RIP Favourite Jeans

Just a quick one.

Yesterday, whilst sitting down to watch the Heroes from Wednesday, I ripped my favourite jeans :(

Considering they're about 7 years old and were bought in Primark, that's fairly impressive.

I will miss them...

Oh my goodness

Wow! I just came across this on the internet. I've actually ordered something from this company through ebay, and was checking the status of my order (only problem ordering from Hong Kong is the delivery time!)

So, this company called Uxcell sell a watch which plays music, displays your photos and even plays videos! It has 2GB of memory, which is enough for a reasonable mix of the three (enough to keep you entertained on the train to work). And here's the best part, the whole thing costs under £36 (not including P&P of course).

I was so amazed that I just had to tell the world, OK, so the 6 people that read my blog ;)

Still, it doesn't compare to my GP2X. Games (old and new), movies, music...

GP2X

I recently purchased a GP2X, a handheld gaming/media device. And I am currently awaiting it to be delivered. It should be arriving sometime tomorrow or Saturday hopefully.

The GP2X is incredible, because it is LINUX based. This means that it has (built-in) a music player, a movie player (which plays virtually anything), a photo viewer and an e-book reader. In addition, because it is simply LINUX-based, you can have any of a load of emulators (giving you the ability to play games from all sorts of classic systems from the Spectrum up to the Playstation), palm-top software, homebrew games and virtually any software you might want. Oh, and because it includes a USB interface, this also provides opportunity to use a wifi dongle for wireless internet too...

The reason I've had to wait is because I pre-ordered the latest version, which also includes a touchscreen (thus hopefully making Palm-top stuff a lot easier, and opening the door for DS-style games).

I'm really excited, which is really annoying Lucy. She'll probably end up playing on it more than me anyway. I'm mostly getting it for it's media capabilities. Movies and music on the go for about the same as an equivalent, except the sound quality and toys will hopefully be better, the screen will be bigger, it has TV-Out and it plays games. Rock on.

More info here (plus, if you buy one I can earn some dosh): http://gp2x.co.uk/go.pl?A188

University Today

Someone sent this by e-mail to all of the students in my department at University. Whilst I don't like the idea of a first year using the mailing list to send junk round to all of the undergraduate students, it turned out that this was rather good.

This is a video created quite recently, highlighting modern University life. I'm just glad that it's not just me.

Anyway, take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&NR=1

If that interests you, you should also look at a video called Academia 2.0 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ1jFaXgTnw

Learning today needs serious rethinking, and not just at University level. Kids in school are being pumped full of facts, but are lacking in understanding or the ability to assimilate the information. Also, no one is taught any vital life-skills. Not at school, because they're too busy trying to pass exams; not at home, because both parents have to work in order to live the way they think they're supposed to.

Anyway, rant over. Back to work...

11 Questions

Hey

I recently read about these on Captain Andrew Clarks blog (http://armyrenewal.blogspot.com) and found them very useful.

What "they" are is a set of 11 questions given in The Salvation Army's "Orders and Regulations for Soldiers" (1950). They're not intended to become rules for living, just probing questions to aid us in our self examination.

Mentioning about them to Lucy, it became clear that they might be useful to one of her group, but not in the language they are currently in. So I have re-written them in a slightly more modern language.

The questions (both versions) are available here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc6k32v6_2g63cbw

I hope they are of some use to you too

Washing

Do you think it means I've overfilled the washing machine when my clothes come out folded exactly the way I put them back in my bag after the weekend?

Is that bad?

Ho hum.

Take time to be Holy

I found the words to the song my head was searching for in the labyrinth (read the previous post). Song can be found in the Salvation Army Song Book (No. 458)

1.
Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in him always, and feed on his word;
Make friends of God's children; help those who are weak;
Forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek.

2.
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone;
By looking to Jesus, like him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct his likeness shall see.

3.
Take time to be holy, let him be thy guide,
And run not before him whatever betide;
In joy or in sorrow still follow thy Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust in his word.

4.
Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul;
Each thought and each motive beneath his control;
Thus led by his Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

William Dunn Longstaff (1822-94)