I started blogging on 25 october 2006, with a stupid video of a hamster.
Since that day I have moved home 4 times, changed jobs 4 times, got engaged, got married, brought a flat, then a cat, then a house in Sussex
I’ve travelled to Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, and Brazil.
I’ve seen friends and family marry in Siena, Mull, and Brasil. I’ve got a nephew and a niece and been made a godfather
I’ve seen Orient get promoted, make £1,000,000 in in the FA Cup, and loose 0-5 on my birthday.
And barely blogged any of those things.
Instead these are the posts which have got the most attention over the years:
2006
- 25 NOV Uber Party
- 16 JUL Photos from RIAT
- 06 AUG J and K Wedding
2007
- 23 FEB What’s It Like On Top Of The Dome?
- 26 APR London’s Kerning poster
- 25 JAN Londonist loves… Tube Refunds
2008
2009
2010
- 29 AUG Aysgarth Falls
- 15 SEP Let’s make blogging good again
- 17 MAR Greenpeace palm oil awareness stunt at Nestle
2011
A lot has happened in the last few weeks since I last wrote, and a lot has been written across the media in various forms.
But put aside those stories and go to UNICEF’s website and donate some money towards their emergency famine appeal. A child is dying every six minutes and you can help.
www.unicef.org.uk/UNICEFs-Work/Emergencies/east-africa-childrens-crisis-horn-africa/
It’s as simple as that.
I was intrigued in what I was missing from being blocked from visiting the News of the World website so I tried it’s parent company News International.
“Each of our newspapers is a leader in its field and offers world-class journalism”. If this was in doubt before today’s revelations on phone hacking, their own website makes sure you have all the information you need to make an informed opinion.
On a recent trip to the Lake District and Yorkshire I used a couple of iphone apps which I thought I’d share.
For taking photos and video
Camera+ – £0.59
What makes this worth the 59p is the ability to specify the point to focus on and a separate exposure point, gives you excellent control. There is also an editing suite to rival anything else available, all on one app.
Autostitch – £1.19
The quality of the images that this app “stitches” together is very impressive and makes the app perfect for capturing a large valley or waterfall. The recently launched Photosynth app is also worth a mention but is doesn’t stitch pictures together quite as well in my experience (but is free).
Vimeo – Free
Apart from being able to watch videos from the vimeo website (but not search – yet) the killer feature of this app is the simple video editor. You can add multiple clips together with simple transitions and titles, with surprising control over effects.
Info on where you are
Motionx GPS – £0.59
There were two main ways i used this app. Firstly, you can download large areas of maps onto your iphone to browse offline (I downloaded the whole Lake district national park at 500MB) which was perfect for seeing where I was regardless of the very unreliable mobile reception. Secondly, you can plan, track and record routes, setting waypoints, measuring distance traveled, height climbed, average speed, distance to next waypoint etc. At the end of the day your activity can then be shared on facebook, twitter or a link sent by email.
Day tides – Free
If you’re near the seaside, it’s handy to know when high/low tide is. This app tells you.
Peak.ar – Free
This was particularly useful in the Lake District. “What’s that mountain over there? Oh, it’s Helvelyn” It works impressively with hills, finding a number of “peaks” around my home in Sussex.
Info on what’s around you
AA Days Out – Free
This does nicely what you’d expect – locates where you and suggests places of interest to visit. all the information is store in the app so it doesn’t require a mobile signal which is handy.
AA Pub Guide - Free
This again does nicely what you’d expect – locates where you and suggests a good pub nearby. All the information is store in the app so it doesn’t require a mobile signal which is handy when you’re somewhere remote.
English Heritage Days Out - Free
Similar to the AA guides, this finds where you are and suggests English Heritage sites nearby.
AroundMe – Free
Lastly, AroundMe is very useful for finding a cash machine, petrol station, supermarket or indian restaurant. You need a mobile sinal to use it as it searches information online, but it gives you a list of results or map full of markers showing suggestions.
Some say “it’s better to have no twitter account at all than an inactive one“, but I’m not sure that Southern feel that way, as two twitter accounts with their name on are not promoting the rail company in very good light.
Firstly, @southerntrains is mostly harmless narrating the life of a commuter in south London, with tweets such as
“Cancellations at charing x so missed my connection at London bridge again“
and
“London overground have put one bench back at Norwood, where there was 4. So am still standing up.”
Then there’s @southern_trains, which is far more motivated and often hilarious. As well as posting it’s own reviews on the trains service
it mainly focuses on retweeting the cream of other people’s comments, some of whom aren’t aware that it isn’t an official account:
and
“Exceptional service, @Southern_Trains. You are on time. It is an exception.“
If you use Southern for your commute, you may like to follow these accounts to at least share your frustrations…
How do you get a 96.99% reduction in crime around your home? Move from East London to West Sussex. It’s a shame my car and home insurance didn’t drop by the same amount.
There’s two things that resonated about this blog post by insearchofthefairydust.
1. I’ve worked in croydon for 18 months and can confirm that so far, although I’ve had some good times;
“Nobody ever wakes up, and punches the air when they know a morning in Croydon awaits them.”
2. Everyone knows someone like “Rob”. They travel the world regularly, know someone in every country and always have a great story to tell, usually involving a near death experience. I’ve never been jealous of their life, but it’s always good to hear what they’ve been up to.
The things you do during the quiet times over Christmas. Like make a playlist of all the music from the TV series Misfits on Grooveshark….
Series one
Series two
Find them both on grooveshark: Series 1 playlist and Series 2 playlist. I couldn’t find all the tracks, E4 have a full listing of all the tracks used on their website
I commute for 180 minutes a day at the moment, and one thing that makes that journey bearable is podcasts of the Adam and Joe show on BBC 6 Music. If you’ve never listened, you’re too late, they’re taking a break for a few months. But here’s a snippet of what you’ve missed… (you can still catch some of their podcasts in iTunes if you’re an iPod person). You can also catch Adam at the regular BUG nights at the National Film Theatre.
