Random Access Musings

Or, at least, I should be! I have realised that I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing when we get back to work: Let's break it down:
Year 9: Which Unit?
Year 10: What happens in the very first lesson?
Year 11: What exactly have the groups I have not taught done so far?
Year 12: Which unit am I starting with?
Year 13: OK, I can do this one and I have made a start!

So solutions?
Year 9: Email sent; awaiting reply. But it doesn't matter as I have taught all the units several times and it isn't needed until Friday
Year 10: So I might not use the second lesson I plan. No biggy. Perhaps I just need an excuse not to spend any more time on the PoS (program of study? Perhaps!!!!!)
Year 11: I'm just going to assume they are all doing metals from the start.
Year 12: I'm sure the unit is Elements of Life.
Year 13: Who cares? They will cope anyway! (OK, I put that in because they're the only ones who regularly look at this drivel

Back to it then - or another blog posting?

I know. Boring! But this time it was for me! (Not shopping for me, I hasten to add - I'm not for sale!)
Today was forecast to be the best day of the week s we went to Skipton. No chance of the boat ride - 1.25 hours is too long for a three year old. We stopped for a bite to eat at "Coffee and Cream", as seen on "Big Cook, Little Cook" apparently!
Next to David Goldie for my hat - a leather australian hat by Barmah

Finally a trip to Hesketh Park Farm for a couple of hours chasing animals and screaming!

I came across this today:

I think it's a great 21st century play on an old idea! Amongst the other ones at macmerc.com is "Apple-N: ctrl-C", meaning Apple Innovates, MS Copies... but it's a bit too geeky for me

What else? The holidays? Oh, yes a great time, but it's in my Off-Line capture device!

Catch ya later

Today was our first real holiday. We set off to Reighton Sands, stopping at Sledmere for a picnic amongst cereal thrips ("thunderbugs"?). The the final leg to Filey. When we got there we were far too early, but R managed to meet Rory. Wow! Was she excited or what?

The caravan was lovely - we are now glad we went for the basic model! Clean and well equipped. Despite that we had a proper camping tea .. Pot Noodles!

Then off to the "ShowBar" for the evening entertainment. Rachael was a bit awestruck She sat where she was put … until Rory emerged! A little hesistant at first then she danced her heart out. She was most upset when it all ended.

A few more dances then tears. "I want to see the Animals!"
(Translation: I am absolutely shattered!")

Day One over
This Blog is taken from my off-line journal, (or at least the earlier version!) started this day

Today is Rachael's third birthday. And what a day. She woke at the usual time (about seven a.m.) to see the balloons outside her room. This was a great start as it reminded her she was "Number 3"! After the early morning routine she went into our room to open cards and a few books. Then … downstairs!

Loads more presents, including her bike, and a few more cards. She loved her Piglet rug, curling up on it straight away. NO-ONE else is allowed to even touch it!

After breakfast, with the "Happy Birthday horror" (We weren't allowed to sing; she wasn't at her "birthday (party?) and there wasn't any cake!) it was time to take the bike on the road - or at least to Co-Op - for the first time. It took a while to get used to the act of pedalling, winding them backwards more times than not. Over the road we had the supermarket car park to ourselves, so loads of practice there … and her first falling over. When we had done a bit of shopping we headed home. Now our street is on a slight hill, so the downward journey led to an unexpected turn of speed. This was slightly worrying and she wanted off! Still, we made it without incident! When Nana arrived it was time to go for our party. Several hundred under-fives (or 15+1 slightly older) running around a play gym for an hour! And all those presents! She spent a lot of time saying "Thank you" and ripping paper - and there are still some left! Next came the food. They all sat round a big table and ate normal party food, including stuff they didn't normally get. In Rachael's case this was crisps! Several sandwiches, biscuits, sausages and stuff later, it was time for the cake. Theresa's mum had done her proud. A great big sponge cake with an icing picture of Dora the Explorer in the middle. Many others wanted to know a) where we had got it from and b) would she do deliveries from York? She did try hard to blow the candles out!

Next came the games. With pass the parcel it was a fight between Josh and Reece as to who sat next to R! Then onto musical chairs (R came third, but still managed to run around at the end. Eventually, tired and full of food everyone went home, happy and smiling. This wasn't it. Nana, Uncle Ian, Auntie Pam and Uncle Martin came back so we had loads of guests for our new cooking sets to be used on. Then we unpacked some of the dolls (time for a campaign against hyper-packaging!). When they left for York R still had loads of energy left. Eventually we went upstairs so she could listen to her music, while Mummy went to sleep. Tea, bath and bed. One tired and very happy little girl … and two tired and very happy parents Tomorrow is another day … ¡

I'm playing!
Omnigroup, makers of OmniOutliner (the thing I'm supposed to be using) and OmniGraffle (this is also "a good thing") have made OmniDazzle. It's supposed to be something to find your cursor on a big screen. There are cheaper ways of doing that. If they marketed it as a way of wasting time when using other things it would be a market leader!

Not using a mac?
I suppose spreadsheets can be fun - after all Excel on the PC can have different coloured tabs!

Bank Holiday Monday.
We went on a picnic into the local woods
It rained!
More to follow!!!!!!!

The saga of the phone continues.
Short answer... YES! I now have a phone that works with the Mac. OK, I haven't been brave enough to synchronise all the contacts using iSync ... just in case, but I have sent a nice new theme across, used Amadeus to create a ring tone from "Right here, Right now", and controlled iTunes and the Apple DVD player using the wonderful Salling Clicker (also available for Windows).
So. Ericsson 1 - Moto nil!
OK, it said my PDA couldn't find a phone, but a little bit of fiddling and it was OK with messages.
It also works with BluePhone Elite (I can't stand texting with little buttons! Palm or keyboard anytime!)
So... one happy bunny!

I was let loose in York with plastic in pocket!
I fell victim to gadget frenzy! You see, it's lie this...
Carphone Warehouse had this advert for the Motorola SLVR Red, complete with "every call donates to charity". How could I resist?
So. A new phone, and matching headset and off I go! All set up. O2 sim, but not locked to a network. How could I lose?
(But I could... couldn't I?)
At home, hook it up to the Mac via USB. Crash on startup. SBBOD! Lucky I didn't buy a USB cable ... the one for the Palm worked just as well.
So, let's try bluetooth.
"There are no services available" or some such nonsense! Apparently, reading the bluetooth discussions over at Apple this is common. You see, there are two different versions of the firmware, depending on your global location. One works. One doesn't. Guess which one we had?

So the next day off to CW again to swap. I had decided I wasn't going through this fiasco again, so "can I have a K750i instead please?", returning all the other stuff. We did and off we went ... only to return 10 minutes later!
I had assumed from our conversation that we were getting the phone at the "Orange" price, not the SIM-Free - a £30 difference. The guy in the shop thought we wanted to use the Ericsson with the O2 SIM from the Moto. He had no Orange boxed phones in stock so I took a BT headset in exchange for the difference.
I think I broke even if you consider the 10 quid on the O2 SIM and about a fiver for unlocking.
Will it work ... see later!

Today the death of Desmond Dekker was announced. I always associated him with Ska, but reggae is just a later version.
Today's iTunes list is in memory of him

The guys at MacZOT are running a CollaboZOT. Basically it's a treasure hunt around the web to answer a series of questions. I'm in team "halogenandtoast" and we're in the running for a prize draw.

Anyway, along side this is a "MegaMyzteryZOT". There is a bunch of software, at round about $130 (and climbing) going for $25 (today ... I got it at the earlier $20). One of the deals involves another "BlogZOT" - see below. Basically I paste a bit of code into this page and the price of a piece of stuff drops by 5 cents ... or in this case the value of the bundle increases by 5 cents!

So ...

"MacZOT.com Fans want Pzizz because 'According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep deprivation and its effect on work performance may be costing U.S. employers some $18 billion each year in lost productivity. Another study pushes this cost to over $100 billion.' - link to full article

Well, a site I haven't come across before! Apparently MacZOT sell stuff at a discount ... but only for the Mac.
So why am I telling you about this? Well, greed really! For everyone that mentions the site they drop the price of an app by 5 cents. Enough blogs will get it for the community for free!

So where do you go?
MacZOT!

We have a new puppy ...