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I’ve closed off my Facebook Photo Uploader project for the foreseeable future.

The main reason is that I just don’t have the time to develop it to make it actually work! The problems started a few months ago, Facebook introduced an album ID format which used Strings rather than Longs (essentially they could contain non-numeric characters, which messed up the Facebook Java API code I was using). The Facebook Java API project have released a new version, but unfortunately it also has a few other changes which would require a fair bit of work to port back into my uploader.

So, I’ve closed the project and told people to use Bloom instead.

If anyone’s interested in taking over the project, then please do let me know.

On Thursday night last week it snowed pretty heavily. This meant that I wasn’t able to get into work on Friday, but I was able to do some work from home.

And we had another party on Friday night! Fortunately it didn’t involve driving so we were able to walk across town. We went round to Tom’s place for a Christmas ‘bash’, there were a whole bunch of people there and we had a whole lot of fun. This included drinking lots of mulled wine and eating lots of food (and I do mean, LOTS of food. There was enough to feed an army!)

So that was good. Then on Saturday we did a bit of shopping, present wrapping and the like. In the evening we watched “The Hangover”. I’d heard some good things about it from my colleagues. It was quite clever and well-written, but… I don’t think I really got the joke. I’m not sure whether it’s a difference between British and American humour, there just didn’t really seem to be any jokes in it! Kind of like “Wimbledon” (the film) – kind of amusing but it didn’t really make me laugh out loud.

Anyway. On Sunday we went to church twice – despite the snow! After our carol service in the evening – which was relatively well attended despite the poor weather – we went round to Jo’s for some tea.

Apart from all those things, I’ve been playing a fair amount of Red Alert 3: I ordered it last week, and it arrived on Friday. It’s got pretty poor reviews on Amazon, but I think there was a problem with DRM / Product Activation which made people give it bad reviews. Perhaps I went in with low expectations, but I’ve actually been really enjoying it. Someone said that it wasn’t as fast-paced as RA2, which I don’t quite see at the moment: it appears to be just as fast-paced in terms of the missions.

The graphics are decent, and I like with what they’ve done with the units. The only problem is, it is a bit complicated for my tiny brain. Each unit has an ‘alternate fire’ mode, for example, which I never use. (Although I probably should…) Oh, another minor problem: Apocalypse tanks can no longer defend themselves against air attack. I suppose the ability did make them a bit too powerful in RA2, but nonetheless it is annoying. You now have to remember to include Bullfrogs or MiGs into your attack force – not necessarily a bad thing I guess, just keeps catching me out! I do like, though, that there are more airborne and seabound units, and in fact several units are amphibious. The battle is much more ‘all across the map’, rather than just being fought purely on land like it was before. Even with Kirovs and Black Eagles / Harriers in RA2, air attack was pretty limited – and I don’t think anyone really used to battle on the sea, outside the missions.

Aaaanyway, the above is only my experience after playing through most of the Soviet campaign (there are three campaigns – Soviet, Allied, and Japanese). I’m really enjoying it so far, and look forward to completing the rest!

It’s that time of year again! On Friday night we had the 21 Christmas party. It went down pretty well, think all the kids had a good time. Then on Saturday we did a bit of Christmas shopping (nearly all done now… so close to the end!) In the evening we went round to James and Tash’s house for some Christmas drinks, nibbles and games. We ended up playing “Pass the Bomb”, which was good fun, and just generally chatting.

On Sunday we had church as usual, and then went to Sunday@6 in the evening, where I was leading. So, in general, it was a good weekend. I have a youth leader’s Christmas party tonight, and then it’s not long to go until the day itself!

Quite looking forward to Christmas this year, I need the time off and it will be nice to see family! Going to try and take it slowly. Anyway, it’s absolutely freezing tonight so I’m going to try and get warm next to a radiator! All for now…

There seems to be a lot of fuss at the moment around the X-Factor. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Facebook group Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1, it’s basically reacting against the whole X-Factor winner having a Christmas no. 1 every year.

I do applaud the effort of the group – I joined, and I’ll probably buy the Rage Against the Machine single – but it does make me think. The whole X-Factor thing has rather passed me by this year. And last year. And the year before that. The reason? I don’t watch it. I don’t really care about what’s in the charts – I mean, it’s not as if the rest of the charts is full of fantastic music! I like what I like – I listen to my own music, or Spotify, or the radio, and generally whatever dross there is in the charts, or the X-Factor, doesn’t affect me.

Now, I’m not condoning the X-Factor – I would be very happy if it got pulled – but it just seems that all this is giving it yet more attention. If you really hate the X-Factor, the best thing you could do would be just to ignore it. That, or assassinate Simon Cowell 😉

I’m getting very slack – it’s now Wednesday and I haven’t updated with a usual weekend style update. Well, if you’re lucky, I might toss in some news of what we’ve been up to mid-week :p

Anyway. Friday night – 21 as usual. Saturday – I spent most of the day preparing for Sunday morning. In the evening Phil went to Chelmsford for Rich’s party, unfortunately I was still preparing so couldn’t go. But I did go to Sarah and Jon’s for a couple of drinks – they are leaving Colchester (sad times), so I thought it would be nice if I could pop round once I’d finished my preparation. It was a really good evening anyway – I caught up with them, and Andy B and Helen. We also played ‘Buzz’ and ‘Singstar’ on the PS2, which was good fun! At the 21 Christmas party this Friday we will be having a Singstar competition, should be good fun.

On Sunday I spoke at church, as I have already mentioned, and then we went round to Dennis and Christine’s for a sort of student lunch. I say “sort of” because they invited a few students along, but also invited us. But it was a nice afternoon anyway – I was very full by the end of it! And then we went to Sunday@6 in the evening.

So there you have it! And the mid-week update, as promised. This is very exciting stuff, as I’m sure you can image: on Monday Phil had a PCC meeting, so I stayed in and started re-watching Torchwood (“Children of Earth”). Then, last night we went out for dinner with Jo, who now lives just round the corner from us. (She has a 6 month old baby so she appreciates having adults to talk to!)

Um… yes. Not much else to say at the moment.

Just in case you are interested, my sermon from this morning on Ephesians 6:18-20 (on prayer) is up and available on the Fordham website (note: direct link to MP3)

I think it went pretty well, had a lot of positive comments about it afterwards, but obviously I still need a lot of practice! Had a lot of help from the big guy (i.e. God 😉 on this one I think!

This weekend was a pretty standard weekend – did a talk on the Good Samaritan at 21 on Friday, did some shopping on Saturday, church on Sunday etc.

The main thing different was that we went to St Botolph’s to see Haydn’s Creation. It was great – the orchestra, choir and soloists all performed well! And I really enjoyed the music, even though it was my first time hearing it. Haydn was quite old when he wrote it and I think that shows in terms of benefitting from experience and maturity. Some of the English translation was funny though! My favourite: “Multiply, ye finny tribes” – talking about fish!

Anyway. The other thing is of course – it’s December! Not long to go until Christmas. I’m really looking forward to the break, it feels like it’s been ages since our holiday in September.

Next week I am speaking at Eight Ash Green on Ephesians 6:18-20. It will be a bit nerve-wracking – the first time I will have done a talk at Fordham designed for adults! But hopefully it will go well.

Now that I’ve been using Windows 7 for a couple of weeks, I thought it would be a good time to write up a couple of thoughts that I have.

The thoughts are overwhelming positive so far. In fact, to be honest I don’t have a single bad word to say about Windows 7! (Shock!! Horror!!) Actually there are one or two little things, but aren’t there always! Here are a few bullet points, because I like bullet points:

• The user interface is more refined than XP. Not just in a cosmetic way – lots of thought has gone into the design to make it easier to use. I like the fact that the taskbar doesn’t distinguish between quick launch applications and running applications – they’re all just icons, easily ‘docked’ to the taskbar if you so wish. The only thing wrong with this that I have found is, if you want to start a new instance of (say) Firefox while another instance is already running, Windows just thinks you want to minimise / maximise it. No biggie, just one little niggle.
• I like the way multiple windows of one application are handled – only one icon on the task bar, but little preview windows open up when you hover / click on it.
• My printer was installed and ready to use about ten seconds after plugging it in. As has been the case with every single other USB device I’ve plugged in. (It took a while to get the printer working in Linux because of driver issues.).
• Another thing about the taskbar. I find this incredibly cool: when you’re copying a large file and then minimise the window, the icon background then becomes a progress bar. It’s a little difficult to explain, but it’s a great way of showing you how far along your file copy is without you having to open up the window!
• I don’t know how good it is for compatibility with older apps, but everything I’ve tried so far has worked. Including Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, which is almost ten years old!

All in all, I have been very pleasantly surprised by Windows 7. It does seem to be a real step-up from Windows XP in terms of usability, and the things I’ve highlighted are only a small number which have particularly struck me.

I’m still no fan of Microsoft as such, but Windows 7 has won me over … for now 😉

Just realised I haven’t updated this blog with a customary “weekend” style post! Although – not very much happened this weekend. We went to 21 on Friday night, wherein I sprained my ankle when playing a game. I was resting for most of Saturday! I did watch “West Side Story” in the evening which was very good.

Then on Sunday we went to church in the morning and also to Sunday@6. Not really much to say at all there!

Just realised that it’s a month until Christmas. We have done virtually no Christmas shopping at all so far. It’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks I think!

As per my usual habit of combining two completely unrelated topics in one blog post, I’ve decided to talk about two things today. Firstly, politeness.

I’ve noticed a couple of examples of things recently which seem polite but, on reflection, perhaps are not. The first thing is, holding doors open. The general idea being that someone walking behind you will not have a door slammed in their face! That seems quite polite. But the problem comes with how far someone has to be behind you in order for you to hold the door open: a couple of steps? A few yards? Half a mile?! Personally I don’t like it when someone holds a door open for me and I’m a fair distance away. Being English, I feel compelled to run in order to not keep them waiting. It’s just an embarrasment factor we could all do without.

My new rule is, “hold the door open only if it will slam in someone’s face”. If not, then – well, working doors is not exactly rocket science. If I hadn’t been there to hold it open the other person would have had to open the door anyway. Obviously there are always exceptions (i.e. someone disabled or elderly may have difficulty opening doors) but that’s the general idea.

The second thing is, pouring out hot water from the kettle. At my workplace, we don’t have a massive office but it’s big enough that there are often a few people waiting around for the kettle to boil. Some people will fill up your cup with hot water for you when it has boiled. This is a nice thing to do, obviously… but I don’t generally do it. The problem is, people all like cups filled to different levels, and it seems a bit redundant to ask people how full they want it when they could have filled it to their own preference in practically the same amount of time.

Anyone else have little random things which seem polite but are actually not very?

The other thing is, Top Gear. I didn’t mention this the other day, but I was a bit disappointed by this week’s show. I just found it incredibly formulaic, I could virtually have predicted what was going to happen from the start:

1. Top Gear team go off somewhere to test drive cars (in this case, drive along the best driving road in Europe, or whatever it was)
2. They don’t bother preparing
3. They do stupid things such as buying a Dacia Sandero (can’t be bothered to look up spelling :p) and park it right behind a lorry;
4. Hilarity ensues.

I don’t know whether it was just me but, although the show was entertaining, it didn’t strike me as being as good as previous series. Still, let’s see what next week’s episode has in store!