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?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad I suppose that if you have a blog that has something to do with sex in some shape or form that you will get more interest than a blog that talks about you dog or some other common thing.

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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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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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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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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