31 May, 2011

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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30 May, 2011

Bank holiday

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


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23 May, 2011

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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21 May, 2011

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


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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Blogging

Can doing blog entrees be relaxing?

It's a good question, I don't have an answer to it as yet as I think that it's something that needs to be thought about, but my very first quick thoughts on it are that yes in a strange way it's nice to be able to put down some notes or thoughts on stuff that has happens to you or to record thoughts that might otherwise be lost forever, at least that way you have to chance to revisit them and see if they where worth keeping or even if they need to be looked at again in greater depth.

I suppose for some people they use their blog as a place to dump stuff while others from what I have seen use it as a place to vent their anger at something that gets them real angry. Others that I have seen have used it as a way to start a writing career.


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Time

Why is it that when you are on holiday time seems to go that much quicker?

It's certain something that appears to be happening to me at this time, it's just strange how quick time is moving for me..


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Reading again

Another book that I am reading at this time while being on holiday is called 42 and is by Peter Gill and it's all about how the number42 keeps appearing in life in some of the most unusual places, that I bet Douglas Adams never heard of.

He died at the age of only 49, and as you know the answer to the life the universe and everything is 42, it comes as a bit of a surprise just who many things have something to do with 42.

The book is a nice easy read and does have mostly lots of stuff that have 42 in them in one way or another.

So the book is entertaining but the one thing that did surprise me was just how much paperback books have gone up to I mean that this book has only 341 pages and cost £8.99!

Why?

Has paper and printing really gone up that much?

Anyway the book is worth a few hours of your time because thats how long it took me to read it.


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Blue sky

Today 18th May is the first blue sky day of the holiday. It's nice to see it would just be great if me and Donna could just work out where we want to go to day.


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Flat tyre

A flat tree is always something that you don't want and more so when on holiday in a place that you have never been to.

Now I have over the years had the pleasure of changing the odd tyre and it's not a very difficult job.

So after spending sometime in working out how one realises the spare on a Clio, the first three bolts came undone with relative ease, the last one was the problem, more so as it's the locking one.

It did not matter what I did it would not move with the equipment that we had.

This is not good!

Lucky I am a member of the AA which in four or so years I have not used, so it was good that I had renewed this year again, a quick phone call and also the use of the help button on the Tom Tom satnav to find out just exactly where were were was all it took.

The lady at the other end said that an engineer would be with you within the hour, fifteen minutes later we get a text message on the phone saying that he should be with you in fifteen minutes and true to there words about fifteen minutes later he does indeed turn up.

After checking that we are who we said we are he gets to work and get the last bolt undone using a very long wrench, the problem he said was that who ever put the tyre on did it up with an air gun, and it's something that the AA get called out to a lot.

A little bit of confusion on that the spare tyre has different bolts and the entire job was carried out in less than ten minutes.

So really good service from the AA and I am pleased that we are members.


Because of where we were a new tyre was also fun but in the end we found a place that could not have been more helpful and had a new tyre on in no time, the replacement is not a top end tyre but will do the job for the next 17000 miles or so, not that I am going to check that sort of thing.

The only bad thing was having to payout for a new tyre.


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13 May, 2011

Break


Off from work for a few days, which is good.

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Blogger

What's been going on with blogger?

Have not been able to update for most of the day so far


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Birthday

So another birthday is not very far away as you get older the day does not seem to be that important, why is that?

I can remember when my seventh birthday was the most important birthday ever!

Why?

Not a clue now, but it must have been very important for me to remember


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11 May, 2011

Flowers

Just noticed that the ox eye daisy's are now out in great force nearly everywhere I look, I am sure that they have appeared over night. I know that they are early this year due to the warmer weather that we have had, I am sure that they normally come out in June.

Anyway it's nice to see them.


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10 May, 2011

Rain

So off for a weeks break soon and looking at the long range weather forecast dos not look good in that it appears at this time that it's going to be wet almost all of the time we are going to be away and to just to add to the fun we did plan on having lots of walking. So it might I suppose be a good idea to think of some other things to do if the weather really is as bad as they are saying it's going to be.



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Websites

Just and up date to me that since I started tore edit and put back the missing pictures on the Dirk Maggs productions website the site has gone from third to first yeah!

The bad news that is attached to that is that accruing to some website logging software I am only get five or six visits a day but still getting 500 to 900 hits a day, not too sure what the real difference is and as I do the website for me and no one else the number of vista is not that much of an issue as I don't make any money from it, in fact it costs me money!

So the thing that I don't understand is why is there such a big difference between hits and visits?

Are they the same thing?

Are they both telling the truth or are they both wrong?

I don't know the answer all that I do know is that the site is steadying to look much better than it did and that at the rate at which I am going sometime in 2012 I may have all back working as it should.

It would be nice I suppose to have some new Dirk Maggs productions to report on but at this time that does not look very likely, which is sad as I have missed hearing his work.


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Books

I am as you know if you have looked at this blog this year also writing a book as I reported last time, I have and am still stuck with draft 2 of the book I am writing as the free software that I am using to write the book keeps crashing, which is to say at the least not very nice and does just annoy the he'll out of me.

I am told that there is an update of the software coming up very soon, like late May so there is a good chance that perhaps in June I will finally be able to get on and start editing the 2nd draft of the book, let's hope so!


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New mobile

So the current mobile phone that I have is now some 18 months old and I now have the chance if I want to update the phone if I want to.

So I have, it's costing me about 3 pounds a month extra but then I get more text and data allowance than I ever had before, so that's a good thing!

The new phone is another Nokia, I know that they are falling out of favour as everyone is either getting an iPhone or a samsung android phone, well I don't want to pay all that kind of money for a phone I want a phone that is built really well and just works. What I mean by that is that I want a phone that just gets on with it, and so far with my previous Nokia phones that is just what they do.

My old phone is a N86 8MP which has been very good, it's been dropped and generally abused but it still works real well and does a good job.

The camera on it which is 8million pixels is very good and so is the lens on it, and that's one of the reasons that I have gone for the N8 by Nokia as the camera on it is 12million pixels which is very high for a camera phone, but as it tends to be one of the features that I use most it stands to reason that it is one of the main reasons for choosing the phone that I have.

I know that the amount of apps for it is not as great as the iPhone, android handsets, but then again I also have an iPad for that sort of stuff and when I look at the software that I have installed on my current phone I find that I don't have very many installed, so having apps on the phone is not the main reason for getting a particular phone.

So it will be interesting to see how the new phone is compared to my old phone, I understand that Nokia are now moving away from the operating system that that have on their phones to a Microsoft one, I wonder if the N8 can be reprogrammed to run on the windows operating system?

In the long run to me it does not matter, as all I want is a well built phone that just works, is built well and takes very good pictures, not much to ask for is it?





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08 May, 2011

Passwords

It's a pain when you have to change passwords


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07 May, 2011

London Pride

You had the chance to drink some London Pride all I can say is that it's very nice and it will be a real ale that I shall try again.


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Dirk Maggs Website

Just had a look on Google to see where my main website is today....the good news is at this time I am first... Yeah.....!


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Podcasts

Just a note to me that the Ben Nicky podcasts of which there are only some 6 episodes as I write this are really rather good, the only two things against them are that there are not many of them and the other is that each podcast is only about a hour long which on some of the mixes is too short as I am left feeling cheated somehow!

So the mixes are good some very good track choices and some very good mixing going on most of the mixes flow really well.

I shall have to let you know later as to how his podcasts go, will they be better? Longer? or just about the same?


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New book

I have another new book that for reasons that will become very obvious in a minute I can't claim to have read only use, and have used it on lots of occasions which is good as that's what this book was written for.

The book is called The Cloud Collectors Handbook and it's by Gavin Pretoria-Pinney and I must say it's been a real easy book to use.

It goes through all the differant type of clouds that you a able to see, I am not sure if every cloud type is seen in the UK but it gives you information on the cloud it's Hightower and it also shows you pictures and that's something that has been most useful.

As a reference book worth every penny.


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Rain

So it turns out that the weathermen were correct and it is indeed raining for the first time in about six weeks, I am sure I have heard lots of the plants in the garden sigh!


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06 May, 2011

Reading

Just completed reading yet another book that I brought on impulse if I have to admit to myself.

The book is called I never knew that about the River Thames by Christopher Winn he has also written other books in the I never knew that about series.

This is a book that can be read two way either from the start to the end or it can also be read by dipping in handout of it as is your want.

I must admit that I enjoyed reading it and did learn lots about place and the River Thames that I never knew, it must have made me a bit more curious about some of the the stuff that he talks about in that I went and looked up stuff in greater detail.

Worth the time and money to read and yes I was entertained while learning!


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Weather

The weatherman have said that this Saturday we will have have some rain for the first time in six weeks, it will be interesting to see if the weathermen are going to get it right for once.


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05 May, 2011

Rain

I have not seen any rain of any sort for six weeks


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04 May, 2011

Frost in May

Is it possible to have frost in May in southern England?

It certainly felt like it this morning


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Thriller Live

Went to the theatre last night to see a show called Thriller Live and the good news is that I liked the show, not all of it it must be said but most of it, the show as you can guess from it's name is basically some of Michael Jacksons most famous song set to some good dance routines and light show.

The problem for me is that a lot of his early music I just don't get, what I mean is that it just does not give me a buzz like his later stuff.

As the show has been set up so that it runs almost in chronological order it meant that most of the first have not all of it was songs that I had never heard and did not do any thing for me musically.

The second half of the show was much better for me as it was all songs that I had at least heard and I did get musically.

The only other thing that I did note was the cast did look a bit tiers in parts of the show, which I suspect may have something to do with the fact that they have had a long tour and the fact that the show is very physically demanding and that has to take it's toll.

But was I entertained?

Yes

Would I say it's worth a night out to see?

Yes, it's worth it and there will be songs that you will know and the dancing and the energy that the cast put into the show are catching.


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Gorse

Just notice that the gorse in my area has bloom early this year and that the blooms on it do not last very long but that the brightness of yellow is much brighter this year than I remember it from previous years.


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03 May, 2011

Pollen

So it's now early May and the trees and plants in my area are producing pollen as if it's going out of fashion.

I know this fact as my car has now developed a light yellow cast to it, when we get some rain it will all go, but as we have not had any for some eight weeks it may be a while before the car stops being two toned.


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02 May, 2011

Bank holidays

So this is the last bank holiday until august which seems to be an awful long way away, but in fact will come just soon enough.

Although the sun was shinning and there was blue sky all day the wind which has been gusting all day was cold and I am afraid to say rather put the dampers on it being a really outstanding day, but must not complain as it was a mostly restful day and you can't have too many of them.


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Reading part 2

Another book that I read is one that I did not buy it was given to me as a joke as part of a Xmas present, it was not part of the present it was what was inside of the book that was the present, and if you must know the present was a book token.

Any way as we have had some bank holidays here in the UK I had some time while waiting for my old desk top computer to start up I picked this book up and started to read it.

The book is called Stupid white men and it's by Michael Moore, now it's a very American-book it does talk about a lot of American politics which this bloke in northern Europe does not have a clue about it and even with the stuff in the book I am still not sure that to this day America has two political parties because from where I am sitting they look both the same!

Anyway this book caused a bit of a stir in it's day, and so reading it has been interesting in that I did not realise just how dirty American politics is and the lengths that they will go to to get and to hold on to power, but then again this might also be the case else where in the world, it's not something that I take much if any notice of.

The book was a read but I can't say it was a good read as just too many things that Moore talks about jar me.

I suspect that it has made no difference to what happens in the USA, but has made a lot of money for Michael Moore.

So not a book I would read and the subject matter if all that is in the book is true does not matter to me either, but then I am from Europe and we already know that the folks from China will soon own everything in the USA and then not long after Europe!


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Reading

Another book that I read just a short while ago is called Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, for some reason I brought this book in hardback, perhaps because it was on sale, who knows and it was some time ago...

Any way the book is a good read in that for me it was a fun read and it was entertaining and that's all I want for a book these days if I am reading for my pleasure.

It's a book about all those questions that you have had about what the astronauts have to put up with and all that sort of stuff.

Stuff like how you go to the toilet when there is no gravity to help the process, the fact that smells in space linger.

The most interesting thing that I learnt was that most astronauts suffer space sickness at some level and that it is something that can not be predicted on Earth before flight, so an unpleasant time is had not soon after orbit is achieved by most who have got there.

A book that is great to dip into and out of


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More Music

 More Tracks So I may be on a roll here, in that I should not long after this post goes up have released another new music track. So have a ...