I am in the final stages of developing a social networking site, specifically for all those who enjoy the martial art of karate. I had noticed that many of the clubs around the UK do not have a website and if they do, the sites often do not offer much of chance to [...]
I am in the final stages of developing a social networking site, specifically for all those who enjoy the martial art of karate. I had noticed that many of the clubs around the UK do not have a website and if they do, the sites often do not offer much of chance to meet other karatekas and interact via blogs, forums, etc.
All people have to do, is register on the site, it is free. Then they can set up a profile and start blogging, and joining in the forums right away. The connections facility within the site, allows all the registered members to see everyone else registered on the site. Members can make connections and send each other messages.
The members can suggest sections for the site, which could be just for their specific club, so club members could choose in essence to have their own website within the karateka site. The site will not be specific to any one style of karate all variations are welcome and hopefully members from the different styles can share experiences.
The site will hopefully function as a focal point for members to post information about events right across the UK. We hope to see the site grow and expand over the coming months. However, this will be the case if people take up the opportunities and actually start populating the site.
So if you are based in the UK and interested in karate and have come to this article by chance get along to
This was my second time at the Stockholm Jazz festival, having totally enjoyed India Arie last year. This year, we signed up for The Tower of Power and Mary J Blige on the Wednesday and Van Morrison and Joan Armatrading on the Saturday. My friend Paul Adams had made the trip over [...]
This was my second time at the Stockholm Jazz festival, having totally enjoyed India Arie last year. This year, we signed up for The Tower of Power and Mary J Blige on the Wednesday and Van Morrison and Joan Armatrading on the Saturday. My friend Paul Adams had made the trip over from England and spent a day at our home in the Swedish countryside before booking into his hotel in downtown Stockholm.
On the Wednesday, Paul and I made our way to Skeppsholmen a wonderful, picturesque, waterfront venue, after I had taken Paul around “Gamla Stan” Stockholm’s old town. What hits you straight away at the SJF is the laid back atmosphere and how straight-laced everything is, drug use is uncool in Sweden and this makes for a very family friendly experience. The audience sit on benches and are fringed by picnic style eating areas and there is plenty of food and drink on offer at premium prices.
Paul and I positioned ourselves for the appearance of Tower of Power a formidable funk, jazz, soul outfit from Oakland, California. Looking around us we noted this was not your average audience for such a concert and certainly not what you would expect at a Mary J Blige concert. To our left was a man who spent most of the T of P set pushing his earplugs deeper into his ears looking in distress. Before long after coming to the conclusion that T of P would be better off being the backing band for someone else both Paul and I were tempted to borrow the guys ear plugs.
After a break, Mary J stormed onto the stage, 100% hip-hop, soul queen, who sang her heart out and gave a performance worthy of a more appreciative audience. Paul and I differed in our views on her vocal style, my conclusion was that though both in our middle years Paul has slipped into being a “I don’t hold with all this hippety-hop music of the younger generation” elder statesman of soul appreciation.
On the Saturday, despite forecasts of an impending monsoon, my wife Kristin our daughter Shona and I set off to Stockholm to meet up with Paul and then on to see Van and Joan. Upon arriving in Stockholm, it was apparent the weather forecasters had got it wrong, and it turned out to be a fantastic summer evening. Van Morrison was in great form and performed a 90 minutes set that broadly spanned the last 20 years of his work.
This of course is the joy and pain of being a Van Morrison fan that you want to hear all the best of the past 40 years and that is just not possible in 90 minutes. However, all in all a fine performance by “The Man”, my daughter Shona’s first concert at 22 months old. Shona totally enjoyed being on her father’s shoulders dancing as Van sang a wonderful reworking of “And the Healing Has Begun”.
Paul was shocked as many of the audience preferred to use the occasion to chat to friends. I explained Swedes don’t get out that often to socialise, this is the cultural difference he was witnessing and did not try to defend the (warning if you click on this link you will see how cool Swedes are…) morons who had bought a ticket to chat (loudly) while a performer was giving it his best shot in the circumstances.
Joan Armatrading was brilliant. Playing most of her recent album “Into the Blues” and many of her classics including “Love and Affection” “All The Way From America” and “Me, Myself, I”. Joan can certainly still pump it out and has matured into a style that gets better with age, slightly more blues orientated these days complimenting her considerable talents as a guitarist; all in all a very enjoyable performance.
July in Stockholm for me is the Stockholm Jazz Festival, and I eagerly wait to see what is lined up for 2009.
This is from 1990 but reminds of Van doing the same number in Stockholm enjoy
How to integrate Del.icio.us into your journal / blog.
Time is precious and with an 18 month old daughter, a private writing project and my freelance commitments I do not write as much as I would like to in my public journal (blog). Yet, we always want to keep our sites active and fluid.
How to integrate Del.icio.us into your journal / blog.
Time is precious and with an 18 month old daughter, a private writing project and my freelance commitments I do not write as much as I would like to in my public journal (blog). Yet, we always want to keep our sites active and fluid.
Many people today choose not to have a personal blog, they prefer to leave a paper trail of clippings as markers for those who may be interested in what they have found of interest on the net.
There are many tools such as Clipmarks and del.icio.us that make this possible, I went for the compromise to embed code within a page of my website that automatically updates when I tag a web page in del.icio.us.
My web clippings I have renamed daily.scouse.se because they are the clippings of a Liverpudlian living in Sweden ☺ I will not patronise anyone by explaining in detail how to do this as it is all self explanatory in the settings section of your del.icio.us account. Of course, if you would like to discuss the set up drop me an e-mail.
So, every time I see something interesting, funny, beautiful, enlightening on the net I tag it and “hey presto” there is a link on my site with a short introduction by yours truly. I am just the editor of this particular set of web goodies, and that is what time allows.
If you would like to see the page in action click here.
When I started working in broadcasting in 1997 the industry was going through an upheaval.
New technology was redefining how news and current affairs was being produced, between 1999 and 2001 video journalism, or solo journalism became more and more the order of the day.
Going from a team with a producer, a journalist, camera operator [...]
When I started working in broadcasting in 1997 the industry was going through an upheaval.
New technology was redefining how news and current affairs was being produced, between 1999 and 2001 video journalism, or solo journalism became more and more the order of the day.
Going from a team with a producer, a journalist, camera operator and sound recordist, to the situation were the journalist produces, shoots, edits and often presents his or her own material. Lightweight digital cameras and camera mounted sound equipment made it possible to document any event while it is still occurring. The move toward this form of cheaper lighter broadcasting production was first seen in the smaller terrestrial channels and satellite channels. I started being introduced to this way of working while working for a production company making news programmes from a studios just outside Brussels.
Today this system of working is the norm in news rooms and used by online newspapers for web tv. The growth in video journalism coincides with changes in video technology and the cost of this technology. As quality cameras and editing systems have become smaller and available at a fraction of their previous costs, the single operator method has spread. Video journalists are able to get closer to the story avoiding the impersonality that may come with larger crewing. This can be seen by some as a dilution of skills and quality driven by TV management cost cutting incentives.
The image you see on this page is from the documentary Musa Anter Peace Train: The Road to Diyarbakir this was the first time I became aware of the change in production methods towards what can be defined as video journalism. A two person team myself and Paul Delahunty, a professional Hi8 camera a stick mic, eleven tapes and two one hour batteries. Given that we were away from any electricity supply for 36 hours during that trip, it is amazing how we got the job done. We took turns on camera during the trip. I was the producer and ended up being trained to edit material using Final Cut Pro.
The version of the material you see on this site was edited by myself on a mac laptop using Final Cut Pro version 1.0 in 1999. The analogue Hi8 tapes were digitised and saved to an external Firewire HD. Firewire had brought a further shift in possibilities, this documentary has a unique aesthetic based upon all the factors above.
The original material shot during this project was transferred to Betacam SP and edited into news reports at the time. However, I particularly like the experimental nature of this version of the material, an example of an early experiment in the use of a lightweight pro analogue Hi8 camera, an analogue/digital converter and final cut pro version 1.0 on an apple pismo laptop. A testimony to a transition in video production methods.
When my wife and I decided to move to Sweden in the spring of 2006 our primary reason was for the sake of the children.
We were planning a family and wanted the children to have the fresh air, nature and relaxed childhood my wife had experienced. Coming from Liverpool, right bang in the city [...]
When my wife and I decided to move to Sweden in the spring of 2006 our primary reason was for the sake of the children.
We were planning a family and wanted the children to have the fresh air, nature and relaxed childhood my wife had experienced. Coming from Liverpool, right bang in the city centre to live out in the Swedish countryside an hour from Stockholm I still had a little adjusting to do.
For me personally the move had its advantages and drawbacks. I have to admit to missing the social life in Liverpool and the diversity of living in a multi-cultural area.
Leaving behind friends and family is never easy, but you have to be positive and going to pastures new means opportunities for making new friends and acquaintances.
People in Sweden are a little cautious, especially in the countryside and it takes longer to get to know people here.
The language barrier is sometimes difficult as many people want to speak English with you and so learning Swedish can be hard out here in the countryside when you don’t meet that many people and 75% of those you do meet want to practice their English on you.
Our daughter Shona has just started “Dagis” (kindergarten). Shona is just 15 months old and loves the place. The staff and facilities are amazing and it gives me a warm feeling and convinces me that we made the right decision.
Winter will soon be over and spring will mean we can get in the garden and prepare for the BBQ season. Summers in the Sweden are beautiful and time for having friends around eating good food and having a few drinks into the long evenings. Hopefully, we will have friends and family visit us in the summer.
I also want to get back to Liverpool a couple of times a year to see family and friends. There is the added incentive of Liverpool being the European Capital of Culture 2008. It would be nice to see what is going on in the city and also get along to Goodison Park and see Everton. I follow the games here on television but it would be good to get the atmosphere of at least one game close up and enjoy the before and after sessions in the local pubs.
We are in a fortunate position to be able to enjoy both Liverpool and Sweden.
I have always found these creatures fascinating and once when asked “what animal would you say symbolises the inner you” (the inquisitor and I were either drunk or in deep philosophical debate at the time I will leave you to ponder upon which) I retorted, a Cuttlefish of course!
I have always found these creatures fascinating and once when asked “what animal would you say symbolises the inner you” (the inquisitor and I were either drunk or in deep philosophical debate at the time I will leave you to ponder upon which) I retorted, a Cuttlefish of course!
Do a search on Youtube for Cuttlefish and you will soon see evidence what I am getting at. They are so alien and when blending in with their environment totally astonishing. Also, when mating the displays these creatures perform is enough to take your breath away.
In his book “His Dark Materials” Philip Pullman weaves a narrative of a parallel world in a parallel universe where peoples spirits walk beside them in the form of animals. Witches and presumably Warlocks also have what Pullman calls Daemons but these can live far from the side of the individual they are “attached” to.
If I were a character in Pullman’s book my Daemon would be a Cuttlefish.
fetish
noun
1) any object believed by some person or group to have magic power 2) any thing or activity to which one is irrationally devoted to make a fetish of sports 3) Psychiatry any nonsexual object, such as a foot or a glove, that abnormally excites erotic feelings
I was first contacted by Bengt who simply wanted a basic template for his site which needed a freshen up and behind the scenes makeover. Bengt is an amazing person which [...]
I was first contacted by Bengt who simply wanted a basic template for his site which needed a freshen up and behind the scenes makeover. Bengt is an amazing person which would be better explained by visiting Bengt’s bio page.
Mike Pegg
Mike Pegg works with many leading companies and is a pioneer of the “strengths” philosophy of personal and group development. Mike wanted a new CMS based site to unite his personal blog with his established site. This was achieved by writing a solution in php on a Wordpress database and redesigning his site from the database upwards.
One word of advice to anyone out there who plans to embark on a project for a mentor such as Bengt or Mike, these guys now exactly what they want and exactly what they do not want. Even to the extent of taking charge of the design process, which is fine as long as the client is happy with the end product and they were.
You may also want to check out Mike’s Blog you will find an excellent free set of tools for using the strengths philosophy to tackle problems in business and life in general. Mike’s 3 tips series. Well worth a look in.
My video work, my design work and also I want to make a space for my writing.
It is important for me to leave a record of events in my life for family and friends and while I hold no aspirations to be a writer, though I do want [...]
My video work, my design work and also I want to make a space for my writing.
It is important for me to leave a record of events in my life for family and friends and while I hold no aspirations to be a writer, though I do want want to express myself through the medium and relate experiences and relationships in my life.
This mainly comes from the hunger I felt when my parents died. I wanted to know more about their lives, to discuss their experiences with them but they died so young, we never got the chance. Also, they never chose to pass on their experiences, it was not the done thing in those days. Well within our family at any rate.
So, within this password defined private section of my journal I will start to lay out an online autobiographical account of my life.
The stories of how I got to this point.
Hopefully the experience will help me come to some conclusions and help those around me understand the reasons for some of the choices I have made in my life that may have perplexed one or two people.
I especially hope it helps my children to know their father a little more for I fear they are amongst the most perplexed. Those with passwords can access these writings here
As we enter 2008 I felt it was time to take stock and make ready for the coming year. I am still very keen to make documentaries and hopefully I will have some interesting commissions in the coming year.
However, I have been slowed up a little by my illness in the last 12 months which [...]
As we enter 2008 I felt it was time to take stock and make ready for the coming year. I am still very keen to make documentaries and hopefully I will have some interesting commissions in the coming year.
However, I have been slowed up a little by my illness in the last 12 months which has meant me concentrating on other areas of my creativity. I have been asked to design web sites for different organisations and individuals, which has kept the creative juices flowing.
So, the break has been useful to brush in this area of my expertise. It seems more and more people want content management systems so they can take charge of their own websites.
No doubt this has much to do with the blog explosion in the past few years. I am capable in javascript, php, mysql and therefore have taken to setting up and “skinning” open source databases such as Joomla and Wordpress.
While designing a site for a client I thought that maybe it is time to set up a Journal of my own. So here goes………
I loved the design of my flash site but it was very draining on resources bandwidth wise.
I think a lot of people left the video loops playing which was great for them but expensive for me.
I will have to think about trying to organise a way that I can stream video and make the site pay for itself.
So here is to 2008 hopefully a creative year documentary and cms web design.
After a break, Mary J stormed onto the stage, 100% hip-hop, soul queen, who sang her heart out and gave a performance worthy of a more appreciative audience. Paul and I differed in our views on her vocal style, my conclusion was that though both in our middle years Paul has slipped into being a “I don’t hold with all this hippety-hop music of the younger generation” elder statesman of soul appreciation.
The image you see on this page is from the documentary 
