Yesterday, contrary to my intentions to work, I spent most of the day trying to fit my new headlights. I did do some work, until my housemate pointed out that it was in fact a Bank Holiday and I didn’t need to. That was all the excuse I needed, and spent the rest of the day in the garage.

Unfortunately, as seems to be the case with everything I do on this car, it wasn’t exactly straightforward. Some obstacles I was expecting, others I wasn’t. The first obstacle to overcome was wiring the light in, which mean cutting and connecting wires. So that meant a trip out to a shop to buy a wire connector, since I didn’t have a soldering iron or electrical tape or anything useful lying around. With that done, I had one sparkling new crystal headlamp installed and working. On coming to the other headlight, I discovered that one of the screws wouldn’t undo. Bother. I pushed and I prodded and squirted WD40 at it, but didn’t get anywhere. I also went out and bought myself some heavy-duty spray stuff that is supposed to loosen rusted screws, but that didn’t seem to do much either. So that left me stuck with one new and one old headlight, which is far from ideal and probably illegal.

Today, however, I squirted the offending screw again and managed to turn it about one whole turn, which is something of a breakthrough! The head is rather chewed up though, so I’m not going to take it right out just yet in case I can’t get it back in. I shall hopefully find a replacement screw first so that when I do finally get the screw out I can put a brand new one in its place. Watch this space for pics of my new headlights!!

Last night I went with some folks from the Chaplaincy to watch The Da Vinci Code at the cinema. It was a very interesting film, a very clever plot indeed. Afterwards we all sat in Burger King and talked about it, and came up with some interesting discussion. My main feeling though was that people seem to be making more out of it than necessary. Sure, it’s a good story, but it’s not exactly based on fact! It’s a theory, based on some assumptions and some twisted facts. There may well be people who believe what it’s saying as fact, but I suspect they are the same people who believe that Star Wars is a documentary and that it’s possible to recreate dinosaurs from DNA found in a prehistoric fly. It’s just like any other story – it presents certain things as facts and bases the storyline on it, because without that the story wouldn’t hold up. That doesn’t mean it also applies to the real world, it’s not a textbook after all! We can pick apart the arguments if we want to, but I really don’t think that’s necessary – it’s not a theological argument to pull down Christianity, it’s one man’s fiction novel to make himself lots of money, and we shouldn’t confuse the two!

I didn’t get to go to church yesterday. It had been planned for quite a long time though, and I wasn’t on the rota at all at church, so that was fine. At 8:30am I met up at The Cricketers Inn with some members of the Colchester Mini Club, and we travelled in convoy to Fakenham Racecourse in Norfolk. It was so much fun!! It’s years since I’ve been part of a Mini convoy, I’d forgotten just how exciting it is! When I was a member of the West of England Mini Club we travelled in convoy quite a lot, but never this far. It took us about 2 hours to get to the racecourse, along some lovely country roads. There were only six Minis in our convoy, but it was enough to get people looking at us!

So what were we going to a racecourse for? Well, the Norfolk Mini Owners Club had decided in their wisdom that it was about time they held a Norfolk Mini Show, to which everyone was invited. As a neighbouring club, we decided we would go along and have a club stand, which meant that we could park up in the central complex rather than in the car park area. It was so exciting seeing so many Minis in one place, it was like a dream come true! It wasn’t a big show compared to some of the national ones, but this was the first show I’ve ever been to, so it was quite overwhelming to begin with!

Once we’d parked up we started wandering around, oggling at other people’s Minis! It may sound really geeky to those who don’t appreciate Minis, but because Minis are so easy to customise and make your own you can spend ages looking at what other people have done, getting inspiration for things you can do yourself. Some people had gone to extremes with bodykits and added extras and custom interiors, some had made a few small changes that subtly changed the whole style of the car, others had restored the car to original spec and had pristine condition classic Minis. It was so much fun just wandering around looking inside other people’s cars! I’ve put some pictures from the day on my PhotoLounge if you’re interested, and I suspect there will be a write-up on the Colchester Mini Club web site too at some point.

Not only were there cars on display, but there were an assortment of stalls selling Mini bits. Some people were selling old bits that they’d found in their garage, other stalls were manned by companies selling their own products. I didn’t go expecting to be buying anything (after all, I am supposed to be saving for a wedding), but the more I looked the more I saw things that I wanted! In the end I bought some crystal halogen headlamps that I’ve been after for ages (they are exactly the ones I wanted and were cheaper than I’d seen online) and a chrome GB badge for the bootlid. There were a lot of other things I would have liked but didn’t end up getting, like a chrome rocker cover, red dipstick, wheel spacers, more chrome bits and bobs, an air filter….

My friend Darren spotted something he fancied on one of the stalls, and couldn’t resist buying it. It was a steering wheel. Yes, he did already have a steering wheel, but this one was different. It was smaller. Very much smaller. 10 inches in diameter, this new steering wheel was tiny! He fitted it there and then, and it really did look ridiculous, but he seemed happy with it. To put that into context, that’s the sort of size steering wheel you’d expect to find on a go-kart. Crazy, crazy fool. Various other people in the club bought other things, so I shall look forward to seeing the changes over the next few months once people have fitted them.

So, all in all, it was a fantastic day. The weather was kind to us, there were a lot of really good looking Minis there, and we all had lots of fun. I really must go and do some work now, but the temptation will be there all day to go and fit my nice new headlamps… must resist, must resist….

Today Ellie and I celebrated eleven months of going out and two months of being engaged. And, true to form, we ended up going to the cinema to watch something really mature and sensible – Ice Age 2! It was a good film, we both enjoyed it, a good follow-up to the first one with plenty of laughs. As with the first Ice Age, the second was just as cool (ahem) on the CGI front – the characteristic cartoon-style ice was beautifully combined with awesome water effects (damp and waterlogged fur are possibly some of the hardest things to recreate). The plot was good too, thankfully. Nothing had been given away in the trailers, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there were plenty of twists and turns and inevitable outcomes to make it thoroughly enjoyable. For those who haven’t seen it yet, I’d definitely recommend it (assuming you’re under 12, either physically or mentally).

And as if one film wasn’t enough, I ended up spending this evening watching Moulin Rouge. Sadly Ellie couldn’t join me for that due to revision, but I thoroughly enjoyed that film too. Very different. Very different indeed. In fact, you can’t really compare it to anything else. It’s so unique it defies classification completely. Remarkable, funny, poigniant, emotional, confusing, thrilling, adventurous, colourful, magical… all that and more, and yet still utterly indescribable!

So that’s two films on recommendation from me, for completely different reasons.

For a while now I have been on the lookout for a good word processor for my Mac. I have tried a whole load of programs, and haven’t been too impressed by most of them. I had settled with NeoOffice, which is a version of OpenOffice that is designed to sit more comfortably in OSX (OO uses the X11 framework, which is a little bit clunky and doesn’t allow access to most of the standard system functions or fonts). Unfortunately, it’s not a port of the latest release of OO, so it’s not quite as good. I have also found it to be rather slow, both in start-up time and in handling large files. Scrolling down a page seems to take an infinite amount of processor time, and it’s far from smooth. The built-in word processor that comes with OSX is fine for making short notes, but I wouldn’t want to do anything serious with it. I did download a trial version of MS Word for Mac, but it was hideously bloated and didn’t really give me anything that NeoOffice was already giving me, so I couldn’t really justify spending hundreds of pounds on it!

Today, however, I stumbled across a piece of software that might actually be what I want. It’s called Nisus Writer Express, and I’m currently on the 30 day trial. It’s not too expensive either, and from what I’ve seen so far it might actually be worth the investment. The interface is really smooth and pleasing to the eye, and it handles everything so effortlessly and accurately. It has a slide-out drawer with all the properties in it, which is quite handy (MS Word has a similar drawer, but it’s not as nicely implemented). I was especially impressed by a little feature that I’ve been wanting someone to implement for years – non-contiguous selections!! Basically that means that you can select a word here and a word there, and treat it all as one selection. So, for instance, I could select the first word of each paragraph, and apply some sort of formatting to all of them at once, rather than having to go through them all separately! The drag and drop is also fairly impressive. If you select some text, and then immediately select over it again, it doesn’t drag it, it creates another selection. However, if you click and hold your selection for half a second, it becomes a draggable selection. Not only that, but the text you drag visibly appears to move – you get a semi-transparent copy of the text floating around on the page! Very nice touch. It’s kinda difficult to explain all this in words, but the general idea here is that I’m very impressed, which is saying something!

While we’re on the subject of computers and buying things, I’ve seen something else that my Mac would appreciate – a Mighty Mouse. No, I don’t mean that cartoon character with the cape, this is a computer mouse with “va va voom”. My current mouse is a standard Mac mouse, i.e. it has a transparent body where the whole thing acts as the single mouse button. It’s a very nice mouse to use, and I’ve very happy with it, but I have to admit I miss having a scroll wheel. The Mighty Mouse addresses this problem, and then some. It may cost a bit more than a standard mouse, but it does have a scroll *ball*. This allows you to scroll in 360 degrees – not just up and down, but left and right too in any amount you like. It also has a more advanced button system, giving touch sensitive areas of the mouse body. You can use it as a normal one-button mouse, or you can configure it to have two buttons depending on which side of the mouse you press down on, and there are squeeze-sensitive pads on the side, which can be configured to do something. All in all, it’s a very impressive piece of kit. And I want one. The only problem is money – I’m supposed to be saving up for a wedding, I’m not sure splashing out on a mouse is going to help that!

I have to admit, not a lot has happened here recently. I’ve worked a bit, I’ve played a bit, I’ve socialised a bit, I’ve played my guitar a bit. But nothing startlingly startling. Just the normal, mundane regularity of life. Ah well, I guess it can’t be interesting all the time.

I’ve run out of bird seed. There, that’s mind-bogglingly interesting, isn’t it. In fact, let’s delve into the realms of impossibility, just for the sake of making it even more interesting. The birds have eaten me out of house and home. I put out seed, they ate it. I put out bread, they ate it. I put out a frozen pork joint, they lit a camp fire and ate a roast dinner. Now I have football-sized chaffinches hopping around the garden reading slimming magazines. Okay, maybe I’ve exaggerated a little too far here. But my original point still remains – I’ve run out of bird seed.

I was reasonably productive today, actually. I chose some songs for our Sunday morning service, as I’m leading worship (there are at least, like, a million songs in there…. only kidding). I also mowed the lawn. I have a feeling the mower needs some attention though at some point, it’s making a nasty noise, like the mechanics need oiling or something. At some point, when it’s nice and sunny, I shall have to go out and turn it over, see what I can spray WD40 at.

And finally, before we all slink off to our beds and dare to dream dreams no one ever dreamt before, allow me to bring to light a fact that the vast majority of you probably won’t find remotely interesting, but which for a small handful of people may possibly be bordering on a revelation – exactly fifteen months from today, Ellie and I will have been married a whole day. Wow! It was worth this whole blog entry just for that!

Just recently I’ve been getting particularly frustrated by Internet Explorer, and how it’s holding back web design. For those who are still in the dark about such things, let me make it clear that Internet Explorer (which is still used by about 90%) of the world, is rubbish. Complete and utter rubbish. A pile of pants. And before you say “Oh, I’m not a technical person, I wouldn’t understand all the computer-type jargon”, I promise it’s not as technical or complicated as all that! Yes there are some technically-accurate words I could use in places, but the easiest way to demonstrate my point is by showing you an example. Actions speak louder than words, after all.

I’ve just created a nice little web page showcasing some of the things you can achieve with CSS and PNG images. If you are one of the enlightened ones and have a decent browser installed, you’ll see it in all its glory. If you’re using Internet Explorer, you’re doomed to disappointment. It’s not that I’m using some obscure plugin that you haven’t got, it’s not that your computer is too old or too slow, it’s not that you need to upgrade Windows. It’s simply Internet Explorer failing to meet the standards. IE still cannot handle CSS properly, which means that layout goes awol, and PNG images (which have the advantage of allowing for transparency) do not display correctly – instead of rendering the transparent bits as transparent, IE makes it grey. Fat lot of good that is.

This has had a knock-on effect on the web design industry. Because most of the world uses IE6, we have to cater for that group of people more than any other. Unfortunately, this leaves our options decidedly stunted, since we cannot use all the functionality available. For instance, I might create a beautiful web site which uses a few of these well-documented standard techniques, only to find that it doesn’t work on 90% of computers. Thankfully, Microsoft is addressing these problems in Internet Explorer 7, which will ship with what is now Windows Vista, and will also be made available for Windows XP users. Sadly, anyone still using 98 or ME will not be able to use IE7 because Microsoft don’t think you should exist. Of course, if you are one of those people, there is nothing stopping you going and downloading your free copy of Firefox or Opera… Unfortunately for people like me, this comes rather too late – it will just take too long for everyone to upgrade, so for the next few years, we will all still be designing with our heads in the past, stuck in the ruts and Microsoft put us in, unable to move the web forward for fear of 90% of computers falling over.

Some of you may know that I occasionally write songs. Over the last few weeks and months I’ve been talking to folks at church about forming a band, with a view to recording a CD of original songs, and on Sunday we had our first rehearsal! It was so much fun!!! I admit part of it may possibly have been me being a control-freak, but it was so satisfying being able to mould the sound of a bunch of talented musicians, creating a really professional sound. I started off the rehearsal by getting everyone to just play around a chord, and told everyone basically what to play, how loud to be, and pretty much orchestrated the sound there and then. It was really dynamic and exciting, and we produced a really rounded, tight, clear sound. We then went through four new songs that I had written, and learnt them fairly quickly, which I was very impressed with. I decided to take the revolutionary decision of not using music at all, since no one really relied on it 100% anyway, and it means that I can play around with textures and feels without people having to worry about playing the “right” notes all the time. It’s sounding really great though, by the end of the rehearsal I could tell that everyone was really listening to each other and playing with a very high level of musicianship, which was so encouraging! If that first rehearsal is anything to go by, the CD we eventually create should be fantastic!!

As a result of all this, I’m considering extending my ability on the guitar with an effects unit. So far I’ve just been plugging my guitar straight into the PA system and getting the basic sound of the guitar, which is a very nice sound but difficult to vary. After a chat with Luke I’ve been recommended a Zoom G2, which apparently is very good. Basically what I’m after is an all-in-one effects unit that will provide me with a few nice effects to beaf up my guitar tone. Some reverb and chorus would be useful, some distortion and electric guitar sounds would be fun to play with too. I’m not thinking anything too serious or expensive, just something to get me started. I’ve seen one fairly cheap too, so if I make a decision soon I might have something else to write about here later on!

In addition to that, I’m also on the lookout for a new keyboard. I did have a keyboard earlier in the year, but I recently gave it to my brother. Technically we both own it, it’s just that I’ve been having my turn on it for the last five years, and since he’s doing a Music degree he figured it was time he had his turn! I’ve been looking at a variety of models on the internet, trying to find the ideal keyboard for me. The Yamaha DGX205 looks rather nice, a nice keyboard with Yamaha’s Portable Grand built-in, which should produce a very nice piano sound! It’s also got a whole host of other sounds, including the normal General MIDI sound set, the XGlite sounds (which is basically an extension of GM, and is really cool), plus some special sounds that Yamaha have bundled in there – Cool! and Sweet! sounds are I think recorded samples of particular instruments, aiming to capture the sound and style of the instrument a little more accurately. I went into town today to try it out in Allegro Music, and found it to be quite impressive. The Cool! and Sweet! sounds really were excellent, and the piano sound was very convincing. But then my eye found the DGX305, the model up, which has square piano keys rather than the flat organ-style keys that most cheap keyboards have. It also has an improved piano sample for the main piano sound, which is noticeably better. It’s fundamentally the same keyboard, but with a few extra bells and whistles. So now I’m faced with a dilema – do I go for the affordable model which will suffice for pretty much anything I’ll need to do for the next few years, or do I spend a little more for something a little more special and hope that I’ll find a good use for it in the future? The keys themselves are much nicer on the 305, but would I actually need to use them very often?

Many of you will know that for many years my main instrument was the cello. Indeed, it is the instrument on which I am technically most advanced on. Many of you will also know the stereotypes surrounding string players, most notably the almost maternal care for their instruments. A great deal of care and attention that needs to go into looking after a stringed instrument, such as regularly cleaning the strings, wiping down the body to remove rosin dust, wiping down the fingerboard to remove greasy finger marks, changing the strings on a fairly regular basis, storing the instrument in a controlled environment. I have to admit, I do very few of these things. My cello sits in its case until I need to use it, and although I refrain from dunking it in the bath to clean it, I honestly can’t say I’ve changed the strings more than once since I bought it!

To a certain degree, guitarists can sometimes fall into this trap of becoming excessively obsessive about their instruments. Some would say that strings ought to be changed at least once every three months, and that some strings (depending on your personal playing style and the nature of the instrument) need to be replaced even more often than that. Thankfully, I’m not one of those people. I did give my guitar a whole new set of strings this week, but only because my D string broke again and I figured it’s been almost a year since I bought the guitar and it was about time I treated it to a new set! I’m still in the process of playing them in at the moment. I also bought a new plectrum while I was in the shop, to replace my now very used one that I bought for my previous guitar. Sadly, the new plectrum, whilst being the same thickness as my old one, snapped the day after I bought it, so I’m back to using old faithful after all!

In other news, my ring came back from the shop this week too. I had had to take it back to be resized, since it was too big when I first picked it up and I was afraid of it dropping off every time I swung my arm. So I’m now down to a size N. It’s a very nice engagement ring though, silver with two small inset diamonds. Not quite as impressive as Ellie’s ring, but very nice nonetheless. And of course it suits me a lot better than a whopping great sticking-out ring. I’m beginning to get used to it now, having worn it for a few days on the trot. I still fiddle with it a lot, but not as much as when I first got it – it’s slowing feeling more like it’s supposed to be there!

Oh, and I’m also running. Well, jogging. I decided that it was about time I started doing some regular exercise, having spent the last 10 months sat vegetating in front of my computer. When I was working at the Chaplaincy I cycled onto campus every day, which was really good, but having bought a car and started working from home, I haven’t had any reason to cycle anywhere (in addition to which my rear tyre needs a new inner tube). Neither have I been doing any sports or any sort of exercise, and I’m beginning to feel it. It’s not that I’m getting fat, it’s just that I haven’t been feeling quite as fit as I used to, and I’m feeling guilty about it. So I’ve decided to run. If I go round to Ellie’s, I shall be running home. Today I jogged across the fields onto campus, and jogged half way back (I was walking Ellie home the first half). I’m not feeling the effects yet, but I’m hoping to get to a stage eventually where I can jog much further without getting too worn out, so that when Ellie moves to the other end of Wivenhoe I’ll still be able to get there and back in a reasonable time without having to get the car out!!

And finally, an update on our baby collared dove. It’s no longer a baby! A couple of days after my previous post, where I expressed my concern for the poor thing having wandered out of our garden, I saw it perched on the greenhouse with the mother. It had grown so much that it looked almost the same size, and the only way I could tell it was the baby was that it was preening out its fluffy down feathers! It’s so satisfying to know that it survived! Unfortunately I can’t tell one from the other, so I wouldn’t know if it came along again, it would just look like any other collared dove. But I hope that deep down inside that little bird would remember me, and all the kind and helpful things I did to secure its safety while it was maturing…