking last time!

Why that is, I just don't have a clue.

But I suppose any progress no matter how small is better than nothing.....

Snow part2

So we were very lucky and the only snow we had did not last that long and did not settle.

Although I had to drive in it and it was not that bad, it did bring back memories of the snow from last year and also from earlier this year, which are ones that I really did not want to re live.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Snow

There is a really horrible rumour that we could have snow in the early hours of Friday, I am hoping that the weathermen are wrong about this...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Daylight

If I am right I think the shortest day is less than a week away and then the nights will finally start to get shorter.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

End of year

So the end of the year is fast approaching!

Has it been a good year?

I for one am not sure?

But a lot has happened this year some good some bad.

There has been some good books, tv,DVD's, holidays and food.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

L and lies

It would appear that L had been laying to me, it's sad when you find this sort of thing out, and it does open ones eyes to just how one can be deceived and also how people can deceive.

What benefit L got from lying to me I have yet to work out.

I suppose that this is all part of the human condition.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Reading

Still reading books when I get time, the thing is at this time of year there never seems to be a lot of free time.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tom Tom

Has something bad happened to Tom Tom ?

As I don't seem to get connected to the Tom Tom server why?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

BlogPress

So where is the update to this programme it's over a month now....


I am not happy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Website Updates

My main website Dirk Maggs Productions is as you will know from reading this blog being rebuilt after backups of backups not working and all that sort of stuff, one of the things that I have yet to work out is how to make sure that when its complete that the site can correctly be found, I have not yet worked out how to set up the web direct on my web host I am hoping that it will be just as easy as it was on the other hosting site I used to have.

Its not something that I have to worry about now, as the rebuilding of the site is going slow and at the rate of progress I think it will be this time next year before the site is fully back together again.

blogs

I have just seen how many blog entry's I have done 1266!

which is an awful lot from someone who does not have a lot to say.

Bored

Can you be bored when there is lots to do


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cold

Still too cold for my likening

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPod

Wonder when the ipad3 is going to come out and if it is worth getting?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Still cold

My blog and I am going to moan that it is still cold.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cold

As this is my blog I am going to complain that I am cold

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cold

So we are in the middle of a cold snap, and I must say I am not enjoying it very much. I think I have forgotten just what a frost is like....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Website updates

Did some work on my database driven Dirk Maggs website, for the first time in many weeks as I had some free time.

The site has a lot work left to be carried out on it, and so far I can not see it being finished until late 2012, unless I get some free time from somewhere.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Reading

I have finished the Clive Cussler book that I spoke about the other day, and for a fun read it was good, unfortunately the end of the book to me felt a bit rushed, but don't let that put you off, if you want some entertainment for a few hours then this could be a book for you.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bad news

The bad news is that BlogPress still crashes if used in offline mode, and to add to the bad news the update still has not appeared on the apple store why?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Reading

Currently reading the following book, in fact I only have about twenty pages left its called Crescent Dawn and it's written by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler, I suspect that most of it was written by Dirk as it does read differently to a Clive written book.

As a story for entertainment it's great stuff, sadly it's something that could never be filmed as the costs for some of the set pieces would just be too great, it would I think work real well as a radio show, so if I had the odd 20k I could always commission it, you can guess who my producer and director and adapter would be?

Yes your right!

Dirk Maggs would be my choice, that is if I can get him away from his drums or the kitchen!

Anyway back to the book, it's a good read if you just want some simple fun entertainment with the characters written large and the scenery that is great and an eye opener, I really liked the very first opening scene and would so love to see it in audio and the big screen.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

BlogPress

Well it's a bit strange in that I had to reinstall most of the apps on my iPad and among them was BlogPress and guess what?

It all appears to be working under ios5 it's the same version so I am not too sure just what's going on with it all, but hey it's working.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Test

Just a test from my iPad


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Updates

Still no sign of the software update which is now just starting to get annoying as its now more than two weeks in fact it could be three weeks now.

I know that I am
Using blogger app to upload to the blog but it has some serious short comes including the fact that you can not do blogs offline and then upload them when you have a connection and the other problem Is that the app Is setup for the iPhone and not the iPad but it does work so that's good.

Web server

For some reason that I yet to
Work out my xampp does not want to work on my new computer I wounded if it has anything to do with the fact that windows seven on it is 64 bit and on my old one it was only 32 bit?

Computers

So the old computer had to be replaced with a new one.

One of the problems in choosing a new computer was all the I's this and that I don't know what an i3 or an i7 is all I want is a computer that works and I don't have to wait for.

Updates

Still no update to BlogPress I am starting to wonder if it will ever appear.

As I paid for it I will not be happy if an update does not appear soon as apart from the fact that it does not work under ios5 it's a great programe, so apple where is my update?

Bowling

Went bowling for only the forth time in my life, played two rounds which was good.

The first round I got a score of 113 the second round I got a score of 169 so I am overall happy that in both rounds I scored more than 100.

L What happened

You may remember that I spoke earlier in the year about L

Well I can't tell
You what going on with her as I have had no news

Website updates

Well it's been a while since I spoke about the websites that I have.

I might as well say here and now that I have not really done very much to the sites as work and real life have taken up most of any free time that I have at this time of year.

The Dirk Maggs Producer website the main one is the same as I have not done any work to it.

The other site the database driven one has had some work done on it, I have done one complete year of radio productions 1989 and it took several hours to do.

One other thing that is now causing a lot of trouble for me is that the computer I use to up date the websites has now taken to freeze up or even better not to start at completely random times according to what I read either the graphics board is going or the main board of the computer.

As the computer is getting on a bit I suppose I should take advantage of the fact and get a new base unit, problem is which one?

From what I can see there are i3, i5, i7 which one is good? Which one will last say four or more years? And just how much memory is good for windows seven?

I don't know the answer to these questions yet

Still waiting

Well I am still waiting for the updated version of BlogPress that will work with ios5 so far as you can tell from this blog it has not happend.

So as a stop gap I am using blogger app which is not setup to work on the iPad but it does work its just that it does not look very nice as its all very chunky.

Apps

My normal app that I use on the iPad called BlogPress is not working under ios 5; which is not good.

According to the makers website an update was sent to apple 2 weeks ago and so it should appear soon!

Well I am still waiting for it to appear

Fancydress

Went to a fancy Dress party last night and I must admit that the amount of effort some of the folks went into was amazing, and I am glad that Donna and I tried are best, with our own costumes, which most of the folks seemed to like.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Clocks

Is it me?

I would seem with the clock shift and all that that entails that now days the number of clock I have to alter manually is getting less and less, as most clocks now change themselves, which is always good.

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Summer time ends

So for us here in the UK summertime has now come to an end and so that means that the nights are now going to draw in, which I have to tell you I don't like much I think it's some 12 weeks before we start to gain daylight again.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Music

So I have been on holiday for the last couple of weeks and it's been great, but one of the things that I miss is music each and every day mainly because that type of music I like is not what Donna likes.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dark

So it's eight in the morning and it's dark, which is a bit of a surprise as yesterday it was just so bright, and to that BST ends tonight, which means that I suppose winter is about to start.

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

No more leave

So my last day of holiday today


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Away

I have been away on hols in Folkstone Kent, as it is part of the UK that I not been to and also it's where some of Donna family came from.

The weather for most of the week was blue sky and sunny even if it was adjust a bit cold, but then in late October what else is it supposed to be.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Updates

So I have updated the iPad one to the new iOS 5 so far it has failed to copy all my music across.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs Website

I finally had some time to do some work on the Dirk Maggs Website and I am pleased with what I managed to do mainly because I think that this version of the website is going to look much better than the old one when it's completed.

The only problem is I have no idea just how long it is going to take to complete.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Reading

I have just finished reading Danger UXB by James Owen, although this book does not go into real technical detail it was still a good read and I did learn something about the trouble and problems that bomb disposal had to cope with during WW2.

I still don't know even after reading this book how these guys where able to dig out bombs that might be some twenty feet in the ground not knowing if at any moment that the bomb might detonate.

There is apparently no memorial to the men of bomb disposal for any of the armed services, this I find hard to believe, according to the book some 750 men in bomb disposal lost their lives.

I also did not realise that there are still in London lots of UXB,s still in the ground and that the chemicals that make up explosives in time change their chemical properties and can become much more dangerous to make safe.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Back

So back from a nice holiday especially as the weather was for the time of year very hot, in fact according to the weathermen it was the hottest days in September.October for the last 100 years!

So happy or what!

A good break

Also having a Kelly's ice cream in North Cornwall in September when it's 28c is always good.

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Life

So autumn has started I can say this because of the fact I now have my lights on while driving to work.


Bum...


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Apple

So it's time for apple to show the world what new stuff they want to sell you.

I have a feeling that what they announce will not be very different from what they are selling now, just a tweak here and there but it will basically will be the same stuff in new boxes.

On the software side I think They might give you stuff that other manufacturers have been providing for ages which will be good, provided that is if they are not to busy trying to sue someone else, its sad but they appear to be putting more effort into going to couture than producing new products or better products than the competion.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs Website

There has been no more work on this as I have been away, enjoying the sunshine that we had here in the UK.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Holiday

So on holiday again, and yes I do need to be. It's nice just being able to do as much or as little as you please.

But for this bio day that s not so true as me and wife are not alone on this break as we have daughter and one of her friends along. Not that they are any trouble, so if the weather hold out it will be nice to walk along a breach or two and to just enjoy the sifts and sound of North Cornwall, as that is where I find myself.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Reading

I finally finished a book that has taken me more than three weeks to read, mainly due to the amount of time that I have in being able to read.

Sadly as I write this I don't remember the authors name! And it's only been a day!

The book I think was called 1000 years of annoying the French, I must say that the author has done a very good job and it shows in the depth of detail in the contents of this book.

What was an eye opener for me was the way history is taught and remembered has a lot to do with where your are and the culture that you find yourself in.

I learnt a lot about history that I thought I already knew, this book turns some of what I was taught at school on it's head, it also taught me that having an open mind is alway worth having and also to question what you think is fact.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs Productions Website

The problem with getting the hosting mysql server to accept the upload of my backed up database that is the Dirk Maggs website still has not yet been solved, is appears that one way I can change the settings I need on the server is to have shell access to the server using something called ssh, I have to ask the hosting company for this to be enabled, so that will be the next step.

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Reading now

I have started to read yet another book that has been in the reading pile only a short time.

It's called Danger UXB and it's by James Owen and it's the story of what the guy did in bomb disposal in WW2 what is a surprise to me is that there has not been very much written about them in the past few years.

From what I have so far read over 700 bomb disposal men died doing their duty and that unlike the other parts of the services there is no national memorial to them, which I find to be a very surprising omission, why that should be I just don't know, one thought that I did have was perhaps because they had to keep secrets on how they did what they did they may have been too good at keeping a lid on what they did and how they did what they did.

I have not read very far into the book so far, but I have already learnt much that either I knew something about or it's completely new to me.

I still have trouble getting my mind around the fact that these guys had to walk up to a 2000 pound bomb not knowing if the timer on the bomb was just about to rundown and set the bomb off or the clock had just jammed and that the slightest nock would set it going again, I don't know how they did it.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Podcasts

Did I tell you that I listen to the odd podcast?

Well one of the podcasts that I like to listen to each week is Above & Beyond TATW podcast. Each podcast is 2 hours long, and I find it a great way to leave all my troubles stress etc behind for a while, and surly that's what listening to music is all about?


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Blood Donation

Today I shall give my 119th blood donation I think I should be proud of that fact that I have given so much, it's taken years, but I am glad that I have managed it for so long.

I am told that each donation that I give can help unto 3 other people, so if my maths is working correctly that means I could have helped unto 357 people, that's not a bad effort if I do say so myself.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Hoilday

Next week I am holiday, which is always nice, I may be lucky and this time have a lie or two, if I am really luck till 7 in the morning!


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs website

So I have a working local copy of the Dirk Maggs website, which is good as I thought I had lost it, so do I know try and get the same thing with the one on the hosting server?


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Cold

So I know that autumn is on it's way as even I noticed how cold it was this morning.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

DMPW

Good news at last, on the Dirk Maggs website front. I have managed to get on my local server the database and all the support files that make up the backup copy of the main Dirk Maggs website working.

I had a lot of trouble getting the SQL database dump reinstalled into the mysql server and the new database that I had setup, mainly due to two reasons the first being I don't know mqsql very well.

The second the error message that came up was of no use to me as I did not understand what it was telling me. I have to say even using google it took a while to find an answer that I understood and even more time and searching to understand what and how to do the correction to clear the fault.

I then had another hour or so trying to get concrete5 to see my database.

Restating the machine was a good idea as it also helped get things going and it's sad to say that restarting was indeed one of the suggestions.

So I have a working copy of the website, which is good the only thing that does not work is the site themes which is not working, for some reason or other.

The other thing that does not work is in the dashboard some of the functions do not work, the good news is that all the content appears to be there, which is a great thing.

I don't yet know what to do next.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Website and databases

The saga of trying to get my main Dirk Maggs productions website back up and running on the new host continues.

The support software that makes up Concrete 5 and the other stuff that is not the database turns out to comprise of not 30 000 but 37 000 files and takes some 3.2 gigs of space, I really did not know just how large the website was, but that does explain I suppose just why it took so long to upload on to the host.

The data base is not that big as it's stored as a compressed files and is less than 8 megs in size, at least I think that is what it is as I am wetting this blog else where and I can't check, anyway it's not that big is the main thing.

Now the error I was getting 1153 does have a solution but for the life of me I have not yet worked out how I change a variable in the mysql server, as I have said I am not a programmer so at this time I am just scratching my head on what or how to correct it.

Its looking like I may have to recreate my Dirk Maggs site from scratch, which in one way is bad but in another is good as I might make a better site this time.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Databases and errors

Well last night I tried to get my main Dirk Maggs productions website working again.

You should be able to work out that it was not a success.

I have got all the support files on the server, which is good as there are 30 000 of them!

I have found my zipped data base backup which appears to be complete and appears to work.

I managed after a while to work out how to create a new database on the hosting server and to work out what my server name is, username. Database name and it's password.

I even worked out how to import the backup of the database to the hosting server.

So at this stage all is good....

But during the import process after the file has uploaded okay and the SQL file is running the import stops with the following error, error code 1153 with the description Got a packet bigger than max_allowed_packet bytes now so far I have not found a site on the web that will explain to me in words that I understand what has gone wrong.

So today when I get time I will do a bigger search on the net to find answers, as without it the website will not work.

I did do some other preparation work and have set up the configuration file of concrete 5 to use the database if I ever get that bit working.

I went to bed last night not very happy...


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Time

Some how as the nights draw in I am finding that I just don't have time to carry out all the dings that I want to do. For instance I really want to get my main Dirk Maggs website back up and running, so far it's been more than a month and I have yet to get to the stage where I can say that it's all working, as I have said before I have got the support files all 30000 of them on the server, but I have yet to get the database uploaded and then reconfigure it all so that it works on the new server and in the layout on that server as it is not the same as the old server, one reason being that the old server was in the USA and the new one is in the UK.

So why do I keep running out of time?

I just don't know the answer to that one.

So I suppose instead of moaning about it I should just get on and sort it.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Why

Why do a website is a question I ask myself

As running a website costs me money, and I don't get anything from making and running a website other than the fact that there is something out there that some people find now and then of use.

I did once keep a record of just how much time I spent on maintaing one of my websites, but it soon became very apparent that the number of hours a week I was spending was getting just a bit stupid and so I gave up, but I can tell you for a hobby spending more than 40 hours on it, is not a hobby but an obsession!

I suspect that if I took my websites down and did not bother no one would pass any comment, so in one way why bother?


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs Works

Well as my proper Dirk Maggs website is not yet fully working, I am using this blog as a place to store some information on a new radio production that he directed and that his company produced.

The production was broadcast on sat 10 September and it was called Washington 9/11 and was a re-enactment of what happened ten years ago in New York and the attack on the twin towers.

I did get chance to hear this and production was good, but I felt a bit uneasy on some of the content, it felt to me as it had been sweetened and a bit proper gander ish if there is such a word.

It appears that others had the same thoughts as when I looked on twitter there where comments along the same lines, which is sad.

Saying that some of the comments on twitter where just plain nasty and where amines at some of the actors in the production, especially some of the accent which is funny in that one of the actors who is American and has an american accent was criticised for her American accent!

I don't think this production is a classic Dirk Maggs production, it's good but no where near the productions that he has done in the past.
http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Databases and websites

So I have uploaded all the background or files that make up the content of the Dirk Maggs website, all I now have to do is set up a mysql database and then restore it with the backed up file that I have.

The problem I don't have a clue yet how to carry this task out, as on my previous hosting company they did all of that for me, and also there was a programme which was of great help in making databases.

I am at this time stuck, in that I just don't know what to do next or even how to do what I need to do.

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Missing

I have to say I am missing having my database driven Dike Maggs website, as it was easy to update and to add new content to.

Perhaps in the next few weeks I will succeed in getting it working again.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Green eyed monster

How is it that after more than 25 years of marriage you can still suffer from the green eyed monster?


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

French Radio London

The above radio station which I have found on my DAB radio is quite a fun listen to, as they have a very wide range of very different music that they play.

They also do not appear to have a playlist which is great as do you really want to hear the same bit of music more than once in two hours or so?

As far as I have so far heard with my ears they don't have a a hourly daily or weekly playlist, which is great.

As I don't speak French the news is great in that I don't have a clue as what bad news they are telling me!

I think the other great thing is that there is a difference between English and French radio as to the style and type of music played, and so far I am enjoying that differance.




http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs website

So I am trying to get the Dirk Maggs website the database one up and running again.

So part of the process is to upload the support files and then load up the database to drive it all. the programme that makes all this happen is called Concrete 5 it's a cms with a mysql database.

It turns out that the programmes files and the support files form most of the website, so yesterday I decided to upload it to the hosting site.

I started the upload at 7 in the morning and it finally finished at 2.345 in the afternoon!

There are 30000 files in total so I suppose it's not a surprise just how long it took to upload them.

The next task is to see if I can upload the data base, which if memory serves is much smaller, so it should not take that long to up load assuming I can get it to upload.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Wet

It's amazing just how dark it can be during the day when you have 100 percent cloud cover and it's raining...


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Dirk Maggs website

As you know my website is now with a new host and as a temporary measure I put up my old Dirk Maggs website, what surprises me is just who many hits the old site is getting is in the thousands....

Yeah I am surprised as well...

The thing is that I really want to have my database driven site back up and running, the problem is all though I downloaded everything more than once, that being the site files and the database as per instructions that I found on the Concreate 5 website, I am beginning to think that I just don't have the technical skill required to get it back up and tuning on my new host, which is a shame because I had done a lot of work and if I do say so myself the website was looking really good.

So I wonder where I can find some free help to get it all back up and working again?


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Reading

I have if you have been looking at this blog not said much about the books that I am reading and the reason for that is that I have not wanted to read anything just lately for some reason or other.

I just don't feel like picking up a book and reading, not too sure why that is but I suppose that there must be a reason for it.

It's not because I have no books to read, far from it I have I suppose some five books that I have in my to be read pile but they have now sat there from some four or more months. They are books that I waited for to come out in paperback.

Perhaps in time the reading muse will come back.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Promises

What do you do when promises are broken?

Move on?

Kick up about it?

As these are business promises is it a breach of a contract term?

Can you in force a contract term that is or is not coved by a contract?

I don't know the answer to the above questions yet, perhaps I never will but I am going to seek advice as to what the best thing to do is.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Cold

A bit of surprise this morning in that there is a nip in the air, I suppose with the reduction in day length this is now going to happen and get colder as we move into winter.


Bum.....


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Light

Just how little daylight reduction does it take for it to trigger trees and such to start to turn their leaves brown?

I don't know the answer, and so far I have yet to find an answer on the Internet.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Sleep

I have missed my sleep, you know the kind of sleep that when you wake up from it you feel great.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Nought

Why is the word for nothing so large?

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Light

I think today was the first time this year that I have noticed that the light level and it's intensity has changed, why I should notice it now and not earlier is just one of lives mysteries.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Cooking

How come you cook a meal that you have done hundreds of times and for some reason or other you find that it just does not taste the same as the last time you cooked it, even though you used the same ingredients and used the same cooking method?


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Upset

It's never ever nice being upset.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Darkness

I have so noticed how dark is in in the mornings, trouble is with all the very cloudy weather I don't know if it's the weather or the time of year!


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Pandora

The bad news today for me is that Pandora have some new jewellery out and Donna has already seen two things that she likes the look of!

My bank balance is not happy at what might happen....


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Website

As you know if you have been looking at this little blog of mine I have moved my website to a new hosting service, which was cheaper, in the uK and offered more than the old hosting service. The idea behind moving the hosting service to the UK was that they should be operating the same sort of hours as me which could be of a help if things stopped working.

Any way it turns out for reasons that I just don't understand that one of my domains did not for some reason get transferred over to the new host, so I have had to pay for it to be moved, it will be interesting to see if that all goes well.

The domain effected is citrusdreams.info this is the place that I hope to put the copied concrete 5 Dirk Maggs Productions Website and also the James Follett websites


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Quite

So it's been quite on the website front mainly because of the move of hosts and getting used to how they operate and also the control panels that they give you to control your websites with.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

L update

So L tells me that she appears to have trouble with just one of her kids excepting that things are going to change and that L has the right to a life. her kid is in her early twenties with a boyfriend she seemed to think that L should stay at home just on the off chance that she wanted to see her.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Music

One thing that I find that need to do every few days is to listen to some music, why is that?

I like music, I suppose that most people do and now that you don't need to be near a music centre the amount and type of music that one can listen to at a moments notice has I suppose got bigger and bigger.

But why do I need to hear music very couple of days?

Not a clue!

But I have noticed that I am not the only one who needs or finds themselves listing to mucus every day or every couple days, so I am in good company.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Blogs

I wonder sometimes if the number of blogs that are done each day is going up or down, wouldn't it be great if there was such a thing as a blog meter which showed you the number of blogs being posted by the hour by country in the world?

It bit like the trending thing you have on twitter but for blogs?

I wonder if the number of blogs posted is even something that can be captured and displayed?

Why it was a good idea to me at the time.

http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Things

Some things never change and others appear to change all the time, what I mean by this is that it's now late august and already I am aware just how much daylight we are now starting to loose, so I suppose it means that winter is on it's way.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Why all this stuff on L

I suppose that it is a good question why all this stuff on L?

It's a good question and the simple answer is that I have known L for a long time and to see the big life changes that she is going through is interesting and also very scary in that these changes can happen to anyone even to people who you think would have a stable relationship .

Just how does some one you know cope with all the change and disruption? To their life

I don't know the answer to that, all I do know is that it's nice to be there for someone you know and help and support them if they ask for help.

I have also been told by L that talking to someone who is not a relation but is a work friend does help with all that is going on, and surly in this day and age that is something worth doing?

So why write it down?

I suppose it's my way of dumping all this to a safe place so that when I look back on it all and what ever happens to L I will be able to see if the help and advice that I gave L was mostly right.

I don't expect to get it all right, as I am only human I will make mistakes, so the least thing that I can do about it is to learn from the mistakes that I make.

The other thing is that I don't think I would remember all the little things, which in the fullness of time may or may not make a difference if not to L to myself and Mrs D, as that relationship is and always will be the most important one.
http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Test 2

Still testing the blogging software as the first time did not work, hopefully this time it's going to work.


http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Test

Just testing the software I use to write this blog


Http://www.dswilliams.co.uk

Updating the N8

The good news is that I have finally got the N8 updated to Anna, reading the help forums on the main Nokia site it would appear that I have been very lucky in getting the update to work and even luckier that I have a working phone!

The sad thing is that later this year there is yet another update, I think that when this one turns up I shall wait a few weeks after it's release so that there is a chance that the update will install with no dramas.


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L had a date

Well guesses as to who was late into work and left her car in the car park?

Yep

L did

She said to me that it was a great date, and admitted that she had fun, I asked her if the baby shower would be in late April 2012 she told me don't you dare jinx her !

So she said it was great and just how she wanted it to be and as she remembered it to be.

She and P on Saturday are looking now for a place to live for him then her.

So she has said that she is going to start slow packing up to 90 dresses and shoes that's a lot to pack.

And she has to file for divorce and when she has done that she is going to move out and go live with P.

One thing that she has to get her head around is how to tell the children all three of them and how all these changes are going to affect them.

L did say today that one of the reasons for her marriage to fail was the fact that M expected her to basically be the maid around the house and be at his beck and call, not what I would call a partnership.


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L on a date

So last night tells me she is going on a date with P, she looks and sounds very excited about it, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?


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Updating N8

Well for reasons that now I can't remember I saw that there was a firmware update for my phone, well the good news is my phone still works that bad news is on part one of the update has installed part two will not load due to the phone not having enough free memory.

It's proving difficult to see how to free up space when you can't see the files on the phone.


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L update

So I managed to talk to L again and she has updated me on how things are all going, in more detail than she said the other day.

When she told M that she wanted a divorce the only real thing that he said was I suppose we will have to put the house up for sale, nothing about the marriage of 12 years. He also said that L had made it clear over the last few months that she was not happy, but as L has said if you have a partner who does not talk to you, does not want to be with you or inter mate with you then the end result is going to be the same, eg the relationship will breakdown and finally fall apart.

Meanwhile for L it looks like P and her have connected as if they have not been apart for 20 years....

P is going to be moving to the area as his current relationship finished some time ago and now he is being asked to move out so I suppose it makes sense for him to move near to L

This will be a problem for L as she will want to move in with him and she does not want her kids to be put in the position where they have to choose where to live with their mother or their father.

The other thing is with the way that the housing Market is trying to sell the house at a good price will not be easy as the one thing L and M want to are going to try to do is not to get into financial trouble while they work out how to sort their lives out.

L has said that she can wait a while for things to be sorted out but at the end of the day her marriage is over and has been for the last two years and that if M had done something about back then it would not have failed, I suppose it takes two to keep a relationship going but I suppose that at some stage if one person is doing 95 percent of trying to keep the relationship going there will come a time when you just give up.


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Website

So the website is now on the new host and it appears to work okay, in fact all three domains that I own are all working , which is always good.

I have even managed to get the FTP programme working and can upload and download from each of the domains.

The only problem so far is that I can't get the redirect function to work correctly.

Will have to have another look at it when I have more time.


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ISS

I was lucky tonight to see the ISS as it went overhead in the UK as it was cloudy


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Updates on L

So L has told me that last Saturday 20th Aug that she wanted a divorce, so her meeting with P last week must have gone well for her to make the decision that she has and I suppose that she now can't go back to how things were.

The next few months will be very testing for L P and M as their lives are turned upside down. It remains to be seen if the outcome will be as they all want it to be and that most of them are going to be happy.


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Website

So my new website is up and working the only problem that I have is to get all the content back on it.

The database driven Dirk Maggs Producer website is not working, I have backed up everything, that's the good news, the bad news is that I can't find where I saved the backup of the contents file which is some 8 megs in size, the database file is only 512 k.

I will have another good look around to see if I can find the file, if not I will have to make a choice as to what I want to do next.

As a temporary measure I am going to put up my old non database Dirk Maggs site, so that at least the search engines take people to a page with some information on Dirk Maggs.

I don't know at this time as to weather I want to have another data driven site.


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Holiday

It's that time again and I am on holiday.

We left it late this time and so it became a bit of job to find a holiday cottage but in the end after a long search we did find somewhere to go.

We ended up with a a holiday house in Saltash which is somewhere I have never been before.

So far it's been good and today we did a walk of about in total nine miles walking part of the south coast path from Looe it did rain at one stage but at the end of day it turned warm and sunny and I managed to get sunburned.


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Things

Some things can really iss you off


Yet other things don't, strange that?

Why?


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L and her life

L is a friend at work who I have known for a long time, since 2005 to be exact.

In fact she only told me a short while ago, that her marriage of 12 years appears to her to be over due to the way her husband has been treating her at home.

I must admit that I was very surprised that she being treated so badly.

Any way the main point of this blog was to say that you never know what is going to happen in your life.
This certainly appears to be the case with L as she said as much in that she never expect to find her self in the position that she finds herself in.


The good news appears to be that she appears to have meet again someone from her past and that the signs are good that there may be something there.

So only time will tell if that is the case.

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L and her life 2

So I spoke about L and her marriage to M it would appear that on her birthday 2 years ago not only did he completely forget it not even a card or a present or even acknowledge that it was L's birthday but did not even acknowledge that he had done something that upset her.

So you can imagine how L felt this year when he did exactly the same thing again, and has made not attempt to put things right in his marriage.

It would appear that M has changed in some way to such an extent that he no longer wants to be with L

It appears from what L has said that they are more like bother and sister than a couple in that they lead separate lives inside the house.

By that they do not cook for each other and live in different parts of the house and also have separate bedrooms.

So I suppose that after two years of this L has decided that for all intense and purposes that their marriage is over and that the only reason that they are still in the same house is because of financial reasons more than anything else.

So a couple of weeks ago L was at the wedding of her brother, I think she was glad that her brother was finally getting married as he is in his 40's.

So the last thing that L expected to happen was to bump into and only flame of hers from over twenty years ago.

Now P was someone that she was girlfriend to for about eight years, and because he would not commit all those years ago L broke off the relationship even though L has admitted that she loved him very much.

So at the wedding L meets P and the first thing he does is give her a kiss and a cuddle. now L has admitted that the cuddle had the very strange effect of making her heart beat a bit faster and a funny feeling in her stomach.


They managed only to talk for a short time at the wedding but it's obvious to all there that there is a spark between them, to make things more interesting they both are free to have a realonship, the thing is will they?


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Rain

So I am on holiday and what is the one thing you don't want, that's right rain, so what do we get yes rain.....

You can imagine just the words I have been using.


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Memory

What happens to memories ?

Take for instance L and her first love that she was with for eight years what happened to all those memories when she met and married M?

And now that her marriage appears to have failed what happens to all the years of marriage memories?

I don't know

How does someone cope with and deal with all those different memories and emotions ?

I have been lucky and have had what to some is the rare event and that is a long relationship with the same person for some 28 years so I have no way of knowing how one deals with having several major relationships.

I do know what I have gone through and also what L has gone through are not rare, how can it be when there are more than six billion people in the world, in fact what has happened to me and also to L must have been repeated millions of times, so somewhere on this planet there must be someone who could tell me how one copes with all these memories.

I have not asked L as I don't want to upset her more than she is already upset with what is going on in her life at this time.


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Music

I find it amazing that if I don't listen to some music at some point in the day I feel as if something is missing from my day?

Why is this?

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L and now

So L has met her ex from over twenty years ago both her and P are no longer the people they were.

L has had 3 children who are in their early twenties and has been married some 12 years

P has never married or had children

So how much do they have in common?

Is the common ground they share their lives before they went their separate ways?

I don't know the answer to this question it's one that I would like to put to L and P if I ever meet him to ask, as I suspect that the answer from L and P will not be the same answer.


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Marriage?

You have seen on my blog the story of L and P and how they have meet up again after some twenty years.

One. Thing I did ask L the other day is that if she got divorced from M would she marry P?

Her answer was and she admitted that this was something that P had already asked her was yes she would marry again.

I suppose that such an answer should not be a surprise as she was clearly very much taken with P when she was younger and only if he had been able to commit then she would have married him.

The question as to weather the marriage would have lasted is something that can never be known, it's possible that some other reason exists as to why P and L never got married when they were younger.

As L has said thing do happen for a reason what ever that reason might be.

As an outsider to all this I feel as if sometimes I am watching a film or a biography and that what I am seeing is all just a story, the only thing being that this is a story that involves real people and lots of emotions, and some of the things that are going to happen in the next few months are going to cause a lot of hurt and pain for lots of people, and from what I can see it's going to happen and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it happening.

I know that its going on with other people all over the world, but I don't know them do I?

So even though I am on the side lines it's not going to be nice seeing someone you know get hurt and know that there is nothing you can do to stop it from starting.


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Swords

Today I had the chance to hold a 1.5 meter long 6 kilos in weight sword, I must admit that it was a very strange thing to hold and that I would not like to have to have had to use it in real life as it's such a large item that you are supposed to use to kill some one with.

If you can not guess I was visiting a national trust property today that goes back to the Tudor period and so it goes without saying that they would have some old swords that are only 300 or 400 hundred years old that once you have put gloves on you can handle while under supervision.

It's something that I am glad that I did and would do again, as to me it felt that I had a chance to touch a bit of history.


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Wet

So it's august so it should be nice and warm with blue skies, so what do we get here in Cornwall?

Yes rain and dull grey skies, I suppose that it should not be surprise as after all we are in the UK and should expect nothing less.


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Changes

We the renewal has come up for the web host company that I use. Now the current company are based in America and have provide an okay service apart from two things.

The first is that there speed of response to a problem always take 6 or more hours, which is just far to long.

The second
Problem is that the hosting was too slow with my main website taking just far to long to appear and to change pages and before you say it's my website the software that drives that runs some very large website else where and has no problems with pages appearing in 1 or 2 seconds.

So I have a new web host which is also now in the UK and I have already tried out there support and I have to say a response within 10 minutes every time I have used it so far has been great.

The site sped is much much quicker than the old host.

The only problem I now have is transferring all the contents form the old host to the new.

The size of the problem is 7 gigabytes which looks like it's going to take for ever to move around.

So add to the fun I have already perhaps foolishly requested that the DNS name servers point to my new host.

So knowing my luck I could end up with blank screens.

And I did this knowing that I am on leave from tonight for a week!

Yeah I know, don't say it as I already have.....


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Love

The friend that I spoke about in an early blog has got love real bad infect I would say that they look at least 10 years younger than a couple of weeks ago, so it's amazing what falling in love can do.

I think I heard an expression love will find a way and for this person that certainly appears to be the case.


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Love

I think I have seen a friend fall in love and the change in how they look act and talk is amazing, I really did not think that such a thing was possible but having just seen it happen almost overnight has been a real eye opener.


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Blogs

Just been reading or rather scrolling on blogger through the different blogs that are on there.

The thing that I found sad was that so many of the blogs appear to have been started with say 10 or so entries after that there are no more entries, it appears that like podcasts you also get blog fade.

I suppose that a lot of these blogs were started in the rush of let's try this new hip thing and that some time after the reality of how much work it can be causes the user to just drift off doing the blog, I suspect that it is this or some thing like it that causes fade.


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Reading

Not done any book reading for a while now, due to the fact that I have just not felt up to it, what with the weather and work...

The other fact is that there are no books out there at this time that I want to read at this time, or and this is more the case can afford to buy, by that I mean there are several books that I want to read but they are all in hard back at this time so i shall have to wait for them to come out in paperback.


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White space

So with all this White space awaiting for some one to put some letters on it it can get a bit daunting as to what to do next or write next.

As I can write about anything as long as I don't break any laws.


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Audio twitter

Audio twitter good or bad?

I have not got a clue how it would work, perhaps you are only allowed 255 seconds of record time?

Just another silly thought.


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Not much blogging

Have not done much blogging here compared to what I have done in the recent past, mainly as I had nothing that I wanted to say and also as it's been so hot and work has been very intense with the result that the last thing that I wanted to see was yet another computer screen.


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Hot

Been so hot that have not used the iPad


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Tired

Why are so many people around me so tired?

Lots of folks are saying that they feel so tired even if they have not had late nights.

Is it the weather?


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Dirk Maggs semantic wiki

So I have a website and a test website with smw+ on it I have managed to set up some categories and also some properties.

I have also been able to carry out semantic searches with it working well.

What I have not managed to do so far is to and more than one property to an item. What I mean is that Dirk Maggs is a director, producer, weighed,male these are all different properties so far attempts to add a second property or more to Dirk Maggs has failed, I am not sure what I have done wrong yet.

It's something that I do need to get right as when it comes to actors they to can have more than one property and can have more than one production that they are associated with, so it's something that I need working for my website to work.


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Life

Well life continues to be a constant surprise in just how evil some humans can be to each other, I am referring to the fact that in Norway one man killed nearly 100 young people by posing as a policeman at a summer camp and then proceeded to kill as many people as he could, why?

Also this weekend just gone Amy white house a girl singer of 27 who had a lot of talent was found dead, I know she had a lot of demons, perhaps it was the demons that helped her to be so talented, I don't know.

It's just so very sad that she lost her life, what caused her death is not yet fully known but the general opinion is that it was drugs, I wonder if those that supplied her will ever get caught


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Dirk Maggs semantic wiki

Well it's been a while since I spoke about this project of mine, the truth be told I found that it's much harder than it looks to get the software on the website working correctly.

The good news is that over the weekend I found that some software that used to be very expensive to buy now has a community version of the software.

So I downloaded this and so far it all works, the down side is that it only runs as a system on my local machine and so is not on the Internet, which in hindsight is probably a good idea as I have already deleted it once and reinstalled it.

So all I have to now do is get my head around properties and and all the other semantic ideas that make up a semantic wiki.

I can see that it should help me with how I want to present and display all the data I have on all the Dirk Maggs productions.

So I have a lot of reading and thinking to do

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Semantic wiki

Not to sure if I have all the software completely and correctly installed yet, but I have smw+ installed on a localhost.

I have not yet worked out the best way to get all the pages into the wiki, is it better to. First just get the pages into the wiki and then to do the semantic bit?

I have been looking through the smw+ website for hints on this but have yet to find anything.

The other more long term problem is once if if I ever get the wiki working how I want it how do I transfer the test database to the production wiki?

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Lonely

Can you be lonely when there lots of people around you?


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Music

How do composers weather they are pop or classical, as I don't think it matters for this question, how do they get the sound of the tune in their heads out into the real world?

How do they make something that only exists in their head on paper or being played on instruments?

If I got the chance to as a composer this question the next one would be.

Is what you heard in your head what you got to be played in the big wide world?

Good questions to which I again have no answers.


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Silly thought

What speed does sugar dissolve at ?

Does it dissolve fast in hot water than cold?
Does pressure make any difference ?

I don't know the answers to these questions


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Music

Just found on music demand on virgin media a two hour kraftwerk live show, which was really nice to see and hear lots of tracks that I never knew where theirs!

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Time

I have just last night realised already that we are starting to loose daylight, sad or what?


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Websites

I have not to tell the truth here done much to the Dirk Maggs website, I do have some good reasons for this, well that's what I am telling myself!

One reason would be the fact that Dirk has not done any new radio productions that have made it to air yet, or I have not yet found out about them, I suspect that it's the former not the latter.

The other "good" reason is that I just have not had the time or even more shocking the get up and go to do anything to the website, I know it's shocking but there you have it, I have said it, I just don't feel like doing any of my websites and that includes the Dirk Maggs one.

Why?

Not sure

There must be a reason but I don't know what it is at this time.

Perhaps in a few weeks I will feel like dining the website again, but fear not I will not take the Dirk Maggs website down as there is far to much work that has gone into and all the research that has also gone into it.


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Time

It's always amazing to me just how fast time seems to pass by when you are not looking.

Why is this?




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Tired

So how easy is it to be so tired that you are just too tired to sleep?

Yeah I know


It's a surprise when it creeps up on you.


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Happy

How does one decided if they are happy?

Does someone else decide that you are happy?

Do you have to be happy all the time?

I know these are just questions that I get now and then, I don't know the answers to them I just pose them.


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Cake

Yesterday managed to bake a fruit cake for the first time in months or possibly years.

The thing took four hours to cook!

But the end result was very worth it.


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Unhappy

When do you know that you are in the state of being unhappy?

I don't know


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Remember

Tried to post something in here, but looking at this on the web it appears not to have worked which is a shame, as I am sure it would have been good.

Skyline film

Just starting to watch this film, I must say that it's not very Good and we have seen 40 minutes of a 97 minute film


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Wet

So it's July so that means that it's wet very wet, but only because it's summer.


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Not much

There has not been much that I want to put down in the blog, most things that have been going on are just the normal grind of just living each day as it comes and as such is no different from anyone else that happens to live in the UK.


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July

Just noticed that it's already the forth of July and I have not done a blog, mainly as I have been to busy and also because I have not had anything to say.


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Work

So due to work and two training days I find myself away from home. Which for me is not usual as I really don't like being parted from Donna.

So where am I?

I am in Chatham Kent.

Yes I still miss being away from Donna.


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Weather

Today has been a great weather day with lots of sunshine. The blue sky has been great and I have had some luck in that I have had the chance to enjoy some of it, which is always nice.


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Waking

Waking up in a strange hotel room is always strange.


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Missing

Missing the person you love always to me hurts especially when it's been caused by work.


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Sleep

How come when you want to have a lie in and have a nice long sleep your body for reasons all of it's own decides that it wants to wake you up at stupid o'clock?



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Warm

Well today could be the hottest of the year, it feels like it.

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Reading

Started to read another book, yes I know I just don't care, I like to read.

Anyway the new book that I have just picked up and started to read is called The wave watcher's companion and it's by Gavin Pretor-Pinney and it's actually a good and very interesting book to read.

I must admit that his writing style is such that you don't realise just how many pages that you have turned and read as the subject matter is so very interesting and the way that he talks about it is easy to understand.

The book is about wave be they light water or sound and how the reattach and act on the world around us, so far I have learnt lots about the humble or not so humble sea waves and how they transmit energy over very large distances with very little loss.

I have even learnt how waves are created in the first place and what and why cause the wave to grow the way that they do.

So far I am only some 80 odd pages into the book but I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book to see what else I might learn about waves that I did not know before.


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Relationships

Just read an article in the Daily Mail of all things how sex is one of the main or even then main glue in keeping couples together.

Apparently without it a relationship soon breaks down.

That sex is so important makes sense when you see just how many relationship just appear to break up when in reality they died a long time before due to the couple not having a close and continuing sexual relationship with each other.


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Reading

I have completed reading the book on house and I must admit that it was a book that I enjoyed reading, I did learn lots of new things that I never knew.

The only thing that I did not like about the book was how often it went all American on me, but thinking about that as I write this I think that in the end the author had it right in that a lot of stuff did go on in the USA which has had an effect not just on the world but also on the home.

In fact a lot of the stuff in the home would not be there if not for what happened in the USA.

Is that a bad thing?

I don't think so because if it did not happen in the USA it would have happen somewhere else eventually.

So the book is well worth a look at even if you only look at some of the chapters, you will pick up something that you did not know.


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Wave watching

So when was the last time you did some wave watching?

If you happen to glance up during the day and look at the clouds as the move about above you, then you are looking at waves.

In the case of clouds you are seeing the result of air waves pushing and pulling the clouds.


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Mother in law

So mother in law is out of hospital, which is good, not sure that she is coping with what is going on but the sad news is that the cancer has spread from the kidney to the major vein in the area, the cancer is slow growing.

Not really sure what to think about it all at this time.


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Skype

Just last night tried for about the fourth or fifth time skype.

The only pity is that the iPad does not have a camera, the iPad 2 does and I suppose that the iPad 3 will also have one.

But daughter has her netbook which does have a camera and she has taken great delight in using skype to talk to her mum, having a guided tour of daughters flat was fun.

So will I use skype again?

I will as long as I can get a wifi signal then why not.


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Mid summer

I am told that it is mid summers day either today or tomorrow not that it would make much difference as it's been so wet and cloudy that it's getting hard to tell if it's even June, I mean that overnight last night the temperature dropped to single figures!

This is June!

So it's unlikely that I will see the benefit of a long summer evening.


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Pictures

I had the job last night of transferring the pictures on my main computer to an external hard disc, there was some 21 giga of pictures and for some reason that I have yet to work out it took nearly and hour and thirty minutes to do the transfer, I know that it is a lot of data but why did it takes so long?


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BBQ

Well we had the BBQ on Saturday and apart from a bit of a drama in getting the gazebo up, with only one strut broken, which when you go to the website from which we brought the gazebo is not a rare occurrence.

The BBQ was okay all appeared to have enjoyed themselves which when you think of it is the whole reason for having it in the first place.

Mind you the clear up the next day is not so much fun.


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Fathers Day

So Sunday was fathers day and much to my surprise I actually got two cards this year and also some iTunes cards with money on!

So thank you to my two kids...

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First aid

Next week I have to do another first aid course, now why is it that it is some thing that I dread?

I have done the course every three years for years now, so why don't I like doing the course?

Not a clue, in all that time have used all that training just once when some one collapsed at work, they were okay later.


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Eclipse

The eclipse of the Moon last night was from what I read very good with the Moon a great red colour, I know this as there was a feed from a telescope where there were no clouds.

Here in the UK we had cloud and cloud and yet more cloud.


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Spar

So Donna and Charlene had a spar day for Charlene's birthday she is now 23!

From what Donna said she enjoyed it very much and that she would like to do it again.


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BBQ

Sortie Saturday is the planned date for Charlene's Hawaiian BBQ so can you guess what the weather looks like its going to be like?

Yes

Rain

Not sure if it's worth having a BBQ in the rain even with a gazebo.


I suppose I will have to keep looking at the weather forecast to see if it will change and get any better.


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Gazebo

So it's daughters birthday today and as is normal these days she wants to have a party on Saturday. As most folk are working it's been decided that the BBQ will be in the early evening and as it can sometimes get a little chilly, it's be decided to get a gazebo which will allow all ten or so of us to all be under cover.

Well the good news is that it turned up yesterday and it's six meters long and three meters wide.

It just fits the garden but as it was the first time that we have ever had a gazebo it took more than two hours to put up as we did not know how far we need to pull everything out and also just how much work there is in getting the roof on, as it's not fitted when you get it, but the good news is that you can leave it on afterwards.

Once up it's big and has plenty of room.

Taking it down was less than five minutes!

So that's good.

Just wonder how long it will take to put up on Saturday.


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Wet

So June is so far been more wet than sunny which I suppose is only right after the brilliant spring that we had, also the garden needs the rain, so I am not complaining as it saves me the job of watering the garden.


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Guildford

Ended up go to Guildford yesterday holding to pick up some stuff to help make some cupcakes, we were going to go to Lakeland Plastics, the surprise for us was that they had no power so where closed the same thing had also happens to several other shops near to it, so not a day for them and it meant we had to look else where for what we were after.


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Cupcakes

So we brought a mixer and loads of ingredients and with a recipe in hand from the Internet we have decided to make as a test run for daughters birthday, cupcakes!

The recipe is for Pimms No1 cupcakes and I must say that in the end they did turn out to be really nice, we made twelve and when I looked this morning there where only nine left and there are only three of us in the house at this time so someone has been enjoying themselves.


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Tents

It's my daughters birthday soon with her being 22 years old and she wants to have a Hawaii style BBQ so as it's June we have to be a bit worried about the weather as this is the UK and so we have decided as we are having the BBQ later in the day that as it might also be cool as well as windy that a large gazebo might be they way to go.

Find one that will fit in the garden has been fun, most appear to be for garden that are much much bigger than ours, but we have found one, which is good news.

The only thing that we will have to watch out for will be that it is not too windy on the day as these things don't appear to be made to withstand really bad weather that includes lots of strong winds.


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Flags

As we are having a Hawaii themed BBQ for daughters birthday we thought it would be a great idea to have a flag flying, and why not, it will certainly make the neighbours look twice at what is going on at least.

Now until we ordered the flag I had no idea what the Hawaii flag was like, I suspected that it would be the same as the USA flag.

We how wrong can you be!

The Hawaii flag has the Union Flag in it along with blue and White stripes!

And no I have no idea how the Union flag has ended up on it!

It must be an interesting story which when I get time I shall have a look at.

So the flag that we got is 5 foot by 3 and it looks great, wonder if the neighbours will work out what country the flag is for?


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Progress

Mother in law is getting better, news is that they are hoping to let her home on Sunday!


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Rain

We have actually had some rain, which is so good as I don't have to water the garden, which I like a lot as it takes ages to water all the plants, as there are rather a lot of them.


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Slides

Found a box of slides that date back to 1989 which I don't even remember taking!

I know even I was surprised what was on the slides, the fun bit was that I decided to use the scanner that we have to scan some of the slides into the computer.

Well to cut a very long story short it took me more than 3 hours to work out how to scan them in as I had to find a part of the scanner that allows you to scan slides and film negatives.

The other problem that I had was working out how to remove a panel so that a secondary light source was made to work so that the scanner could see the slides.


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Donna

This is a picture of Donna my wife. I think its a good picture of her.

Operations

Things on the hospital front have moved on a bit and the good news is that Mother in Law is now off the ventilator and is looking Tobermory discharged from Hospital within 5 days, I believe so as to reduce the risk of her picking up a Hospital acquired infection.


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Operations

Well Mother in law had her operation that went on for more than five hours, the result is not what we wanted with her in intensive care and kept in a medically induced coma.

The reason?

They had to remove her spleen as well as her kidney and she apparently also lost a lot of blood, hence the main reason for the induced coma is to give a body a chance to recover a bit from the Truman of the operation.

I am told that today they will review her and probably all being well take her out of the coma.

Let's hope so.


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Ios5

So Apple have talked about the new operating system that is coming for the iPad called ios5 it seems to have lots of new bits, not sure at this time just how many of the new bits will be of use to me but I will find out when they release it in September or October.


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Icloud

The icloud has been talked about by Apple, and what is very strange that I have just used part of it, and it feels no different than just using the Internet over wifi, so I have to say that so far to me at least it just works, and surly that's all that you want from it?

I don't think I will be able to use the other parts of the cloud until the operating system on the iPad is updated later on this year, by which time when that happens it will just be normal, and it will hopefully just work, so more when all this stuff happens.


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James FOLLETT website

For the first time in a long time I have done some updates to the James FOLLETT website mainly because I finally found the correct username and password to allow me to get in to my own website!

I know, silly thing to do loosing that sort of information but hey that's what happens in the real world.

So I have only changed a few pages, mainly because there is very little new information to add to the site, as James has I think retired form writhing novels, which is sad as I liked what he wrote, I must have as the number of hours I spent doing the website must be in the thousands, and it was one of the very early websites.

So my plan is to update when I have or find any new information. One thing that I did do was to update the software that runs the site, which I hope will keep it working smoothly.


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Operations

The mother in law today goes in for a big operation, which is to remove a kidney that has cancer in it, I understand that the operation will take four or more hours and that recovery will take six or more weeks, as she is also getting on in years it will be an anxious time to see if she comes out of all of this.

I am told that if she gets over the operation then she should be good for at least another ten or more years as the cancer is confined to just her kidney.


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Relationships

It's amazing just how a relationship can have so many ups and downs in it and yet still survive.


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Rain

Just want to record here that it's been raining non stop now for several hours, the rain is not heavy but it's there and enough so that in a car you have to have the wipers on to see where you are going, I think this is the most rain that I have seen in months, I know that the garden needs it, it was just so very strange having to drive in the rain!


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Drinks

So it's nice and warm and it's June so it's Pimms time!

So very nice, only thing is I forget just how strong Pima is an alcoholic drink, but nice anyway.


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Wrong

Is it wrong to still be madly in love with the same person thirty years later and still want to be with her all the time?


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Sunshine

Just a random thought, does the intensity of the light in the Summer because it's higher make you feel better than when in the winter on blue sky days.


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Blue sky

Yet another great start to the day with some great blue sky.


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Cooking

Yesterday as is our want we tried a new recipe.

To say that it was not a success would be an understatement things did not go exactly to plan with one of the ingredients being in the end too small, but these are the sort of things that just make life more interesting.

We were having eggs in baked potato with mushrooms in a butter sauce, the only problem was that the potato's were really too small, but as that is what we had that's what we had to use.

In the end the meal was okay but it did not look very nice, but it did taste great.



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Website update

Managed to do some updates to the main website that I have, I think after about an hour or so I managed to get some ten more pages working correctly, which is good.

It's just sad that some of these pages have been broken for more than a year!

Most have pictures missing or the formatting of tables and text is broken in some way, sometimes the tables don't venter and the text in the boxes dos not line up.

So it goes without saying that it can take some time to sort out each page, trouble is that the website has I think more than two hundred pages, not all of them have pictures but most of them have tables of some kind.

At the current rate of progress I think most of the site will be working in some shape or other by the end of the year.


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Computer programmes

How is it that you can still get software today, that does not have any decent instructions?


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Sunlight

Even after just a few dull days it's nice to see some blue sky and bright sunshine, it always seems that people are in a better mood when the sun is shinning, why is that?


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Blood

Did I say here that I gave blood again for the second time this year and I given 118 donations so far!

I think that I have the right to be very happy that I have managed to get to such a number.

I still hate the bit where they pull off the tape that holds the tube from the needle to the collecting bag, why is that bit so painful?


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Podcasts

Funny thing about all the podcasts that I listen to each week is just how much I miss them when I don't have them to listen to which was a bit of a surprise to me, and it was also a surprise on just how many podcasts I listen to each week.

The longest podcast that I listen to each week last two hours and is just all music, normally trance but sometimes it's other types of music that are just as good, and the best thing of all is that all the podcasts that I listen to are free!



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Reading

Just started to read a book that I have been waiting to come out in paperback by an author that I like a lot. He writes non fiction books that has a gentle humour right through them which I like, and so do a lot of other folks as his books tend to be in the top of the best seller lists.

The book of his that I am reading is called At Home and it's by Bill Bryson, so far it's been good, I really can not say much more than that as I have not read that much of the book so far, but I am sure that the book will be just as good as the other books of his that I have read.

I will report back when I have completed the book.


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Website Updating

I have just done a few more pages of the Dirk Maggs Website, which as you know is the main website that I have and also do a lot of work on.

Well the good news is that I have managed to bring more pages back from the dead and at this rate may have it all back and working by the end of this year.

I have also put back on the pages that I have got working again the images that used to be on each page as well.

So good news

Roast

Had over the bank holiday a roast, which is nothing different from anyone else I suppose, but the small or big difference this time was the fact that the pork was a rare breed, and the amazing thing is that the pork had flavour and the meat itself had texture, which is something you just don't seem to get these days.

So it was worth the money and the time in trying something that possibly my dad had when he was younger.


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Bank holiday

So a no sunshine bank holiday, which what we normally get in this part of the world.


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Rain

So according to the weathermen this has been one of the warmest springs for a long time, but when you check to see when records began you find they are only talking back to the early part of last century !



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Grills

How is it that grilling meat can be so hit and miss?


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Real ale

Just enjoyed some real ale called speckled hen, and very nice it was too.


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Walking

So today we are going for a little walk to go and see something called Rodney's Pillar which is on the top of a hill near to where we are staying, the weather is not too bad in that it looks like it's only going to be cloudy for the day with no rain forecast, which is always good.

I think the walk should take no more the 3 or 4 hours

Will let you know how it goes.


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Hot tub

Well on this holiday we have a hot tub that we can use at any time and for as long as we want, the tub is a big one with room for at least 6 and there are only two of us so there is lots of room.

For some reason which is best known to ourselves we like the tub to be as hot as you can get it.

For gnostic that turns out To be 40 centigrade which is warm or hot depending on how you feel.

Anyway the whole point of this blog was to say that having a session in the hot tub sure does relax you.

The only down side for me is that it does also make you drowsy and that's the last thing you want when water is involved.


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Old tree

Today I saw and oak tress which is listed and protected that dates back to 1372!

Thats 400 years older than the united states!

I know it's hard to believe that you can can see something that dates back to before the start of the industrial revolution that is older than the USA and is older than at least 5 or 6 large wars.

The good news is that the tree looks in good health and should last to it's 800th birthday!

So I will be long gone and forgotten by the time that this tree decides that it is time for it to go.

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Blog

I sometimes wonder if a blog is just an open or public diary of sorts and in my own mind I have yet to decide just what use a blog is.

I me some folk must use it as a way of dumping down stuff, while others must I suppose really do use it as a diary even if it's a public one.

I must admit that I use the blog as a way of storing notes to myself, so that in the years to come I can see what I was doing or thinking about, yes I know that you could also do the same with a diary but that means you have to use paper and you can not search for stuff as easily.

So that's what a blog is to me a notebook come diary.

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Weather

How come the last six weeks the weather has been great with lots of blue sky and as soon as I go away for a well it's overcast all the time?

How does that work?

Ia least it has been dry which is good, still the break has been good and that's all that matters in the end.


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Sauna

The place we are staying at has not only a large hot tub, which I spoke about in an earlier blog post but it also has a sauna, now in my life I have only ever had a sauna twice before, so it's strange that I have a whole sauna to just myself, so I can have it as hot or cold as I like and I can make as much steam as I can stand, as well.

So far I have had about three sessions, which have been okay, the hottest temperature that I have had so far is only sixty centigrade, which for me is as hot as I need it, as I just don't see what benefit you get from having it even hotter, I suppose that there must be a reason else why have the equipment for it to be hotter?

Any way it's nice to be able to have a sun a as and when I want, but it is something that to me is just a different experience and nothing more.


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Music

While on holiday one thing that I seem to miss a lot is the chance to have some one to one time with the type of music that I like, as the wife, Donna does not really like Trance, House or any of the other beat based music that I like, 

Why? I like this kind of music I just don't know

Why,  but it must be important to me as I normally listen to at least a hour or more of music of this type almost every week day and that for some strange reason I find that doing programming or this blog is much easier if I am listening to music, if it is beat based so much the better.

Reading blogs

How come it's so much fun to read other people's blogs?

Why is it?

I mean a lot of the blogs I read I suspect that if I meet these people in a face to face situation I would find myself unable to talk to them.

So how come it's so easy to read what they have written, and more to the point what do they get from doing a blog, as it's a thing that de ing on how often they blog and also how long there blogs are can take up a lot of time and effort.

And just how much feedback do they get for every blog entry that they do?

Do they get any feedback or nothing a tall, with their blogs just disappearing into the blog void?

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I know that my blog as it is described as a note book does not get that many readers but then that's not the reason for my blog, in fact I want only really me to read it, but that's the deal you do to get your blog hosted for free.

So one thing I have decided to do is to reach out to some of the folks that do blogs that I read and just say hi and that I enjoy your blog and the effort you take in writing it.

Maybe it will put a smile on their faces.

Reading

Just started to read a book called Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler this is a book that I am not to sure about even though I am only 45 pages into the book it already to me feels that the story is going to be predicable in what is going to happen and to who, I hope I am wrong as all I want from this kind of book is to be entertained.

So far this book is not doing that for me, normally with this kind of book the story should have grabbed me and all I'm interested in is what's going to happen next, not what page am I on and when will this story start to get a move on!

I will give the book a chance and carry on reading, perhaps it's one of those books that just takes a while to get going and get up to speed.


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