Blogs

Funny how one minute you have lots you want to say in your blog and the next either you do not have the time or you don't have anything that you think needs to be said.

Updates 4

The updating of the Dirk Maggs Productions website carry s on and on or so it seems, the good news is that all the productions from 1987 to 1993 now have there correct navigation system installed.

The bad news or which there are two is that 1 the years 1994 to 2010 need to be done, and in some of those years Dirk did do a lot of radio work, so there are lots of productions to add the navigation system to.

The second bit of bad news is that as I have gone through the productions from 1987 to 1993 I have found that quite a few are missing cast photo's which I know that I have.

It goes without saying that I will have to add the photo's that I have, but this also means that I will have to search out some of the missing ones and credit them if that information is out there.

As my head was starting to spin with all the edits I have called it a day on the edit front.

Blue sky

So today it looks like we may be very luck and have a day with some blue sky, I can't think when we last had a day with it, its been that long.

I also don't know if the sun will be very warm, it does not matter as long as we have some hours of bright daylight.

Website Updating 3

I have done some more work to the Dirk Maggs Productions website, I have now started on the very long road to put a navigation system in for every production by year. This is something that I said that I started a while ago and I am still doing it!


So far progress is slow as each production pages takes some 5 minutes or so, and I find that after a while my concentration starts to go and I start to make errors. So I have sound the best thing to do is to pick a year that I have not done and do it, and if there are not too many productions in the year then pick another year and do that. I have found that sometimes I can do more than one year at a time before I get *issed off with it all.

I think that at my current rate of doing the editing I shall finish in a few weeks.

There is plenty of stuff that still needs to be done, eg sorting out cast photos and getting them all the right size, I suspect that this task will take months and may never really be complete as I hope there will be new stuff to report on that Dirk has done.

The other final very important job that has got to be done is to work out how my host works so that I can remove all the old Dirk Maggs website and just leave the new one.

Snow

The report on the snow we had is this, its finally going, in fact it has been raining and you know what I don't care one little bit that it is wet.

The weather men are saying that we could see some blue sky tomorrow. It will be nice to see some as we have not had any for so long now. What little snow that is left is where it was piled up after being dug off the roads or the paths

Bread maker

Just some great news got a replacement bread maker

Heating

Well we have had a bit of a situation here the last few days. Yes the heating failed, and it is still cold, and I can tell you a house at 10 centigrade is not much fun to sit in.

Lucky as we have four star maintainance with the Gas board they came out the next day after we placed the call, as we made it at gone 6 pm.

The result the main circulation motor had died and the 3 port valve had failed in that the spindle had snapped.

Gas board man said will be back at 10am on Sat to fix it, and he was and it is all working.

House temp at 16.45 hrs was 18.1 centigrade and rising.

Slush

Today in honour of the thaw my word of the day is SLUSH

Dirk Maggs

I got a bit more of the Dirk Maggs website done, in that I think I have worked out a simple page navigation system for his radio work by year. Well it appears to be working the only snag is that I now have some 100 pages to edit and change, and each one has to be done by hand, which is not good.

As each page takes some 10 to 15 minutes to do it is going to take some time to do every radio production, but then there is no rush, as its my website and I can take as long as I like to get it into the format and layout that I want.

Book reading 2

This is the first book that I have finished reading this year 2010, well I think it is.

The book is called American Connections by James Burke, its an interesting read in that as a Brit I do not know how many men signed the American Declaration of Independence, and I did not know just how close it came to being not signed and not needed.

It would appear that a lot of the men who signed the document all made in some way a lot of money from it, may be that was one of the un-written reasons and why they would not compromise.

So I did learn a lot from this book, but I got the feeling that even James had trouble linking some of the men back to today.

Well worth a read if your history of how or who some of the men behind the declaration is non existent

Updates 3

The Dirk Maggs Website was updated a bit more yesterday in fact I found new information for one of Dirk's lesser known productions of the 1990's in fact it's a pilot show that he did that never got taken up.

I still have lots of layout problems and I still have not yet worked out a good and easy navigation system.

Hills

Living at the bottom of a long hill eg its height difference from top to bottom is some 100 odd feet but the distance from top to bottom is much more and that the top of the hill and to add to the fun there is a set of traffic lights as there is a major A road at the top of it.

Add snow about 9 inches

Add no salt


Add no grit


Result I can't get my car out of my road and it is doing my head in

Website Updating 2

For reasons that should be obvious eg the very bad weather, I am too tied to do any updates to the Dirk Maggs Website. Its not as if I don't want to its just that I am just having trouble staying awake.

Snowed In

So I am snowed in in that I live at the bottom of a hill that does not get salted,( which at this time does not work as its too cold) So at 6.45am I started off for work and got there at 10.15am after walking non stop.

Its not something I want to do again, as walking in deep snow is not nice, and I am very tied tonight.

All being well I have a lift (I still have to walk about a mile to the pick up point)

Snow 2

It has been snowing all day and the end result is we have nearly 10 inches of snow, so you can guess who did not go to work today and why.

Tomorrow dos not look any better with the very hard frost and snow due.

Snow

Why do we have to have more snow?

I mean we had some last year do we really need some in 2010?

CM5 Tables

Why cant I get tables to work in CM5?

Its doing my head in

Editing Website

The editing of the Dirk Maggs website carry on and on, as there are over 200 pages to sort it is going to take some time. One problem that I have still not sorted is the layout of tables with all the actors names and what they did in the radio production in question.

The end shot of all this is that some table layouts are okay but others are broken.

Image uploading works and I have now found how to resize..

So some of the pages on the website are starting to look okay.


One thing I can't help but do is add new bits and pieces as I go so the site has already changes a lot since it was installed into the CMS back in October 2009

Reading stuff

The book that I have started to read is called "Love & Sex Robots" by David Levy so far all I have read is the introduction, which was okay but to be was trying to say don't take all this too seriously and this is not something that should be thought of as dirty and a fetish subject.

But with the title of the book it will be seen as just that, from what I have read of the book its been written too early in that most robots and stuff are no where near the point that people will take this stuff as a serious problem and that it should be something that needs to be talked about.

But as I have not read the book I shall have to say here that I will keep an open mind and I will just have to see where David Levy takes us and if he can prove his introduction.

2010

So my very first post of the year, I wonder how many other people will be starting out doing a blog this year, and just how long they will keep it up for.

I see that last year I did my most blogs ever, this year the idea is to just blog as and when I have something to talk about or that I want to record for later use.

I think one change that I want to do sometime this year is to change the layout of the blog, as it's been then same for sometime.

I don't have anything else to talk about at this time so I will spot.